Belgian attorney holds a press conference in Cairo
Israel-Belgium, Politics, 7/21/2001

Belgian lawyer Luc Willen, who on behalf of the victims has recently filed a lawsuit against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his role in the Sabra and Shatilla massacres held a press conference in the Egyptian capital Friday.

The trial itself is an important event because what happened in Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps was not a war crime, but rather a racist crime.

"What happened was genocide of an ethnic group for a racist rather than political reason," Willen said.

According to the reports we have received so far, he said, it is clear that the ethnic cleansing that took place in Sabra and Shatilla camps was not carried by Christian militias alone, but was a joint operation between the pro-Israeli militia and the then Israeli leadership.

"The reports show that the Israeli army blocked the roads leading to the two camps so that no one could go in or out of them and fired flares so that Israeli bulldozers could dig mass graves," the lawyer said.

He stressed that he obtained sufficient evidence to convict Sharon, referring to the Kahane committee, which was formed in 1983 to probe the case under the pressure of the scandal and held Sharon, who was then the defence minister, responsible for the massacre.

He stressed that the lawsuit initiative had no propaganda purposes, but was rather proceeding within a sheer legal framework.

"In Belgium we have laws stipulating that all those responsible for committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide must be punished," he said.

A Belgian judge is secretly investigating the case, and the details will be published in the coming months.

The Belgium government was embarrassed because of the fact that the case involved some heavy-weight public figures such as Sharon, and some countries intervened with Brussels with the aim of modifying the law.

"The Belgian government, however, refused all pressure, and the case is going on," Willen asserted. Willen is currently in Cairo to take part in a regional Arab conference to be held in preparation for the world conference against racism, due to be held , next month in Durban, South Africa.

Mohammed El-Redeini, a Palestinian student living in Beirut and one of the survivors, recalled the massacre which he had witnessed while he was only six.

"The Israeli army besieged the camps and prevented civilians from entering the camps or getting out of them," he said.

The pro-Israeli militia separated men from women and children, he said, recalling how they hanged his pregnant, deaf-and-dumb sister, and how the Israeli forces killed men seeking to get out of the camp, including his father.

He recounted how the militia burned down houses, saying that such memories drove him mad whenever he recalled them.

He called on Arab human rights groups to play a role in the legal action against Sharon, and on media people everywhere to reveal the true face of Israel.

Previous Stories:
  Belgian lawyer in conference on Israeli apartheid   (7/17/2001)
  Belgian circles speak of a chance to arrest Sharon after the end of the investigations   (7/13/2001)
  Sharon cancels visit to Brussels after Belgian attorney general studies the case against him   (7/3/2001)

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