BBC News World Edition, 13 February 2003, 11:35 GMT
Israel has reacted angrily to a ruling by Belgium's Supreme Court which could pave the way for the prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for war crimes.
The Belgian ambassador to Israel has been ordered to report to the Israeli Foreign Minstry on Thursday, while Israel has recalled its ambassador to Brussels for talks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu accused Belgium of "helping to harm not only Israel but also the entire free world", and vowed to "respond with severity".
The Belgian ruling means Mr Sharon and the current director-general of the Israeli Defence Ministry, General Amos Yaron, could eventually be tried in relation to massacres committed during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The decision stems from a case brought against Mr Sharon and Mr Yaron by Palestinian survivors of the killings in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, which was dismissed last year by a lower court.
In its latest ruling, the Supreme Court said the case against Mr Yaron could proceed, while new investigations into Mr Sharon could get under way once he leaves office.
Israeli officials denounced the ruling and warned could create a serious crisis between the two countries.
Former Labour Party leader and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres accused Belgium of interfering.
"Belgium cannot be Israel's judge. It has not gone through [the same things] as Israel and cannot judge history," he said.
However, a lawyer for the Palestinians, Chibli Mallat, called the Belgian decision "one of the most important rulings that there has been in international law".
The law, which allows for prosecution even if the defendant is not in the country, is expected to be passed this spring.
Mr Sharon was Israel's defence minister and Mr Yaron oversaw the Beirut sector when Israel sent its forces into Lebanon to repel attacks by Palestinian fighters.
The killings in the refugee camps were carried out by Lebanese Christian militia allied to Israel, which then occupied southern Lebanon.
An Israeli investigation found Mr Sharon indirectly responsible for failing to prevent the massacre of between 800 and 2,000 refugees.
Mr Sharon was forced to resign from government but never faced charges.
In the run-up to the 2001 Israeli elections, he expressed regret about the "terrible tragedy" at the refugee camps - but rejected any responsibility.
Besides Mr Sharon, war crimes proceedings have been brought in Belgium against a number of world figures.
These include Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Cuban President Fidel Castro, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo.
By Marlise Simons, New York Times, February 13, 2003
THE HAGUE, Feb. 12 -- Belgium's highest court said today in Brussels that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel could be tried for war crimes under the nation's laws, but not as long as he enjoyed the immunity of his office.
The ruling, while blocking the case against Mr. Sharon, did allow a Belgian court to hear the case against Mr. Sharon's co-defendant, Amos Yaron, the former Israeli Army chief of staff.
In its summary, the high court said investigations and a trial could proceed even if a suspect was not physically present in Belgium. Several cases involving foreign leaders, past and present, had been on hold for almost a year, pending the high court's decision.
The case against Mr. Sharon and Mr. Yaron dates back to 2001, when survivors of the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut filed a criminal complaint, holding the two Israelis responsible for the deaths of their relatives. Christian militias, backed by Israel, did the killing, but an Israeli commission of inquiry in 1983 concluded that Mr. Sharon, then the defense minister, had a personal responsibility for the events.
By filing their case in Belgium, the survivors hoped to make use of the country's 1993 law that allows the courts "universal jurisdiction" over crimes against humanity or war crimes anywhere.
Many states have given their courts universal jurisdiction over some crimes. But until now, Belgium's so-called antiatrocity law went further by barring immunity claims and by allowing the courts to investigate crimes committed anywhere, regardless of the nationality of the victims or the perpetrators.
Today's ruling recognized the immunity of high public office, like the posts of prime minister, president and foreign minister. But the judges implied that the case against Mr. Sharon could be pursued after he left office, lawyers said. Citing that ruling, Luc Walleyn, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, hailed the decision as a victory.
Daniel Shek, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's director of European Affairs, described the decision as "very problematic," according to Reuters.
The Israeli case is one of many pending in Belgium involving charges of grave human rights violations. Lawyers handling the cases said they were elated with today's ruling, because it overturned a decision last year in a lower court that held that an accused person had to be present in Belgium to be investigated.
"This was a big breakthrough, a big step forward," said Georges-Henri Beauthier, a human rights lawyer. "Cases had been blocked in several courts, awaiting the high court's ruling." Mr. Beauthier said he could now continue pursuing the case against Hissene Habre, the former ruler of Chad, who lives in exile in Senegal. Today's decision effectively means that prosecutors can issue international arrest warrants and apply for a suspect's extradition, he said.
