--- Nathaniel Roberts <npr4@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >This is from The Independent, in the UK.
> >
>
>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=285413
> >
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Amid the ruins of Jenin, the grisly evidence of a
> war crime
> > salam peyam daryft shod kabary goz salamaty nyst
> >khoda hafez
> >
> > >From Phil Reeves in Jenin
> >
> >16 April 2002
> >
> >
> >A monstrous war crime that Israel has tried to
> cover up for a
> >fortnight has finally been exposed. Its troops have
> caused devastation
> >in the centre of the Jenin refugee camp, reached
> yesterday by The
> >Independent, where thousands of people are still
> living amid the
> >ruins.
> >
> >A residential area roughly 160,000 square yards
> about a third of a
> >mile wide has been reduced to dust. Rubble has been
> shovelled by
> >bulldozers into 30ft piles. The sweet and ghastly
> reek of rotting
> >human bodies is everywhere, evidence that it is a
> human tomb. The
> >people, who spent days hiding in basements crowded
> into single rooms
> >as the rockets pounded in, say there are hundreds
> of corpses, entombed
> >beneath the dust, under a field of debris,
> criss-crossed with tank and
> >bulldozer treadmarks.
> >
> >In one nearby half-wrecked building, gutted by
> fire, lies the
> >fly-blown corpse of a man covered by a tartan rug.
> In another we found
> >the remains of 23-year-old Ashraf Abu Hejar beneath
> the ruins of a
> >fire-blackened room that collapsed on him after
> being hit by a
> >rocket. His head is shrunken and blackened. In a
> third, five long-dead
> >men lay under blankets.
> >
> >A quiet. sad-looking young man called Kamal Anis
> led us across the
> >wasteland, littered now with detritus of what were
> once households,
> >foam rubber, torn clothes, shoes, tin cans,
> children's toys. He
> >suddenly stopped. This was a mass grave, he said,
> pointing.
> >
> >We stared at a mound of debris. Here, he said, he
> saw the Israeli
> >soldiers pile 30 bodies beneath a half-wrecked
> house. When the pile
> >was complete, they bulldozed the building, bringing
> its ruins down on
> >the corpses. Then they flattened the area with a
> tank. We could not
> >see the bodies. But we could smell them.
> >
> >A few days ago, we might not have believed Kamal
> Anis. But the
> >descriptions given by the many other refugees who
> escaped from Jenin
> >camp were understated, not, as many feared and
> Israel encouraged us to
> >believe, exaggerations. Their stories had not
> prepared me for what I
> >saw yesterday. I believe them now.
> >
> >Until two weeks ago, there were several hundred
> tightly-packed homes
> >in this neighbourhood called Hanat al-Hawashim.
> They no longer exist.
> >
> >Around the central ruins, there are many hundreds
> of half-wrecked
> >homes. Much of the camp - once home to 15,000
> Palestinian refugees
> >from the 1948 war - is falling down. Every wall is
> speckled and torn
> >with bullet holes and shrapnel, testimony of the
> awesome, random
> >firepower of Cobra and Apache helicopters that
> hovered over the camp.
> >
> >Building after building has been torn apart, their
> contents of cheap
> >fake furnishings, mattresses, white plastic chairs
> spewed out into the
> >road. Every other building bears the giant,
> charred, impact mark of a
> >helicopter missile. Last night there were still
> many families and
> >weeping children still living amid the ruins, cut
> off from the
> >humanitarian aid. Ominously, we found no wounded,
> although there was a
> >report of a man being rescued from beneath ruins
> only an hour before
> >we arrived.
> >
> >Those who did not flee the camp, or not detained by
> the army, have
> >spent the bombardment in basements, enduring day
> after day of
> >terror. Some were forced into rooms by the
> soldiers, who smashed their
> >way into houses through the walls. The UN says half
> of the camp's
> >15,000 residents were under 18. As the evening hush
> fell over these
> >killing fields, we could suddenly hear the children
> chattering. The
> >mosques, once so noisy at prayer time, were silent.
> >
> >Israel was still trying to conceal these scenes
> yesterday. It had
> >refused entry to Red Cross ambulances for nearly a
> week, in violation
> >of the Geneva Convention. Yesterday it continued to
> try to keep us
> >out.
> >
> >Jenin, in the northern end of the occupied West
> Bank, remained "a
> >closed military zone", was ringed Merkava tanks,
> army Jeep patrols,
> >and armoured personnel carriers. Reporters caught
> trying to get in
> >were escorted out. A day earlier the Israeli armed
> forces took in a
> >few selected journalists to see sanitised parts of
> the camp. We simply
> >walked across the fields, flitted through an olive
> orchard overlooked
> >by two Israeli tanks, and into the camp itself.
> >
> >We were led in by hands gesturing at windows.
> Hidden, whispering
> >people directed us through narrow alleys they
> thought were clear. When
> >there were soldiers about, a finger would raise in
> warning, or a hand
> >waved us back. We were welcomed by people desperate
> to tell what had
> >occurred. They spoke of executions, and bulldozers
> wrecking homes with
> >people inside. "This is mass murder committed by
> Ariel Sharon," Jamel
> >Saleh, 43, said. "We feel more hate for Israel now
> than ever. Look at
> >this boy." He placed his hand on the tousled head
> of a little boy,
> >Mohammed, the eight-year-old son of a friend. "He
> saw all this
> >evil. He will remember it all." So will everyone
> else who saw the
> >horror of Jenin refugee camp. Palestinians who
> entered the camp
> >yesterday were almost speechless.
> >
> >Rajib Ahmed, from the Palestinian Energy Authority,
> came to try to
> >repair the power lines. He was trembling with fury
> and shock. "This is
> >mass murder. I have come here to help by I have
> found nothing but
> >devastation. Just look for yourself." All had the
> same message: tell
> >the world.
>
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