Sharon court ruling clears way for possible Brussels invitation

Date: 27/06/02

By Khaled Diab

A WAR crimes case against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, alleging his complicity in the 1982 massacre of 1,000 Palestinians, was thrown out on a technicality by a Belgian court yesterday (26 June), opening the way for a possible EU-Middle East peace drive.

The European Parliament recently invited Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to address MEPs; the appeals court ruling means deputies could now extend that invitation to Sharon.

David Harley, spokesman for Parliament President Pat Cox, said the prospect of talks taking place between the two men in Brussels could not be ruled out.

'Mr Sharon is the elected prime minister of Israel and we want to concentrate on all the elements necessary to resolve this conflict,' he said.

However, Harley stressed that the outcome of the case would not necessarily mean MEPs would be keen to invite Israel's leader to address them. 'We take note of this issue, but it is not central to the conflict in the Middle East,' he added.

Arafat was unable to take up the offer to address MEPs, as he was under siege at his Ramallah headquarters at the time.

Harley said the Parliament was now likely to concentrate on putting its weight behind the idea of an international peace conference - mediated by the so-called 'quartet' of the EU, the United States, Russia and the United Nations - to help break the Middle East deadlock.

The Belgian appeals court ruled that Sharon could not be tried under a 1993 law, which allows local courts to prosecute violations of the Geneva Convention wherever in the world they occur, because at the time the case was launched he was not in Belgium. The verdict drew sighs of relief from Israeli quarters and will undoubtedly ease the strained ties between the two countries. 'We're very content with the ruling,' Haim Assaraf, first secretary at the Israeli mission in Brussels, told European Voice.

'This is a very good chance to reinvigorate relations between Belgium and Israel.'

Lawyers representing 23 Palestinian survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre by Israeli-backed Lebanese Phalangist militiamen slammed the ruling. An Israeli inquiry at the time found then defence minister Sharon, mastermind of Israel's invasion of Lebanon, bore indirect but personal responsibility for the atrocities.

Michael Verhaeghe, one of the lawyers representing the Palestinians, sounded a defiant note following the hearing.

'We are not satisfied with this,' he said, vowing to push on with a supreme court appeal. International human rights groups joined the chorus of condemnation, expressing disapproval that this avenue for victims of atrocities had been shut.

The outcome of the case is likely to affect proceedings brought in Belgium against several other heads of state, including Arafat and Fidel Castro of Cuba.

On Monday, President Bush called on the Palestinian people to replace Arafat as their leader to create a 'practising democracy' that could lead the way to an independent state within three years.

European leaders, including High Representative Javier Solana, (pictured above with Arafat) gave his speech a lukewarm reception.

A war crimes case against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, alleging his complicity in the 1982 massacre of 1,000 Palestinians, was thrown out on a technicality by a Belgian court on 26 June 2002, opening the way for a possible EU-Middle East peace drive.