Belgium's antiatrocity law has made the country into a magnet for grave human rights violations, and cases against two dozen current or past leaders are still pending in Belgian courts.
Critics in Belgium have attacked the law, arguing that Belgium could not become the "world's court." Several legislators have said they want Parliament to "reinterpret" the law.
But changes appear unlikely soon. Now that the high court has ruled, the Belgium's prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, said today that there was no need for Parliament to intervene.
By David Forman, Ha'aretz, 13 February 2003
Israel has always been proud of the concept "purity of arms." The principle allowed us to build a morally defensive shield against the corrupting influence of all wars, even morally imperative wars such as the one against terror. It is difficult to tell which kind of war makes it more difficult to maintain this sublime idea - conventional wars against other countries, or the unconventional war in which Israel is now entangled with the Palestinian Authority.
A few days ago, Kamala Abu Sa'id, the 65-year-old stepmother of a wanted man, was killed during the demolition of her home in Gaza by Israeli soldiers. I emphasize the demolition was done by Israeli soldiers, since by saying it was done by the IDF would take away the personal nature of that action, as well as hundreds of similar actions conducted in recent months by armed Israeli soldiers. It was said that there was a search of the house before the demolition, but it turns out that it was not sufficiently thorough because apparently nobody cared enough. Thus, innocent Palestinians are killed day after day without anyone being held accountable.
The principle of "purity of arms" has been replaced by a philosophy of "superficial concern for non-combatants." And although it is possible to understand the emotional reaction of a soldier to the death of a comrade, especially during battle, it is the duty of military discipline to restrain the natural instinct for revenge. The reason the field commanders confirm with a nod of the head the deviation from that norm is because of the backing for it from the highest levels of the army, leading directly to the prime minister himself.
As someone who was a simple soldier in the war in Lebanon, it is clear to me that the collapse of the military ethic, including purity of arms, officially began during that war, in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla, when Ariel Sharon was defense minister. For Sharon, the contempt for the ethical dimension of warfare began much earlier, in Gaza and Kibyeh, but then his influence and methods were felt only at the platoon level. In the Lebanon War, as defense minister, his influence was universal. But the contempt he demonstrated then toward purity of arms took its own vengeance on him and he was fired from that job.
Twenty years have passed and Sharon is again in a position of power from which he can set the standards for Israeli fighting. Apparently, what guided Sharon during his military career and reached its shameful climax at Sabra and Chatilla, now dictates the way the IDF conducts its war against terror - with scorn for the moral standards at the heart of the Israeli Army since its establishment. And thus we are every day witness to the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians: not those caught in a cross-fire, but people like that 65-year-old woman.
It's possible that for the prime minister, "all is fair in love and war." We have a Jewish answer to that: "Justice, justice, shall though pursue" (Deuteronomy, XVI:20). The rabbis say that the word justice appears twice to say that a just cause must be achieved through just means. That biblical commandment is the earliest form of the IDF's principle of purity of arms.
The world community wants to put Sharon on trial for war crimes because of his role in the Sabra and Chatilla massacres, but we are the ones who should put him on trial, for desecrating the principles of the IDF, which were meant to prevent that horror then, and for the ongoing killing of the innocent now. Due to his subterfuge of the moral integrity of the Jewish people, Ariel Sharon stands accused in the court of Jewish decency. And to those of us who stand in silence, in the words of the great Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel, "Some all guilty, but all are responsible."
Rabbi Forman is chairman of Rabbis for Human Rights
Ian Black in Brussels, The Guardian, 13 February 2003
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, can be tried for genocide in Belgium once he has left office, the Belgian appeal court ruled last night.
The judgment opens the way for survivors of a 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Beirut to press their case against the Likud leader when his retirement loses him his immunity from prosecution.
"International custom prevents heads of government being pursued by a foreign state," the court said.
But to Israel's dismay it ruled that an action against former general Amos Yaron, commander of Israeli forces in the Beirut area at the time of the massacre, could proceed.
The Israeli foreign minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, immediately recalled his ambassador in Brussels, Yehuda Keinar, for consultations, and will call in the Belgian ambassador today to deliver a protest, a senior Israeli source told Reuters.
"This decision is a scandal and it legitimises terror and helps those who fight terrorism, Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.
"Belgium is not only hurting Israel but the entire free world and Israel will respond to it very severely."
Mr Sharon, who was defence minister at the time, is blamed for the death of 800 Palestinians killed by the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia, then allied to Israel.
