[Peace-discuss] U.N. Workers Detained by Israel without charges

[David Green]

Israel Holding 25 U.N. Workers

Associated Press
Thursday, October 7, 2004; Page A29

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 6 -- At least 25 Palestinian U.N.
workers have 
been 
detained by Israel for as long as two years under
charges Israel 
refuses 
to reveal, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

The statements coincided with the arrival of a U.N.
team in Jerusalem 
to 
investigate Israeli charges that a Palestinian
employee of the U.N. 
Relief and Works Agency loaded a Qassam rocket into a
U.N. ambulance 
during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel has backed away from its claim that footage
from a drone plane 
showed an agency driver loading a rocket into the
ambulance. But Israel 
will demand that the investigators determine whether
the world body 
employs people who "aid and abet" Palestinian militant
groups, an 
Israeli official said.

Israeli-U.N. relations have been strained for years,
with Israel 
repeatedly accusing the world body of bias. The United
Nations, 
meanwhile, has criticized Israeli policies and
military operations in 
Palestinian areas. Relations have become more strained
because of 
Israel's eight-day incursion into Gaza.

The issue of the detentions surfaced Tuesday in
Jerusalem when an 
Israeli army commander said that 13 agency employees
had been arrested 
during an unspecified period for links to militant
groups and that some 
would be charged soon.

Fred Eckhard, the U.N. spokesman, said Wednesday that
"one staffer has 
been detained in Gaza for over two years and is
currently awaiting 
trial, and 24 are being held under administrative
detention without 
charge or trial." In each case, Israel would not
explain the reason for 
the detention, he said.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11236-2004Oct6.html






		
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