Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not visit Brussels during his European tour that starts Thursday for reasons “not connected to a permissible prosecution in Belgian courts for his role in the Sabra and Shatilla massacre,” his office said in a statement on Monday.
Belgian prosecutors requested that a case against Sharon over the 1982 massacres of hundreds of Palestinian refugees be considered admissible, Le Soir newspaper reported Sunday.
The request means that preparations for the case can proceed while a Belgian court rules on the case's admissibility.
Two class action suits are pending against Sharon in Belgium, charging him with responsibility for the 1982 massacres of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatilla, Lebanon.
The cases have been brought under a Belgian law which allows for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to be heard in the Belgian courts, regardless of where the alleged crimes took place, the nationality or residency of either the victims or the accused.
Haaretz newspaper reported Monday that Sharon will visit Paris, Berlin and Brussels, but his talks with Belgian officials will have to take place outside of Belgian territory."
Sharon's European trip puts the Belgian government in something of a bind, the Israeli sources contend.
They said that the Belgian leadership was wary of impaired relations with Israel, which could damage its status as EU Council president, at a time when the EU is trying to play an active mediation role in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Moreover, Belgium's Foreign Ministry is not thrilled by the fact that officials in the country's judicial system have intervened in the foreign policy arena.
On the other hand, the Israeli sources told the paper, the Belgian government cannot ignore the fact that public sensitivity about war crimes prosecution is running high. "The main problem is that the media, public opinion and the intelligentsia in Belgium are very supportive of a process that turns their country into a leader in the human rights campaign," the sources explained.
At the end of last week, the paper said, Irit Kahan, the head of the international affairs department at the State Prosecutor's office, was sent to Belgium to compile evidence pertaining to a possible indictment of Sharon for war crimes. The justice ministry refused last night to divulge details about Kahan's classified mission to Belgium.
In addition, foreign ministry officials are closely monitoring anti-Sharon developments in Belgium's legal system, but are trying not to intervene.
The officials don't believe that Belgium will issue an extradition arrest order against Sharon, but they concede: "This is a very embarrassing, ugly topic; and it's not going to disappear soon."
In recent years, the legal adviser to the foreign ministry, Alan Baker, has warned about the growing trend of "the globalization of international humanitarian law," whereby personal responsibility is imposed on heads of state and army commanders.
Baker predicted that the trend could have negative implications for Israel, according to Haaretz.
Two years ago, efforts were made in London to issue an arrest extradition order against Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the Israel Defense Forces' shelling of the Kana village in Lebanon in 1996 (when Peres served as prime minister) that led to the deaths of some 100 civilians, said Haaretz - Albawaba.com.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