Relatives of some of the victims appealed against a lower court ruling last summer that Mr Sharon could not be prosecuted under the Belgian law which gives its courts universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and genocide, because he was not in Belgium.
Mr Sharon ordered the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, aimed at putting down cross-border Palestinian guerrilla activity. The following year an Israeli commission of inquiry found him indirectly responsible for the killing in the Sabra and Chatila Palestinian refugee camps in the Beirut suburbs. He was forced to resign but was not prosecuted.
"This is a victory for international justice and for the victims," Luc Walleyn, a lawyer acting for the 23 plaintiffs, said.
Last month the Belgian senate amended the 1993 "universal jurisdiction" law to let prosecutors to investigate suspected war criminals even if they do not live in Belgium, removing the restriction which has so far prevented them investigating cases abroad.
There have been attempts to bring similar cases against other world leaders, including the Cuban president, Fidel Castro, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and the former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The government hopes to make the amendment law before the end of April.
The revised act will also give the courts jurisdiction in cases which cannot be brought before the newly created International Criminal Court, located in the Netherlands.
The only people tried under the existing law are four Rwandans sentenced last year to between 12 and 20 years for their role in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi ethnic minority and politically moderate members of the Hutu majority.
Nicholas Blanford, The Daily Star with agencies, 13 February 2003
A judicial investigation into Ariel Sharon's role in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre was given the green light to proceed Wednesday after a Belgian court overturned an earlier ruling to dismiss the case against the Israeli prime minister.
The decision paves the way for survivors of the 1982 slaughter to prosecute Sharon for war crimes and crimes against humanity once he no longer enjoys the immunity granted him as prime minister.
Israel recalled its ambassador to Belgium for "consultations" after the ruling, while the Belgian ambassador to Israel, Wilfred Greens, was summoned to meet Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We are not satisfied by this decision and I am troubled for the good conduct of relations between Belgium and Israel," Israeli Foreign Ministry official Danny Shek told reporters outside the courthouse.
The decision, which came after a two-hour hearing in the morning, surprised lawyers after last-minute indications suggested that the previous ruling would be upheld, a move which would have signaled the end of the two-year legal battle.
An elated Chibli Mallat, one of three lawyers for the survivors, said the result was a "great vindication of our positions and all our hard work over the past two years."
The next step is for the court of appeals to confirm the ruling and then the judicial investigation into the massacre can begin, Mallat said.
The case against Sharon was filed in Brussels in June 2001 under a 1993 law on universal jurisdiction, allowing suspected war criminals to be tried in Belgium regardless of the nationality of the accused and the victims and regardless of where the crime was committed. Under this law, the plaintiffs argued that Sharon could stand trial for his role in the massacre.
Last June, however, a lower court of appeals dismissed the case on technical grounds, ruling that Sharon could not be tried in Belgium as he did not live in the country. The plaintiffs' lawyers and human rights organizations protested the ruling, claiming it contradicted the spirit of the law and rendered it redundant.
But last month, the Belgian Senate amended the law, making it legal for Belgium to prosecute suspected war criminals regardless of where they lived.
The lawyers for the plaintiffs had sought to delay Wednesday's hearing until after the law had been ratified. But their plea was rejected. Their hopes for a positive outcome were further dashed during a two-hour hearing Wednesday morning during which Belgium's prosecutor-general recommended that the June ruling be upheld, which would have killed off the case.
"There was a strong showing from Sharon's lawyers and they were obviously extremely relaxed as the decision appeared to be going their way," Mallat said. "So (the decision) came as a very strong surprise. It's rare that a court goes against the opinion of the prosecutor-general."
Delays in issuing visas to the plaintiffs meant they were unable to attend the hearing.
"It would have been an extremely pleasing moment to share with them but hopefully we will celebrate back in Beirut," Mallat said.
Up to 2,000 Palestinians and Lebanese are thought to have died in Sabra and Shatila from Sept. 16-18 when the Israeli Army allowed Phalangist militiamen to enter the camp. Israel's Kahan Commission of Inquiry concluded that Sharon, who was defense minister at the time, bore "personal responsibility" for his part in the massacre. He was subsequently forced out of his post.
The indictment also names Amos Yaron, a former general who was in charge of Israeli troops in Beirut at the time, Rafael Eitan, the Israeli Army chief of staff in 1982, and Amir Drori, the former head of the Israeli Army's Northern Command.
Dr. Laurie King-Irani is North American Coordinator of International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra & Shatila. For media queries, write to coordinator@indictsharon.net. For website queries, write to webmaster@indictsharon.net.
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