`The truth about Qana must be revealed` - Amnesty chief

Source: Daily Star, 04-12-2006
TYRE: The secretary general of Amnesty International paid a visit Sunday to Qana, the Southern village stricken by consecutive massacres in the 1996 and 2006 "Israeli" offensives against Lebanon. Five years after her first visit to Lebanon, Amnesty chief Irene Khan stood at the site of the last massacre in the village - a residential building demolished by an "Israeli" strike that killed 28 people, mostly women and children.
"The truth about those massacres must be revealed," Khan said, wiping tears from her eyes after meeting a few survivors of the strike.
"I listened to the stories the people of Qana had to tell me; I hope these will help us draw a clear picture on what has truly occurred in Qana," said Khan.
Khan said the Amnesty International team in Lebanon recorded the minute details of the July-August conflict and managed quickly to issue a report on the circumstances surrounding the Qana massacre.
Khan said that all investigations conducted by the group held clear evidence that what happened in Qana, "where civilians were slain while seeking shelter, and where the victims were mostly children," was an "obvious" violation of human-rights conventions.
"The international community ought to investigate on such an episode, and responsible parties ought to be tried," Khan said. Khan also called on the United Nations to follow-up on the issue of Qana.
Amnesty International issued two reports in August concerning the situation in Lebanon: one on the damage inflicted on infrastructure, and the other on assaults on civilians during the month-long war.
The rights group`s chief added "we denounced all violations during the summer war, namely in Qana where civilians, among whom were women and children, have fallen victim to atrocious acts of violence," Khan said.
"However, while no follow-up was possible in the past, things have drastically changed nowadays, where investigations allow us to pinpoint liability."