BEIRUT, (Islamweb & Agencies) -A former militia official, who was implicated in the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, said Thursday he was ready to testify in Brussels, which is probing whether to try Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his role in the killings. (Read photo caption below).
"For 19 years now, I have been carrying the weight of this accusation without having had the opportunity to prove my innocence," said Elias Hobeika, who was the head of the intelligence services of the now-disbanded Christian Lebanese Forces at the time of the massacres.
"I am ready to appear before justice in Belgium, The Hague, New York, Milano, or anywhere else," he said in a press conference here.
Belgian prosecutors have requested that a war crimes case, based on class-action suits filed against Sharon by an ad-hoc Arab group and by survivors from the 1982 massacres of between 800 and 2,000 civilians, be considered admissible.
Sharon, then war minister, plotted Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, during which Israeli-allied Lebanese Christian militiamen slaughtered Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which were in Israeli-controlled West Beirut.
The Israeli Kahana commission of inquiry in 1983 found Sharon indirectly responsible for the killings, prompting the former general's resignation as war minister and years in the political wilderness before his election as prime minister in February.
"What is important is that this case be brought before an equitable justice, far from political pressures," said Hobeika, who later became a government minister between 1991-1998 after the end of Lebanon's 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. Hobeika only lost his parliament seat in elections last year.
"I will be coming with evidence to prove my innocence and with facts of what happened during this period, which once exposed, will lead to other results than those of the Kahana commission," he said.
"I am sure that the (Belgian) court will establish a totally different version from the Israeli version," said Hobeika, who did not give any further detail on his evidence.
Hobeika said that the "Kahana commission, which is not a reference when it comes to impartiality, has accused me of having carried out these crimes without allowing me to defend myself."
PHOTO CAPTION:
Former Lebanese militia leader Elie Hobeika announces at a news conference, July 5, 2001, that he is ready to submit evidence to a Beligian inquiry on the role played by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the massacre of hundreds of civilians at Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Slobodan Milosevic's appearance before the war crimes court in The Hague has rekindled Arab hopes that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will also be prosecuted over the massacre. An Israeli 1993 inquiry found Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacre forcing him to step down as defence minister. REUTERS/Charif Karim
- Jul 05 2:30 PM ET