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Assassination of Sheikh Yassin a crime against humanity
23/3/2004
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) strongly condemns Israel's killing of Skeikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and leader of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas.
It considers this act a crime against humanity and a gross violation of international law including the fourth Geneva Convention [1949] to which Israel is a signatory.
Israel occupation forces helicopters attacked Sheikh Yassin on yesterday while he was going home after performing the dawn prayer at the Mujamma Islami mosque near his home in Gaza.
In addition to Sheikh Yassin the attack left eight people dead, including two of his bodyguards, and 15 injured amongst them two sons of the Sheikh.
This action comes as part of a continuous series of assassinations carried out by the Sharon administration against Palestinian resistance groups and their leaders.
Sheikh Yassin was himself the target of a failed assassination attempt in September 2003.
EOHR considers the assassination of Sheikh Yassin a repugnant crime contrary to international law.
The Nuremburg Trials of 1950 defined crimes against humanity as
"killing, extermination, enslavement and all other inhumane acts committed against a people or peoples before or during a war, persecution for political, ethnic or religious reasons whether or not this persecution or these acts are considered a violation of the domestic law in which they were committed, and as long as these crimes were carried out in pursuance of, or have a connection with, a crime falling within the jurisdiction of the Court."
The International Criminal Court - whose Rome Statute Israel and the United States refuse to ratify -is responsible for the prosecution of war criminals who commit crimes against humanity.
It prosecutes acts committed during civil or international conflicts regardless of whether these acts were perpetrated in a time of war or peace.
Article 5 of the ICC's Rome Statute lists murder, assassination, slavery, detention or imprisonment in violation of fundamental principles of international law, torture, persecution on political or ethnic grounds and forced disappearance etc as constituting crimes against humanity.
Israel commits all of these crimes against the Palestinian people and should accordingly be brought before the International Criminal Court.
The assassination of Sheikh Yassin, far from being the first crime against humanity which Israel has perpetrated, forms part of a long list of crimes which have been committed since Israel was founded.
These include the 2002 Jenin massacre, mass killings, torture, the forced containment and starvation of the Palestinian people, political assassination, the killing of civilians, the random destruction of Palestinian homes, towns and villages and the construction of the wall of separation.
These acts only serve to prove the absence of any desire for peace, security and regional stability within the Sharon Government.
EOHR in addition considers Sheikh Yassin's assassination a flagrant violation of the individual right to life and personal security provided for by Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In view of the scale and gravity of the acts carried out by the Israeli occupation forces EOHR demands the following:
1. That delegates to the Arab League summit which will take place in Tunis take effective measures to stop Israeli aggression and condemn the assassination of Sheikh Yassin. Arab League members must demand an end to the assassination of Hamas and Jihad members.
2. That the United Nations and the international community demand an end to the acts carried out by Israel which constitute a prime example of international terrorism. The Palestinian people must be provided with a guarantee that they receive protection from the international community.
3. Sharon must be tried by an international tribunal for his crimes of mass killing, ethnic cleansing and the brutal massacres in Shabra and Shatilla in 1982. Arab countries affected by Sharon's crimes must demand that the Security Council issue a resolution for the setting up such an international court.
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