Tutu to probe death of Gazans by errant shell in '06

With his own country reeling from the brutal murder of some 42 foreigners since May 11, the South African bishop is scheduled to come to Gaza later this week.

By HERB KEINON
tutu 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
tutu 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
With his own country reeling from the brutal murder of some 42 foreigners since May 11, South African Bishop Desmond Tutu is scheduled to come to Gaza later this week to "investigate" the IDF's botched shelling in Beit Hanun in November 2006 that killed 19 people. According to an AFP report, the South African Nobel Laureate will arrive in the Gaza Strip from Egypt and visit Beit Hanun on a "fact-finding mission." He is expected to be accompanied by British academic Christine Chinkin. The UN Human Rights Council, a body which over the years has proven itself to be stridently anti-Israeli, set up the fact-finding mission in 2006, with Tutu charged with reporting back with his findings. The mission was cancelled when Israel threatened to deny visas to Tutu and the rest of the mission. An Israeli official said that Tutu was welcome to come to Israel, but that Jerusalem would not cooperate with this mission. Israel's position is that it would not cooperate with this "fact-finding" mission, just as it refused to cooperate with a UN fact-finding mission the UN sent in 2002 to investigate what the Palestinians claimed then was the "Jenin massacre."