March 23, 2006

CANADA: A SAFE HAVEN FOR WAR CRIMINALS

by Ron Saba, Montreal Planet Magazine

Despite requests from Canadian human rights groups, Justice Minister Vic Toews and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg, both members of the the pro-Israel lobby group "Canada Israel Freindship Group" are allowing accused war criminal Israeli Lt. Gen. (ret.) General Moshe Ya'alon into Canada today.  This despite the fact that he would be arrested for war crimes if he were to set foot in the UK and despite the fact that he is the target of an action accusing him of war crimes in the US.

On April 18, 1996  Israeli Lt. Gen. (ret.) General Moshe Ya'alon directed the Israeli attack on the United Nations base at Qana, South Lebanon, where the United Nations had provided refuge for hundreds of civilians seeking shelter from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

The following background information concerning Ya'alon's crimes is based on the report of Human Rights Watch:

In Spring 1996, there was a report that a secret Israeli "death squad"was operating in Lebanese territory.  According to Israeli Gen. Levine: "We felt the time has come to give the soldiers the credit they deserve and let the public know that our soldiers serving in southern Lebanon are not sitting idle, but taking the
war to the enemy."

On April 18 there were no shell warnings before the big Israeli artillery guns fired toward the United Nations compound at Qana.

According to UNIFL Col. Wame, the first shell landed at the perimeter of the United Nations compound, near the main entrance, and destroyed two prefabricated buildings. The first three rounds knocked out electricity and communications. "Our positions in the hills were relaying to us what was happening. We were here waiting for death. There was nothing that we could do," he recalled. "There was a lot of screaming, buildings were burning....We could not believe that our base was being attacked. The sound of the incoming shells, followed by the explosions, the sight of those killed, was beyond imagination. There were body parts everywhere," he said.

A UNIFIL civilian employee who was present during the attack told Human Rights Watch that the is placed civilians had been concentrated in eight locations on the base. The shelling totally destroyed three prefabricated buildings that housed about 240 people -- all that remained at the site at the time of a visit by Human Rights Watch representatives in August 1996 was a deep rectangular crater. "There were another 126 people inside Vanua house, over which a proximity shell exploded, killing about fifty-two people," he said. The total number of dead at Qana may never be known.

"I counted seven-five [body] bags," another UNIFIL employee who participated in the rescue effort at the base told Human Rights Watch. "But there was more than one body in some of the bags. At night, dogs ate some of the remains. There were ninety-one bodies buried at the site, but the number of dead may be more -- the total may be closer to 105 or 106 people," he said.

A high-ranking UNIFIL official told Human Rights Watch: "Our operations officer pressed the speed button [on his telephone] and told the Israelis about the attack. The shelling was continuing. Then they called back, and gave us a shell warning...while the shelling was in progress! We said that we knew there was
shelling. We told them to stop the shelling."

A British journalist who was travelling in a U.N. humanitarian aid convoy at the time of the attack was about four miles away from Qana. He heard the radio traffic after the shelling began:

We could hear the Israeli rounds landing, great thumps, audible inside our thin-skin U.N. vehicle. It was exactly 2:10 pm when the radio crackled in the front of the truck. "Our headquarters are being shelled," a voice said, a Fijian voice with just a hint of anxiety. There was a confirmation from the UN's operations headquarters in Naqqoura -- and then the Fijian voice returned.

"The rounds [shells] are falling here now," it said...It was now 2:12 pm. U.N. operations came back over the air. "We are contacting the IDF," the voice said, apparently an Irish officer. But the Fijian returned, desperate now. "Do you understand?" he shouted. "They are firing on us now. The headquarters is hit." We could hear that same thumping sound from across the valley as the rounds exploded on Qana. Back came the Fijian, so desperate that U.N. operations could not understand him.

It was now around 2:20 pm. The sun was high in the sky. Visibility was good. The distant sound of shells could still be heard. There had been six incoming rounds, then more. The guns I had heard were firing a shell every five seconds.

A Lebanese U.N. liaison man came on the line from the burning Qana U.N. headquarters. "People are dying here. We need help."

In an article which appeared today in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz under the headline "Canadian authorities asked to arrest Moshe Ya'alon as war criminal", Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker paid Canada the ultimate insult by indicating that it is harder to bring a war criminal to justice under Canadian law than it is under British law.

IT IS A SAD DAY INDEED WHEN WAR CRIMINALS SEE CANADA AS A HAVEN WHERE
THEY CAN ESCSAPE PROSECUTION.


This archival video tape provides a record of the intentional carnage committed by Israeli Lt. Gen. (ret.) General Moshe Ya'alon at the UN base in Qana: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/quana_01_19_03.htm


Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker brags that it is harder to bring a war criminal to justice under Canadian law than it is under British law. (Read story from the Israeli newpaper Haaretz.)

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