Tuesday 24 August 2010

Flotilla UN Questioning Begins in Turkey


24/08/2010 Investigators from the United Nations Human Rights Council have begun questioning witnesses on Israel's May 31 raid aboard a Gaza-bound boat, which resulted in the martyrdom of nine Turkish activists, the UN said on Monday according to Haaretz.

An official statement said the 3-person investigative team was now in Turkey, under whose flag the vessel was registered, after hearing other witnesses in London and Geneva. The panel plans to continue its investigation in Amman, Jordan.

The team - judges from Britain and Trinidad and a Malaysian human rights campaigner - has been refused entry by Israel which claims the pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Turkish Mavi Marmara were killed when they attacked Israeli navy commandos with clubs and knives.

The trio are due to present their report to the 47-nation council on September 27, according to a schedule for the body's 3-week autumn session which starts on September 13.

The council, where members of the 57-country Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and its developing country allies as well as Russia, Cuba and China have an inbuilt majority, set up the probe in June, despite strong Western reservations.

The boat was part of a flotilla that was taking aid supplies to besieged Gazans,.
The incident sparked a serious deterioration of already strained relations between Israel and Turkey after many years of a close relationship which included military cooperation.

Earlier this month, current rights council president and Thai ambassador Sihasak Phuanketkeow said the team - whose members he chose - would not overlap with Ban's probe but rather complement it.

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