Mideast situation/Palestine refugees – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

Letter dated 5 June 1986 from the Chairman of the Committee on the

Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I wish to express the Committee's grave concern at recent reports from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and in the media regarding renewed attacks against Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila and Burj el-Barajneh in Beirut.  While continued severe fighting has made it impossible to obtain accurate casualty figures, preliminary estimates indicate that 15 Palestine refugees have been killed and 100 wounded, and the toll continues to rise.  The Committee is particularly distressed to learn that, although UNRWA has been able to provide some emergency relief to those who have fled the camps, neither that Agency nor the International Committee of the Red Cross has been permitted to enter the camps to evacuate the wounded and provide medical help.  This is especially grave in view of the fact that there are no facilities for treating the wounded in Shatila.

The human suffering and destruction which the Palestinians have endured in the refugee camps in the past years must arouse the indignation of the international community.  The Committee warns once again that the continued failure to arrive at a just and comprehensive solution to the question of Palestine, the root cause of the conflict in the Middle East, can only lead to a growing spiral of violence in the region, with unforeseeable consequences for international peace and security. The Committee wishes to reassert that the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council, has a clear responsibility to ensure the physical safety of the Palestinians and to bring about the exercise of their inalienable rights.

In this connection, the Committee urges you to continue to do all in your power to put an end to this senseless violence against the Palestine refugee camps and to promote progress towards the attainment of a just and lasting solution in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

I should like to request that this letter be circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under item 35 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

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