Mideast - AFP
UN Secretary General tells Israel to conform over wall decision
Date: Sun, Jul 11, 2004
BANGKOK (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said Israel should conform to international law after the world court ruled that the controversial West Bank separation barrier was illegal.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's highest legal body, ruled Friday that the 700-kilometer (435-mile) barrier violated international law and that those parts encroaching on Palestinian territory should be dismantled.
"I think the decision of the court is clear," he told reporters in Bangkok, where he was due to attend a world AIDS (news - web sites) conference.
"Whilst we all accept the government of Israel has a responsibility, and indeed the duty to protect its citizens, any action it takes has to be in conformity with international law and has to respect the interest of the Palestinians.
"And Israel, as an occupying power, is responsible for the welfare of the Palestinian people.
"The report has been given to the general assembly and we'll see where they go from there," he said Sunday.
"I don't want to prejudge what they may decide, so we'll leave it to the general assembly."
The ruling said that those sections that cut into Palestinian areas should be torn down and ordered the Jewish state to pay compensation for damages caused.
While the Palestinians hailed the ruling as a great victory, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) said Sunday that Israel totally rejected the world court's ruling that the barrier breached international law.
And the White House, Israel's chief supporter, said it was "inappropriate" for the ICJ to issue the ruling, a sentiment echoed by Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites), who is challenging President George W. Bush (news - web sites) in the US presidential election in November.
However, the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) has confirmed it would fight Israel all the way through the United Nations (news - web sites) after the court gave its decision by 14 to one.
Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei was also quick to call on the international community to live up to its responsibilities and to penalise the Jewish state.
The European Union (news - web sites), which had not wanted the ICJ to take up the case, did not specifically welcome the verdict, saying only that it would study it at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on July 12.
But it recalled it had long argued against the wall.
SOURCE
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