Rights group says silenced by Hezbollah, Lebanon over report - Haaretz

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Fri., August 31, 2007 Elul 17, 5767

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		An Israeli rescue worker helping a man wounded in a rocket attack by Hezbollah on the northern city of Haifa, in July 2007. (AP)

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Last update - 23:05 29/08/2007

Rights group says silenced by Hezbollah, Lebanon over report

By Meron Rapaport, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Staff

The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that Lebanese guerilla group Hezbollah and the Lebanese government are attempting to silence it and prevent the release of a report accusing Hezbollah of war crimes during the Second Lebanon War.

The report was slated for release on Wednesday at a press conference in Beirut, but the hotel in which it was set to take place announced it would not allow the conference to be held on its property.

The hotel refused to hold the conference after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah harshly criticized the organization, and Hezbollah threatened to hold a demonstration in front of the hotel.

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Unofficial sources in the human rights group said that its employees in Lebanon feel "threatened," and therefore decided to cancel the press conference.

The war broke out on July 12, after two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were abducted and eight others killed during a cross-border raid by Hezbollah and the subsequent rescue attempt by the IDF.

The 34-day war that followed saw much of northern Israel battered by Hezbollah rockets, while southern Lebanon and part of Beirut were pounded by Israel Air Force strikes.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, Hezbollah had a pattern during the war of "firing indiscriminately and in some cases deliberately at civilians and civilian structures, in violation of international humanitarian law."

The report also found that the Iranian-backed group "repeatedly bombarded cities, towns, and villages without any apparent effort to distinguish between civilians and military objectives."

According to the rights group, those actions by Hezbollah, "a party to an armed conflict governed by international humanitarian law," had "violated fundamental prohibitions against deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians."

The report also states that "Hezbollah rockets repeatedly hit populated areas in Israel," and that in some cases the group "could find no evidence there had been a legitimate military target in the vicinity at the time of the attack, suggesting it was a deliberate attack on civilians."

While in some instances there had been evidence that there was a military target in areas hit by rockets, the report says that, "even assuming Hezbollah had been intending to hit the military target instead of civilians, the unguided rockets it used was incapable of distinguishing between the two."

The report also blasts the group for claiming to back "the principle of sparing civilians on both sides," while threatening to target Israeli population centers and claiming responsibility for previous attacks on communities inside Israel.

"Hezbollah's attacks in violation of the laws of war, when combined with such statements indicating criminal intent," says the report, "is strong evidence that some Hezbollah members and commanders were responsible for war crimes."

The group has published numerous reports on what it calls Israel's human rights violations, including its attacks on Lebanese civilians and use of cluster bombs during the war. According to the organization's Web site, it also intends to release a report condemning Hezbollah's reported use of civilians as human shields.

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1.	And there is an unknown continent...let`s call it America!!	18:31	\|	Alain	29/08/07

2.	Rights group	18:36	\|	Mounir Saul	29/08/07

3.	Hezbollah guilty	18:40	\|	David Pacifici	29/08/07

4.	Surprised - no comments from	18:41	\|	David Israel	29/08/07

5.	Both parties committed war crimes...but only one is a state	18:52	\|	BAHH!!!!!	29/08/07

6.	No, it is not Hizballah that is guilty, it is their superiors	18:52	\|	Rami Rosenberg	29/08/07

7.	What this report omits - Hezbollah intimidates HRW over report	19:02	\|	CK Tan	29/08/07

8.	And Israel is found innocent on all charges	19:08	\|	El-Birawi	29/08/07

9.	war crimes	19:31	\|	democrat	29/08/07

10.	Is this the same HRW	19:56	\|	Apex	29/08/07

11.	El-Birawi - it cuts both ways	19:57	\|	David Israel	29/08/07

12.	Huzbulla the major threat..	20:01	\|	Galvin Templar	29/08/07

13.	There is no point in comparisons like these...	20:01	\|	Leo	29/08/07

14.	This is one of several HRW new war reports	20:04	\|	CK Tan	29/08/07

15.	El-Birawi # 8	20:12	\|	Lynn	29/08/07

16.	democrat with delusions of war	20:15	\|	Lynn	29/08/07

17.	El Birawi - you are wrong	20:15	\|	ANUAR AL SADAT	29/08/07

18.	# 5 and the other is...	20:19	\|	Lynn	29/08/07

19.	So True .. But Israel killed 20X more	20:42	\|	Natallie Durson	29/08/07

20.	One day to accuse Israel: Over 1 year for Hezbollah	20:46	\|	Semsem	29/08/07

21.	Israel Indiscriminatley	20:50	\|	Joe	29/08/07

22.	Isn`t it appropriate?	20:56	\|	Murray of Montreal	29/08/07

23.	next conclussions of rights groups are..	21:06	\|	Marcelo	29/08/07

24.	Hisb`allah	21:07	\|	Ed Wallick	29/08/07

25.	#9 That`s because Hezbollah fired from within civilian towns	21:08	\|	Gili	29/08/07

