US government officials should be put on trial for "complicity in war crimes" for helping Israel to cover up "massacres" during its offensive in the West Bank, an Egyptian government newspaper charged in Cairo Monday.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to the Middle East region "has offered an unprecedented occasion to reveal the extent of the US government's political and moral failure," said Al Ahram newspaper editorialist Salama Ahmed Salama, cited by AFP.
"The US government has tried by all possible means to cover the crimes of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon," Salama charged.
He reproached Powell for having condemned "martyr operations (suicide bombings) without taking the trouble to visit the sites of massacres committed by Israel in Jenin, Nablus, and other towns in the West Bank".
In those places the "Israeli army buried hundreds of bodies in the rubble or in mass graves," Salama added.
"To stress his total support for the savage acts committed by Israel, Powell took a helicopter over the Israeli-Lebanese border, instead of taking a car to see the places of destruction and mass graves made by the Israelis," he stressed.
"When the extent of the carnage committed with the help of the United States in Jenin is revealed, Sharon will not be the only war criminal that one must bring to justice," the editorialist said.
The courts will also have to judge "these officials of the American government who covered for Sharon, helped him and supported his policy," he added.
Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross were allowed for the first time on Monday to enter the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin to determine how many people were killed there and help the wounded.
The Palestinians accused the Israeli armed forces of having perpetrated a "massacre" that killed over 500 people, which Israeli officials have denied as propaganda. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
