February 26, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 24, 1423

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25: The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on Tuesday called for Israelis suspected of war crimes against Palestinians to be put on trial.

The 116-nation body also urged sanctions against Israel to secure the withdrawal of its armed forces from occupied Palestinian territories, in a strongly worded document adopted at the end of the summit.

NAM, which has been meeting since 1961, routinely condemns Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians but calls for trials and sanctions are new.

The forum representing billions of the world’s poorest people urged “legal remedies without impunity to war crimes” and noted the role of the International Criminal Court to be inaugurated in The Hague next month.

NAM members also “strongly condemn the systematic human rights violations and reported war crimes that have been committed by the Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian people.”

The document condemned extrajudicial killings of citizens and excessive force by Israeli troops, as well as the “wanton” destruction of homes, infrastructure and land.

It also castigated Israel over “the imposition of collective punishments on the entire Palestinian population, including severe restrictions on the movement of persons and goods, resulting in the socioeconomic debilitation of the Palestinian people, amounting to a dire humanitarian crisis.”

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, absent from the conference because Israel has refused to guarantee his right to return home, echoed the document in a videolink speech to the summit on Tuesday.

Mr Arafat said certain Israelis were guilty of “the confiscation of land, the transfer of nationals of the occupying power to that land and the building of settlements, which constitute war crimes with the intensity of crimes against humanity”.

“The international community must bring an end to this with the implementation of international law in this regard.”

ARAFAT: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said on Tuesday those responsible for the murder of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin were now participating in the government of the Jewish state.

In a rare comment on the death of Mr Rabin, who was shot dead at a Tel Aviv peace rally in 1995, Arafat said the Israeli government had attempted “to break our will and determination and our adherence to the peace of the brave which I signed with my partner the late Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by radical elements now participating in the government of Israel”.

He did not elaborate.

The comments came in a live video conference link between the Occupied Territories and the NAM summit in Malaysia.

Arafat was unable to attend because of fears he would not be allowed to return home.

Rabin was shot in the back by a Jewish extremist, Yigal Amir, who objected to his policy of trading land for peace with Arabs.—Reuters