Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, welcomed the UN Security Council resolution to send a fact-finding mission to Jenin, saying he expected it would find evidence of mass graves.
"It is a step in the right direction and we think this decision can be implemented now," Erakat told AFP in a telephone interview from Jericho.
"We hope the international community will allow this team to come with the necessary tools to remove the destroyed houses in Jenin and in Nablus and to find the mass graves in which Israel hid a number of bodies in different areas," he said.
Erakat wanted the mission to arrive "as soon as possible". He said the Palestinians would work with whomever was chosen for the UN mission, but cast doubts on Israel's pledge to cooperate.
"This is the fourth decision taken by the Security Council since March and Israel has refused to implement any of these decisions even if the resolutions did not condemn the Israeli army for war crimes," he said. "We hope the team that will be sent for the inquiry will come with a guarantee of freedom of movement."
Meanwhile, the US Undersecretary of State for the Middle East William Burns was quoted as saying after inspecting the camp that the devastation was a "human tragedy for thousands of innocent Palestinian people."
Burns' visit was the first by a high-ranking US official to the camp since the Israeli incursion on April 3. Asked if he believed Palestinian accusations of a massacre in the camp, Burns’ aide said: "there is no way of knowing that. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
