UNWRA's commissioner general Peter Hansen is demanding Israel apologize for allegations made last week by defense minister Shaul Mofaz that UN ambulances had been used to transport IDF soldier body remains to terrorist strongholds, reported IBA news.And from the Electronic Intifada :
Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has today demanded an apology and retraction from the Israeli Government and Military for the damaging and baseless allegations they have made against UNRWA's ambulance drivers in the Gaza Strip.
[...]
The statement was released in response to an incident in which an ambulance driver's life was threatened by armed men who demanded that he transport them, along with their wounded comrade, to hospital. UNRWA forbids the transportation of armed fighters in its vehicles, but does not demand that its unarmed staff put their lives at risk.
[...]
"I urge you, the Minister of Defense and all others who have repeated this unsupported canard regarding body parts, to issue an immediate retraction and apology for making such a wholly unsupported accusation."
The Israeli Defence Force site shows a picture that could be interpreted as consistent with the UN story. (see Below)
And from Reuters, via Access Middle East, here is video footage that won't have made it to your TV. See if it matches the UN's story of a single 'militant' using the UN ambulance to take his wounded comrade on a mission of mercy to a hospital, or as Israel alleges, that the UN ambulances are being used as 'Terrorist Transport Vehicles'.
So...why hasn't this footage been seen on TV?
Hat Tip to reader Braintrust, who got it from LGF.
That article appeared over on The Command Post, which attempts to give facts rather than editorialising too much within the report.
But here I can ask again:
Why hasn't this footage been seen on TV?
Why has there been no apology from the UN? Why has there been no investigation of a clearly documented War Crime of the gravest kind, the use of 'protected status' under the Law of Armed Conflict (Geneva Accords) for military purposes? This really is a Big Deal, as Israel can now quite legitimately target UN 'ambulances' as hostile vehicles. Unless the UNRWA does something about the situation, including bringing its own personnel to justice in front of a criminal tribunal, then it has been graphically and irrevocably tainted.
And in view of the explosive nature of the footage, why has it been supressed? No journalist who saw it could say it was un-newsworthy. It came from Reuters, not some anonymous and unknown source. This is at least as newsworthy as the Abu Ghraib photos, and even more spectacular. So why?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Anonymous commenters - please add a signature (doesn't have to be your real name) on each post of yours. Anne O'Namus, Norm D. Ploom, Angry from Kent, Demosthenes, or even your real initials, it doesn't matter.
Commenters are expected to be polite to each other, but the same standard doesn't apply to comments regarding me.
Australian commenters are very very strongly advised to publish anonymously. Sydney alone has more defamation actions than the entire USA and UK. Nearly double that of the UK in fact.
As Google does not reliably inform me that a comment has been posted, and I have no control over first publication, I assert that all comments are innocently disseminated under the NSW DEFAMATION ACT 2005 - SECT 32 and similar acts.