GAZA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- A committee（委员会） of independent experts, tasked by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), started on Sunday meetings and tours in the Gaza Strip to assess postwar investigations（调查） by concerning parties to the conflict.
The committee arrived in Gaza on Saturday, planned to spend three days seeing Palestinian victims of the Israeli military operation that took place between December 2008 and January 2009.
The committee's mandate is to see how the West Bank-based Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the Hamas movement and Israel deal with the recommendations of a UN fact-finding mission led by South African Justice Richard Goldstone.
In Gaza, the committee started its work by meeting representatives(代表,众议院) from local rights groups and families whose cases were raised in the Goldstone's report.
Raji al-Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), said his foundation had showed the committee " hundreds of cases of Palestinian victims whom Israel refused to investigate or tried to compensate."About 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the three-week offensive(攻击,冒犯) and tens of thousands of houses suffered various degrees of damage. On the other side, three Israeli civilians were killed by rockets Hamas fired from Gaza.
The Goldstone report found that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
Israel and the Hamas have conducted investigations into the violations the Goldstone report highlighted for two times and the second versions of the investigations were handed to the UN in July. The PNA also submitted a report to the secretary-general.
Israel "has not carried out any fair investigation," said al- Sourani, calling on the international community to investigate " Israel's crimes through the International Criminal Court."On the other hand, Hamas has not shown the result of any serious investigation and there is no word on any disciplinary measures against its fighters who fired rockets into Israel during the war.
The committee is scheduled to meet Hamas authorities in Gaza on Monday. Earlier this month, it met the PNA in Ramallah while Israel refused to cooperate with the committee.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑) |