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Last update - 08:21 12/07/2007
Amnesty Int'l: Israel, Lebanon haven't investigated war crimes
By The Associated Press

Neither Israel nor Lebanon has investigated allegations of war crimes from last year's conflict, the human rights group Amnesty International charged in a statement released Thursday, calling for a United Nations inquiry.

In its reports since the war, Amnesty harshly criticized Hezbollah for firing nearly 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities and towns, and Israel for bombing civilian areas and using cluster bombs in south Lebanon.

Amnesty said that more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the 34-day war. Since then, 24 more people have been killed in south Lebanon by explosions of cluster munitions fired by Israel during the war, the statement said.

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"Without a full, impartial UN-led inquiry that includes provision for reparations to the victims, there is a real danger of history repeating itself," warned Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program, according to the statement.

He blamed partisan politics in the UN Security Council for the failure to set up such an inquiry. "The Security Council should declare and enforce an arms embargo on both Israel and Hezbollah until effective mechanisms are in place to ensure that weapons will not be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law," Smart said.

Amnesty urged Israel to turn over maps of areas targeted with cluster bombs in south Lebanon, and it called on Hezbollah to provide information about the two IDF soldiers it captured a year ago in a cross-border raid, setting off the war.

Responding to the Amnesty charges, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, "The Israeli system of justice is independent, professional and transparent. Allegations of inappropriate behavior by Israeli military personal have been thoroughly investigated. Israel is a country in which respect of human rights and the rule of law are at the very center of the political process"

No comment was immediately available from the Lebanese government.