26.	Nattalie Dumson: who`s to blame? obviously...	21:08	\|	Richard S	29/08/07

27.	Natallie Durson	21:10	\|	David Israel	29/08/07

28.	I agree with human rights watch, the lebanese	21:24	\|	fawaz	29/08/07

29.	Time to sue Hezbollah	21:42	\|	Jon	29/08/07

30.	isreal and hizbollah need to be equally careful about civlians	21:52	\|	roberta	29/08/07

31.	to David # 4	22:14	\|	indrajaya	29/08/07

32.	Lynn #16	22:18	\|	democrat	29/08/07

33.	Human big B.S	22:22	\|	Mary	29/08/07

34.	#25 Gili	22:25	\|	democrat	29/08/07

35.	War Crimes	22:25	\|	John	29/08/07

36.	responding	22:37	\|	Eliot Hansen	29/08/07

37.	#30 ROBERTA IN THE USUAL LA LA LAND	23:10	\|	PAUL HARRIS	29/08/07

38.	# 32 democrat	23:18	\|	Lynn	29/08/07

39.	Natallie: Right But Wrong	23:20	\|	Brad	29/08/07

40.	About Time	23:22	\|	Ron	29/08/07

41.	# 31 Indy	23:23	\|	Lynn	29/08/07

42.	Eliot Hanson	23:30	\|	Brad	29/08/07

43.	at indrajaya	23:30	\|	max	29/08/07

44.	Civilian Deaths	23:42	\|	Dani Renan	29/08/07

45.	The decline of HRW	23:53	\|	Espart	29/08/07

46.	Human rights watch is Biased ! it has been exposed	23:54	\|	Nina	29/08/07

47.	title report -- DUH!!	00:05	\|	vik	30/08/07

48.	#19-Durson showing bloodlust again	00:15	\|	peter	30/08/07

49.	Hezbollah`s alleged war crimes?	00:33	\|	Dutch Dirk	30/08/07

50.	#36 Total BS	00:34	\|	Martin	30/08/07

51.	Natallie #19	00:53	\|	Esther	30/08/07

52.	Criminal intent.	01:04	\|	sandra chitayat	30/08/07

53.	It says much about Human Rights Watch	01:09	\|	Mark Lincoln	30/08/07

54.	Terrorists Now Eating Their Own Young	01:34	\|	Jane	30/08/07

55.	We all know Hezbollah committed war crimes	01:43	\|	Shepherd	30/08/07

56.	Lynn # 38	01:51	\|	ChanahS	30/08/07

57.	Hezbollah Terrorist - IDF What?	02:08	\|	Mike	30/08/07

58.	Hezzballie	02:19	\|	Chaim Gorenstein	30/08/07

59.	Hotel threatened, this is a democracy???	02:34	\|	Akiva Patysh	30/08/07

60.	Re 19 Hey Nat.	03:34	\|	Alan the real one	30/08/07

61.	democrat	04:41	\|	DJ	30/08/07

62.	#49	04:51	\|	DJ	30/08/07

63.	#24 Mad	04:58	\|	John Kane	30/08/07

64.	# 49 dutch dirk	05:32	\|	morice	30/08/07

65.	hey Mike	05:42	\|	vik	30/08/07

66.	poor israel	05:55	\|	casabarata14	30/08/07

67.	Hezbulla and human rights.	06:32	\|	Abu Yusuf	30/08/07

68.	# 8	06:35	\|	Abu Yusuf	30/08/07

69.	In response to Vik	07:43	\|	Mike	30/08/07

70.	#49 - Dutch Dirk - You are in error	12:20	\|	JES	30/08/07

71.	Hezbollah/Israel War	14:46	\|	Morice	30/08/07

72.	46Nina,70JES,Mark Lincoln 53	15:26	\|	lakshmi	30/08/07

73.	27David israel,rubbish! the attack on Lebanon was planned with	16:52	\|	lakshmi	30/08/07

74.	No Surprise At All	17:34	\|	Solon	30/08/07

75.	How , would one call the killings of 1000 Civilians and....	20:03	\|	Harrison	30/08/07

76.	#8.El Birawi.Agree with U, all TERRORISTS should be indighted.	20:06	\|	Bradley	30/08/07

77.	EdWallick	20:29	\|	Yayah	30/08/07

78.	# 49 dutch dirk/# 64 morice	00:31	\|	Morice	31/08/07

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