United Nations: The United Nations Human
Rights Council has decided to set up a fact-finding mission to
investigate Israel's deadly operation on an aid flotilla
heading for the Gaza strip in which nine people were killed.
The Council passed a resolution in this regard, which
condemned the Israeli action as an "outrageous act" and
decided to send an "independent international fact-finding
mission" to probe violations of international law and human
rights law.
The resolution proposed by Pakistan, Sudan and Palestine,
was adopted after a vote yesterday, with 32 countries voting
in favour, three against, and eight abstentions.
The United States voted against the resolution, while
Britain and France abstained from voting.
The resolution "condemns in the strongest terms the
outrageous attack by the Israeli forces against the
humanitarian flotilla of ships which resulted in the killing
and injuring of many innocent civilians from different
countries."
Nine people were killed, reportedly including four Turks,
on Monday when a flotilla of boats heading for Gaza was
boarded by Israeli commandos in international waters.
Israel contests that it acted in self defence and it had
to stop the flotilla of six ships, led by the Mavi Marmara,
from pushing past the Gaza blockade.
Amidst growing international pressure, hundreds of
activists that were detained in Israel This week, the UN Security Council also issued a
presidential statement condemning Israel's interception of the
aid convoy and calling for a "prompt, impartial, credible and
transparent investigation".
While the majority of the Security Council wants the UN
to carry out the investigation, the US supports a domestic
probe.
Claude Heller, the president of the Security Council,
told journalists that it was expected that UN chief Ban
Ki-moon would take action swiftly, but did not categorically
say whether the statement of the Council pointed towards an
international or domestic investigation.
At a press conference, Ban noted that he was in
consultations with all the relevant parties -- the Turks,
Israelis, Arabs and the US -- and would need a few days to
decide on a course of action.
"It is very important, first of all, that we have a full
investigation of this incident so that this kind of tragic
incident will not happen again, and you may have to wait some
time before I make any decision," Ban told journalists.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, June 03, 2010, 16:09