HUMAN RIGHTS:A UN human rights body has voted to instigate an international inquiry into the deaths of at least nine activists killed when Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Council, which mandated the Goldstone report into Israel’s offensive on Gaza last year, backed by 32 votes to three a resolution condemning “in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces against the humanitarian flotilla of ships”. The resolution called “for full accountability and credible independent inquiries” into the incident which took place in the early hours of Monday morning.
The 47-member council authorised “an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks”. The resolution also called on Israel to immediately lift its blockade on Gaza.
The US, the Netherlands and Italy voted against the motion, which was sponsored by Pakistan, Sudan and the Palestinians. Nine countries, including France, Belgium, Japan, the UK and South Korea, abstained.
The move comes on the heels of US-led attempts to prevent the UN from launching an international investigation into the killings. To the disappointment of countries including Turkey, which lost several of its citizens in the raid, more than 11 hours of diplomatic wrangling at the Security Council earlier this week resulted in a watered-down statement calling for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation” into the incident.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said Washington supports an Israeli, rather than international, probe, although the US was “open to different ways of assuring a credible investigation”. Turkey is adamant Israel cannot conduct an independent investigation into events to which it was party.
The Goldstone inquiry expressed “serious doubts about the willingness of Israel to carry out genuine investigations in an impartial, independent, prompt and effective way as required by international law”.