By DPA
London/New York : Partisan politics and “selectivity” in international bodies have prevented the prosecution of “war crimes and other grave violations” a year after the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, Amnesty International said Thursday.
Amnesty, marking the first anniversary of the conflict in a statement released in London, condemned the “complete absence of any steps in the two countries affected, or internationally, to prosecute those responsible for war crimes and other grave violations.”
A similar statement was issued Thursday by Human Rights Watch, the US-based human rights group.
“So far, the Israelis and Lebanese investigations have failed, so the international community needs to step in,” said Human Rights Watch.
In London, Amnesty called for a full and impartial UN-led inquiry that would include provisions for reparations to the victims.
If that did not happen, there was a “real danger of history repeating itself,” it warned.
“The total lack of political will to hold to account those responsible for the indiscriminate killing of civilians, more than one thousand of whom lost their lives, is both a gross betrayal of the victims and a recipe for possible further civilian bloodshed with impunity,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Partisan politics and selectivity” in bodies such as the UN Security Council had effectively left the Lebanese, Israeli and other victims without recourse to justice, said Amnesty.
It pointed out that, by contrast, the Security Council decision to establish a tribunal to prosecute those accused of responsibility for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and other political murders, showed that mechanisms existed “to establish the truth” as long as there was the political will to do so.
According to Amnesty’s investigations, “scores of people have been killed or injured” in south Lebanon as a result of cluster bombs, launched by Israeli forces mostly in the last 72 hours of the conflict, after the ceasefire had been agreed but before it took effect.