Please do this if you support
it. I hope so. M
DEMAND SHARON BE
BROUGHT TO JUSTICE
Al-Awda,
the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) calls on all people of conscience
to call, email, and/or fax the White House and State Department today, to
express concern about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit, and to demand
that the United States cooperate fully in bringing him to justice on charges of
war crimes and crimes against humanity before, during and after Israel's 1982
invasion and occupation of Lebanon.
The United States actively supported
indictments against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, even while he
was in power, as well as the international tribunal for Rwanda. Failing to apply
standards of justice to Sharon and protections for the victims of the crimes of
which he is accused would be evidence of a gross double-standard and a signal
that the United States is willing to tolerate atrocities against innocent
civilians as long as they are committed by the leaders of "friendly"
states.
TALKING POINTS:
*The U.S. government
should investigate and pursue evidence that Sharon is responsible for war crimes
and crimes against humanity. Such investigations should review the evidence that
Sharon as defense minister in 1982 directly ordered the deliberate bombardment
of residential neighborhoods of Beirut, Sidon and other cities in Lebanon during
the Israeli invasion, killing thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians;
directly ordered the siege of west Beirut, deliberately depriving civilian
residents of food, water, safe passage and access to medical care; and that
Sharon and other Israeli officers and officials were responsible for arming,
training and protecting the perpetrators of the massacres of Palestinian and
Lebanese refugees in Sabra and Shatila camps in September 1982, including
providing protection and illumination so that the butchers could carry out their
work more easily.
*These charges, if proven, would constitute grave
breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity.
* The United States should help to assure that Sharon is
brought to justice, under the laws of an international tribunal.
*As
prime minister, Sharon has ordered measures which further violate the Fourth
Geneva Convention including blockades which have reduced the Palestinian
civilian population in the occupied territories to extreme poverty and in some
areas near starvation, and resulted in deaths due to deliberate deprivation of
access to medical care.
*Three decades earlier, as a young military
officer, Sharon led an Israeli elite commando force, Unit 101, which carried out
brutal raids against Palestinians. The massacre in the West Bank village of
Qibya, on October 14, 1953, was perhaps the most notorious. According to Israeli
historian Avi Shlaim, Sharon's unit blew up 45 homes in the village, killing 69
civilians, two-thirds of them women and children.
*Sharon has appointed
to his government at least one minister who openly espouses such crimes against
humanity as forcing the entire Palestinian population of the occupied
territories and other areas to leave.
* The High Contracting Parties to
the Geneva Conventions, including the United States, are required to hold those
who violate the Convention accountable. Hence, bringing Sharon to justice is an
urgent necessity. Failure to do so would send a signal that the United States
condones war crimes and protects accused war criminals.
CALL, FAX, AND
EMAIL YOUR LETTERS TO:
* President George W. Bush
The White
House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone:
1-202-456-1414
Fax: 1-202-456-2461
E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
*Secretary of State
Colin Powell
Phone: 1-202-647-4000/ Bureau of Near East Affairs:
1-202-647-5150
Fax: 1-202-261-8577
E-mail: secretary@state.gov
Letters may be faxed online
via http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html
-------
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