http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=61090&mador=1&datee=11/14/99
Sunday, November 14, 1999
Yaron is hounded as a 'war criminal'
Sabra and Shatila chief's appointment
as Defense DG meets with protests
By Nitzan Horowitz, Ha'aretz Correspondent
WASHINGTON - Arab organizations and legal experts
in the United States who campaigned against Amos
Yaron when he was Israel's military attache in
Washington have renewed their struggle against him
in the wake of his appointment as director-general
of the Defense Ministry, Ha'aretz has learned.
Members of the organizations told Ha'aretz that
they intend to pursue Yaron no matter where he is
and to ask that he be arrested and put on trial as
a war criminal - using Chile's former President
Augusto Pinochet as a precedent - for his part in
the massacres at the 1982 Sabra and Shatila refugee
camps in Beirut, as determined by the Cohen
Commission.
Standing at the forefront of the renewed effort are
The
Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, in
Washington, and Francis Boyle, an international law
professor at the University of Illinois in
Champaign.
In a document published in Washington on Friday,
Boyle and the center claim that, according to the
Fourth Geneva Convention, "Yaron is a war criminal
because of his responsibility for the murder of
some 2,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians
during the 1982 Sabra and Shatila refugee camp
massacre in Beirut."
According to the document, there is no statute of
limitations for war crimes. Therefore, Professor
Boyle writes, if Yaron attempts to re-enter the
United States, the government will be asked to put
him on trial.
The organizations are also calling on the United
States to suspend military aid to Israel over the
affair. "Under basic principles of international
law, the U.S. government must be concerned about
directing billions of U.S. tax dollars to the
Israeli ministry of which an acknowledged war
criminal is director-general. Accordingly, the U.S.
government should discontinue all military aid to
Israel if Yaron's appointment is confirmed."
The Cohen Commission, which was formed to
investigate the Sabra and Shatila massacre, advised
that Yaron, a division commander in Beirut at the
time, should have his career advancement in the IDF
frozen for three years. Since then, Yaron has been
appointed to several senior positions, including
those of head of the IDF's personnel division and
military attache in Washington. Yaron has also been
elevated to the rank of major general.
According to Boyle, when Yaron was sent as a
military attache to the United States and Canada in
1986, an effort against Boyle was organized,
resulting in the delay of the presentation of his
credentials to the U.S. government by three months.
Canada, on the other hand, refused to accept
Yaron's credentials. Yaron served in the position
for only one year.
In May 1987 a civil suit was filed against Yaron in
U.S. federal court by three Palestinians whose
relatives had been murdered at Sabra and Shatila.
They were represented by Boyle. The suit claimed
that Yaron bore responsibility for the massacre,
even though others carried it out, because the area
where it occurred was under Israeli control. The
State Department determined that Yaron enjoyed
diplomatic immunity, and this was accepted by the
court. According to Boyle, however, the defense
establishment in the United States is now
refraining from all ties with Yaron, and sees his
recent appointment as a grave mistake on Barak's
part.
Yaron, whose appointment was approved by the
government two weeks ago, did not mention the Cohen
Commission's recommendations in the questionnaire
he filled out for the position, but both the
attorney general and a government service
commissioner determined that Yaron had not intended
to hide the matter, and that it did not affect the
approval process.
(c) copyright 1999 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved
