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EOHR condemns assassination of al-Rintissi
and demands that Sharon be tried for war crimes
18/4/2004
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) strongly condemns the criminal assassination by the Israeli Occupation Forces against Abdel Aziz al-Rintissi, leader of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas.
It considers al-Rintissi's assassination a crime against humanity and a gross violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Accords [1949] to which Israel is a signatory.
EOHR demands that an international tribunal try Ariel Sharon for war crimes and international terrorism.
Israeli Apache planes launched three rockets at al-Rintissi's car Saturday (17/4) evening while it was in Ghafry, northern Gaza. The attack killed al-Rintissi and three of his bodyguards.
Al-Rintissi survived a previous assassination attempt in June 2003 when Israeli airforce planes fired a rocket at his car in Gaza injuring al-Rintissi himself and 35 others. Four people were killed in the attack, including a child.
Al-Rintissi's assassination, like that of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's, is a violation of the "Principles on the Effective Prevention of Acts of Illegal and Arbitrary Execution and Execution without Trial" whose Article 1 states:
Governments must prohibit, by means of legislation, all acts of illegal and arbitrary execution and execution without trial and ensure that they constitute crimes under the state's domestic penal code punishable by appropriate penalties reflecting their gravity.
Exceptional situations such as war or the threat of war, internal political instability, a state or emergency or any other situation cannot be employed as a pretext to justify such executions.
Such executions must not be carried out whatever the circumstances, even where there exists (for example) internal armed conflict, excessive or illegal use of force by a public official or any individual acting in an official capacity or acting upon the instigation of an official or with the express or implicit consent of an official or in cases of death in custody.
This prohibition must be more severe than the sanctions issued by the government.
Al-Rintissi's killing forms part of a series of assassinations aimed at the elimination of members of the Palestinian resistance movement and comes less than a month after the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
It confirms Israeli determination to pursue a liquidation policy against Palestinian opponents and to perpetuate the spiral of violence and counter-violence in the region.
It is also proof of the absence of any desire within the Israeli Government for peace or security, further confirmed by the inhumane practices committed against the Palestinian people such as mass assassinations, the targeting of women, children and the elderly, torture, sieges, starvation, random aggression in towns and villages and the construction of the wall of separation.
Several factors prompted Israel to assassinate al-Rintissi, the most significant of which are perhaps:
1) Unconditional American support for Israel.
The United States gave Israel the green light to perpetrate its repugnant assassination of al-Rintissi after the Washington meeting between President George Bush and Ariel Sharon on Wednesday 14th April.
Bush's demand that Palestinian refugees renounce their right to return along with his support for continued settler occupation of the West Bank make clear that it is unrealistic to expect a return to the 1949 borders in existence until 1967.
EOHR furthermore condemns the White House's defence of the series of assassinations carried out against leaders of the Palestinian resistance movement that the US justified by stating that Israel "has the right to defend itself."
2) Arab failure to hold a summit in Tunis to discuss developments in the Palestinian occupied territories, the silence of Arab leadership in response to the stepping-up of Israeli violence against Palestinian citizens and its failure to take a resolute stance on the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
In the light of al-Rintissi's assassination EOHR demands that:
1) Sharon is tried as a war criminal by an international tribunal.
This requires that Arab states identify the laws and gather the evidence proving that Sharon has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and publicise these findings.
Examples of Sharon's crimes include the Sabra and Shatilla massacres of 1982, the mass killings carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in refugee camps and Palestinian towns under autonomous Palestinian rule on Sharon's direct orders (such as happened in Jenin in 2002) and the group murders of Egyptian families by Israel forces in 1967.
Any legal prosecution must include all officials and members of Sharon's cabinet and even the soldiers and officers who carried out the various crimes against the Palestinian people.
Arab countries affected by Sharon's crimes must demand that the Security Council issue a resolution for the setting up of an international tribunal similar to that established for the former Yugoslavia.
2) the Arab League convenes an emergency Arab summit with the aim of outlining a unified Arab stance going beyond sympathy and criticism.
It must play an effective role that curbs Israel and prevents it committing crimes against the Palestinian people and protects their rights.
Arab countries must in addition offer material and spiritual support to the Palestinian resistance.
3) civil society demand outside intervention in order to stop the continued human rights violations carried out by Israeli occupation forces, and call for immediate measures to protect Palestinian victims and ensure that they are treated justly.
The Security Council must send international forces to provide protection for the Palestinian people.
4) The American administration must abandon its unabashed bias towards Israel which undermines its role - as the world's superpower - in the peace process.
As a sponsor of, and mediator in, this peace process the United States must be neutral and impartial.
Its role must be founded on Security Council resolutions 181, 194 and 242 which call for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and affirm the Palestinian right to self-determination.
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Copyright © 2002 EOHR. All rights reserved. 