RI pushes for rights probe in Gaza

Monday, 19 January 2009

The Jakarta Post

Indonesia has asked the United Nations to immediately conduct an investigation into the alleged human rights violations committed by Israeli armed forces in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinian civilians have died in a war it has deemed illegal.

“Indonesia is outraged by the horrific consequences of Israeli actions,” the country’s permanent representative to the UN, Marty M. Natalegawa, told an emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday in New York.

“From an Indonesian perspective, at least two issues stand out; first, the need to urge the international community, including countries in the region, to redouble their efforts to ensure the full implementation of (Security Council) resolution 1860.

And second, a request to the Secretary-General to carry out an immediate investigation into the human rights violations and the destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure caused by the Israeli military actions,” he said.

Along with Malaysia, Iran, Syria and Venezuela, Indonesia initiated the emergency session to press for a cease-fire in the battered Gaza Strip, although the warring parties, Israel and Hamas, have refused to abide by the Security Council’s resolution, which is legally binding. The assembly’s resolutions, on the other hand, are not binding.

“[The resolution] will not be binding but it will be recorded in history and show the resounding voice of international communities in condemning the attacks,” the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said Friday in Jakarta.

He added that Indonesia would continue to push for tougher and stronger resolutions to immediately stop the war in Gaza, although he admitted that a number of countries, including some in the middle east, wanted the draft resolution to be less harsh to help it gain more support.

“If the aim is consensus then the content of the resolution would become weak, while our main purpose is to get a stronger resolution,” he said.

Meanwhile, the AFP reported that Israel came under fire at the UN on Thursday for violating international law with its deadly military assault on Gaza, including strikes on hospitals, media and UN buildings.

“Gaza is ablaze. It has been turned into a burning hell,” said Nicaragua’s Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, president of the 192 member UN General Assembly.

“The violations of international law inherent in the Gaza assault have been well documented: collective punishment; disproportionate military force; attacks on civilian targets, including homes, mosques, universities, schools.”

The emergency session of the General Assembly went ahead after Israel tried but failed to block it on procedural grounds.

Since Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead on Dec. 27 to stop rocket firing by Palestinian militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza, over 1,100 Palestinians, including 355 children, have been killed and at least another 5,000 have been wounded, according to medics in Gaza.