Israel must cooperate with Jenin investigation

Friday, April 26, 2002

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

The Israeli government blundered by attempting to delay arrival of the United Nations team to investigate what happened during Israel's attack on the Jenin refugee camp.

Israeli officials complained that Israel was not consulted in the team's selection. And they protested that Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary general, exceeded his authority when he said the United Nations would reach "findings and conclusions" rather than merely compile facts.

With all due respect, it's not up to those being investigated to decide who will do the investigating or to bar them from reaching conclusions.

The protests served only to give the impression that Israel has something to hide. At first, Israel opposed Arab calls for an investigation, but then it reversed course.

"Israel has nothing to hide," said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. If that's so, it should welcome the investigation as a way to set the record straight.

But Israeli officials then expressed unhappiness with the team Annan chose for the task. It had too much of a humanitarian bent and might set Israel up to defend itself against war crimes, according to Israeli officials.

Team members are the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari; the former U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata; and the former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Cornelio Sommaruga.

Annan rightly refused to change the membership of the team. "The Israelis indicated to him in advance that they would cooperate with whatever team he named, and those are his people, and that's the end of the discussion," said Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard.

Well, not quite. Annan did agree to give full status as a team member to retired U.S. Gen. William Nash, who previously was to serve only as an adviser to the team. And the Israelis now appear to have softened their resistance to the inquiry -- as well they should.

Israel is the party with the most to gain from a full and fair investigation of the events at Jenin. It contends its military had no choice but to proceed in the manner it did against the residents of the camp, and that may well be true. But the confused events need to be publicly sorted out. So Israel, for its own sake, must give its full cooperation to the U.N. team.

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