United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday announced the make-up of the UN team to investigate the Israeli assault on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
The group is led by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, with former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross Cornelio Sommaruga as members.
"The fact-finding team will start its work without delay; it will first assemble in Europe this week and then travel as quickly as possible," the UN chief told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
"In view of developing accurate information, I expect that the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority will cooperate fully with the team and provide free and complete access to all sites, sources of information and individuals that the team will consider necessary for the exercise of its functions in the most objective and impartial way," Annan said.
Expressing concern over the "dire" humanitarian situation of the Palestinian civilians amid reports of destruction and an unknown number of deaths in the camp, the UN Security Council on Friday adopted the resolution 1405, authorizing the sending of a fact-finding mission to gather accurate information on the matter.
The camp was the scene of fierce fighting in Israel's offensive since March 29 on charge of cracking down on Palestinian militants responsible for a series of suicide bombings against Israelis. The final death toll is yet to be known as bodies are still being discovered from the rubble.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2002)
