Statement of the lawyers of the victims of Sabra and Shatila on the
decision of the Court of Appeals in Brussels, 26 June 2002
The course of justice has been interrupted today, but the efforts to seek
the end of impunity continue in Belgium and elsewhere. The hopes of victims
in the massacres of Sabra and Shatila to end the impunity of those
responsible for their pains, raised last year under the laws of Belgium,
will not be dashed.
The decision today represents a setback both for international humanitarian
law and for the victims who seek justice toward those responsible for
large-scale killings, acts of torture and rape, and disappearances
committed against them and their families. Impunity continues notably for
Mr Ariel Sharon who, as person in command of the operation which was
carried ''under his supervision", was found ''personally responsible'' for
these massacres by an Israeli commission of enquiry. This is confirmed by
the chief US diplomat in the region at the time, Mr Morris Draper, who said
recently that he ''he had no doubt whatsoever'' about Sharon's
responsibility in Sabra and Shatila.
This decision is also a setback for the course of justice in the Middle
East because the judicial course away from violence is interrupted on
grounds of narrow procedure, at a time when the law was clear and the
preparatory works had confirmed that such narrow grounds would not prevent
universal justice from being exercised for a special type of heinous crimes
under international law: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
decision of the Court of Appeals in Brussels, 26 June 2002
The course of justice has been interrupted today, but the efforts to seek
the end of impunity continue in Belgium and elsewhere. The hopes of victims
in the massacres of Sabra and Shatila to end the impunity of those
responsible for their pains, raised last year under the laws of Belgium,
will not be dashed.
The decision today represents a setback both for international humanitarian
law and for the victims who seek justice toward those responsible for
large-scale killings, acts of torture and rape, and disappearances
committed against them and their families. Impunity continues notably for
Mr Ariel Sharon who, as person in command of the operation which was
carried ''under his supervision", was found ''personally responsible'' for
these massacres by an Israeli commission of enquiry. This is confirmed by
the chief US diplomat in the region at the time, Mr Morris Draper, who said
recently that he ''he had no doubt whatsoever'' about Sharon's
responsibility in Sabra and Shatila.
This decision is also a setback for the course of justice in the Middle
East because the judicial course away from violence is interrupted on
grounds of narrow procedure, at a time when the law was clear and the
preparatory works had confirmed that such narrow grounds would not prevent
universal justice from being exercised for a special type of heinous crimes
under international law: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.