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What follows
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  1.   Amnesty 08:31  |  Steve 12/07/07
  2.   The report is fair 08:40  |  Yonatan 12/07/07
  3.   Pretty witty 08:42  |  Colin Wright 12/07/07
  4.   What a liar Mark Regev is.... 08:47  |  Dutch 12/07/07
  5.   No other country and no other society is as retrospectiv and self 08:52  |  Ruti Efrati 12/07/07
  6.   Mr.Smart is not so smart 09:11  |  Hastaroth 12/07/07
  7.   Amensty International 09:21  |  Alan 12/07/07
  8.   The idiocy of human rights 09:30  |  MarkC 12/07/07
  9.   #4 Addendum Re: Human Rights Investigations 09:54  |  Dutch 12/07/07
  10.   Amnesty International is a menace to a free society. 09:56  |  Steve 12/07/07
  11.   Amnesty International is totally politicised 10:42  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 12/07/07
  12.   #2, Yonatan 10:55  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 12/07/07
  13.   Ignoring Amnesty 11:07  |  Steven A. 12/07/07
  14.   #4 Dutch, "eye witnesses" 11:09  |  Steven A. 12/07/07
  15.   #4 Dutch - An investigation looks for truth 12:35  |  Kate 12/07/07
  16.   Right, Yonatan 12:56  |  Murray 12/07/07
  17.   #3 what a big laugh! 12:57  |  Yosh 12/07/07
  18.   Dutch 13:06  |  Itsik 12/07/07
  19.   Lebanon needs to investigate, not Israel 13:40  |  x 12/07/07
  20.   I don`t understand the hatred 13:53  |  j.l. 12/07/07
  21.   33 doris and the law? she is of course joking 14:05  |  victor hardman 12/07/07
  22.   INVESTIGATING WHAAATTTTT? 14:15  |  indrajaya 12/07/07
  23.   markc #8 14:26  |  amused 12/07/07
  24.   INDRAJAYA 14:37  |  Brant 12/07/07
  25.   Amensty & its double moral standard 14:37  |  John K 12/07/07
  26.   AI has not investigated its anti-Israeli bias 14:51  |  Frank 12/07/07
  27.   John K... 14:51  |  j.l. 12/07/07
  28.   Regev makes Goebbels` ghost green with envy! 14:53  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  29.   #28 the don comes out with the usual hogwash 15:18  |  victor hardman 12/07/07
  30.   A I`s Amnesic Investigation "forgets" the Human Shield factor and 15:25  |  CK Tan 12/07/07
  31.   Were any of you there in Lebanon??? 15:50  |  j.l. 12/07/07
  32.   Investigate war crimes commited by Amnesty 15:50  |  Sal 12/07/07
  33.   In Israel the crime brought its own punishment (what about Hizb?) 16:14  |  Tosefta 12/07/07
  34.   # 20 :You don`t understand, do you ? 16:15  |  Maureen S 12/07/07
  35.   #31 Was Amnesty there in Lebanon? 16:17  |  Kate 12/07/07
  36.   # 20 why don`t you understand ? 16:17  |  Talia 12/07/07
  37.   The world according to the likudniks, j.l. 16:19  |  Murray 12/07/07
  38.   Additional information 16:26  |  Sensible 12/07/07
  39.   Don Camillo 16:34  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 12/07/07
  40.   Don Camillo #28 and the Politics of Anti-Semitic Denial (24/7) 16:40  |  Another Day 12/07/07
  41.   #20 Imagine... an Objective Amnesty 16:48  |  Kate 12/07/07
  42.   why the cold sweat, indrajaya? 16:49  |  CK Tan 12/07/07
  43.   # 14 Kate, Israel`s automatic reflex... 16:51  |  Dutch 12/07/07
  44.   tsk, tsk tsk, ahhhh that`s sooo bad 16:52  |  Shlomo T 12/07/07
  45.   wow, #36, that was insightful 16:56  |  j.l. 12/07/07
  46.   Didn`t NATO also bomb civilian areas? 17:05  |  Bill 12/07/07
  47.   D.CAMILLO Regev has a long way to go before he can say as little 17:19  |  PETER SM 12/07/07
  48.   #43 doris and total confusion once more 17:21  |  victor hardman 12/07/07
  49.   #41, I`m not sure what you expect 17:21  |  j.l. 12/07/07
  50.   #39 Thank you for recogninsing I have a tender heart.. 17:25  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  51.   #39 Thank you for recogninsing I have a tender heart.. 17:28  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  52.   #40 - Where and when and how did I attack a Jew? 17:32  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  53.   #44 the same `pompous asses` who gave Israel its mandate? 17:34  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  54.   #52 camillo and more wild assertions 17:45  |  victor hardman 12/07/07
  55.   AI is right. 17:46  |  Deborah 12/07/07
  56.   #16 Itsik, The irony of your dissent... 17:49  |  Dutch 12/07/07
  57.   If what Regev states is true about respecting human rights.. 17:50  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  58.   #47 PETER SM - look up the word `ghost` in the dictionary. 17:52  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  59.   Amnesty International 17:58  |  Mark Lincoln 12/07/07
  60.   #52 Hardman you know nothing about this issue at all.. 18:09  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  61.   D,CAMILLO. D0 you believe in ghosts? 18:11  |  peter SM 12/07/07
  62.   Israel is Entitled to Protect Its Citizens Even At the Expense 18:12  |  Brad 12/07/07
  63.   Once there was some hope, but... 18:16  |  Shlomo T 12/07/07
  64.   Don Camillo #52 18:26  |  Another Day 12/07/07
  65.   #62, I`m not sure that logic follows 18:27  |  j.l. 12/07/07
  66.   Israeli Army and War crime 18:32  |  Yossi the normal Jew 12/07/07
  67.   #60 don camillo you are incredibly naive 18:33  |  victor hardman 12/07/07
  68.   ICAHD is objective? 18:34  |  Shlomo T 12/07/07
  69.   # 33 The contradiction of the innocent in the Israeli Conflict 18:36  |  Dutch 12/07/07
  70.   #53 CAMILLO AND MORE MISINFORMATION 18:37  |  paul harris 12/07/07
  71.   Why be so dense? Ever hear of the ACLU? 18:46  |  Shlomo T 12/07/07
  72.   1200 deaths, ask hizbullah 18:59  |  peter 12/07/07
  73.   Mark Lincoln, accountability /other side of the coin 19:09  |  Dutch 12/07/07
  74.   dear j.l - Amnesty`s track record on Israel speaks for itself 19:15  |  CK Tan 12/07/07
  75.   Don & Victor, Re: bribery & corruption 19:33  |  Dutch 12/07/07
  76.   investigate war crimes...? 19:58  |  ravi 12/07/07
  77.   Amnesty sides with the fascists 20:16  |  Bill 12/07/07
  78.   CK Tan, a few things 20:21  |  j.l. 12/07/07
  79.   #45 j.l. - Clarifying insight and guesswork 20:48  |  Kate 12/07/07
  80.   Dutch Uncle talk for Dutch 21:21  |  Mark Lincoln 12/07/07
  81.   Yossi from Bat Yam 21:28  |  Mark Lincoln 12/07/07
  82.   War Crimes 21:32  |  Mark Lincoln 12/07/07
  83.   #64 Another Day 21:35  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  84.   #60 Victor you did not read the ICAHD evidence did you. 21:40  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  85.   #68 To say the ICAHD narrative is biased and untrue is like sayin 21:44  |  Don Camillo 12/07/07
  86.   #53 MORE EMOTIVE RUBBISH FROM HARRASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 21:50  |  Don Camillo