Mideast situation/Palestine question – OAU decisions – Letter from Sudan (excerpt)

Letter dated 9 October 2001 from the Permanent Representative

of the Sudan to the United Nations addressed to the
Secretary-General

  I have the honour to request that you arrange for the distribution as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 21 (j), of the decisions and declarations adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity at its thirty-seventh ordinary session and fifth ordinary session of the African Economic Community, held at Lusaka from 9 to 11 July 2001 (annex I), and the decisions of the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity at its seventh-fourth ordinary session and ninth ordinary session of the African Economic Community, held at Lusaka from 5 to 8 July 2001 (annex II).*

(Signed) Elfatih Mohamed Agmed Erwa
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Sudan
Chairman of the African Group for the month of October

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 *   The annexes are being circulated in the languages of submission only.

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Annex II

Decisions adopted by the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity at its seventh-fourth ordinary session and ninth ordinary session of the African Economic Community

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CM/Dec.600 (LXXIV)

DECISION ON THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Council:

1. TAKES NOTE of the Report;

2. RECALLS resolutions 181, 194, 303 and 54/27 on Palestine, of the UN General Assembly and Security Council Resolutions 242, 252, 338, 465, 476 and 478 and CALLS for the respect of these resolutions;

3. REAFFIRMS the right of the Palestinian people, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization to exercise their inalienable national rights, including their right to return to their homes, recover their property, self-determination and the establishment of an independent state on their national soil, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the principles of international law and other pertinent resolutions of the UN;

4. RECOGNIZES the binding character of UN Security Council Resolution 237, which calls for the return of Palestinians displaced in 1967 as well as other relevant instruments, in particular UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948) which provides for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and property;

5. CALLS UPON the UN to establish a Commission to ensure the fulfillment of the process of return, in view of the fact that the right of return is one of the fundamental principles of a just and comprehensive peace in the region;

6. CONDEMNS Israel for using internationally prohibited weapons and excessive force against unarmed Palestinian civilians, its brutal practices against the innocent populations of the occupied Palestinian territories, the desecration of holy places; the imposition of a state of economic siege and closures; the destruction of agricultural lands and property; and the repeated incursions into areas under the control of the Palestinian National Authority;

7. SUPPORTS the right of the Palestinian people to receive immediate international protection against the ongoing killings and Israeli aggression, the desecration of Christian and Muslim holy places and EMPHASIZES the urgent need for Israel to respect all international humanitarian laws in the Palestinian lands occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, as provided for, by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949;

8. RECOGNIZES the need for the convening of a meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, in order to enforce the Convention in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, in consonance with the statement issued by the meeting of the High Signatories held in Geneva on 15 July, 1999;

9. CONDEMNS the Jewish settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territories including Jerusalem and CALLS UPON Israel to put an immediate halt to its policy of confiscation of Palestinian Lands, especially in Jerusalem and its suburbs and the building of new Jewish Settlements and the expansion of existing settlements, which constitutes violations of UN Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, 465 and 478;

10. CALLS UPON Member States and non-governmental organizations to boycott settlement products and trade relations with the producers and suppliers of such products from the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories;

11. RECALLS that the guarantee of respect for agreements signed and other tenets of international law are indispensable for the maintenance of international peace and security, CALLS for the full implementation of all peace agreements and urges the sponsors of the peace process, the parties concerned and the entire international community to deploy all efforts in order to revive the peace process and ensure its success;

12. PAYS TRIBUTE to the popular Palestinian Al-Aqsa uprising "INTIFADA" and expresses its full solidarity with the Palestinian people in their just and legitimate struggle, against Israeli occupation and aggression, to restore their national inalienable rights, including the right to return to their country, and to self-determination, and to establish their independent state, with the Holy city of Jerusalem as its capital;

13. STRONGLY CONDEMNS Israel's policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem.  CALLS UPON Israel, the occupying power, to immediately desist from using excessive and disproportionate fire power against Palestinian civilians, extra-judicial murder, imposition of draconian laws and orders strangling Palestinian economic development through closures and curfews, uprooting of trees, destruction of houses, confiscation of Palestinian land, establishment of illegal Jewish settlements.  CALLS UPON Israel, the occupying power, to carry out its obligations and withdraw from the Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, in compliance with Security Council Resolution 242, and dismantle Jewish settlements in compliance with Security Council Resolution 465.  CONSIDERS Israel's policies and practices constitute violations of the Principles of the Charter of the United Nations and relevant resolutions and a breach of bilateral agreements with the Palestine Liberation Organization;

14. EXPRESSES ITS SUPPORT for all peace initiatives, including the Joint Egyptian-Jordanian initiative and the recommendations of the Mitchell Report, intended to ensure the stoppage of the cycle of violence and facilitate the resumption of the peace negotiations, HAILS the Palestinian leadership for accepting these proposals and the ceasefire and REQUESTS the Government of Israel to fully implement in its entirety, as an indivisible package, along with agreements signed and UN Resolutions 242, 338, 194 as the basis for achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region;

15. WELCOMES the proposal of Senegal, in its capacity as Chairperson of the Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people, to send a multiparty delegation composed of the OAU, the League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement to the capitals of the States, permanent members of the UN Security Council and to the UN Headquarters in New York, to sensitize the Palestinian question, and request a meeting of the Security Council to examine the Palestinian question on the sidelines of the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly.

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CM/Dec.601 (LXXIV)

DECISION ON THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Council:

1. TAKES NOTE of the Report;

2. RECALLS all the relevant resolutions adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government and the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity on the Middle East situation, which affirm that the Question of Palestine is the core of the Middle East conflict and that no comprehensive, just and lasting peace can be established unless Israel fully withdraws from all occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese Shabaa farms and unless the Palestinian people exercise their inalienable national rights in accordance with UN resolutions, in particular, Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, 465, 478 and General Assembly Resolutions 181 of 1947, 194 of 1948 and on the basis of the land-for peace formula;

3. URGES the United Nations and the International Community to guarantee Israeli's full compliance with the resolutions adopted by the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency that call for the use of Israel's nuclear installations for peaceful purposes and compel it to open its nuclear installations to international inspection;

4. CALLS UPON the Government of Israel to join the Nuclear non- Proliferation Treaty and refrain from the manufacture, production, testing and possession of nuclear weapons and to place its nuclear facilities under the comprehensive safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency so as to ensure that the Middle East remains an area free of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction;

5. CONDEMNS the Israeli Government for its continued military aggression against Syria and Lebanon which threatens peace and security in the whole region and URGES the release of all Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails;

6. TAKES NOTE of the incomplete withdrawal of Israeli troops from South Lebanon and the efforts deployed by the United Nations to restore normalcy to that region and REQUESTS the Government of Israel to complete the withdrawal of its forces from the Lebanese Shabaa farms in South Lebanon and the Syrian Golan Heights;

7. CALLS for the resumption of negotiations between Israel and Syria, on the basis of Resolutions 242, 338 and the tenets of the Peace Process established at the Madrid Conference and the full implementation of all other agreements and commitments undertaken on all tracks of the peace process in the region;

8. URGE all the parties concerned to honour their commitments and resume the negotiations in order to create the necessary conditions for lasting peace in the region.

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