Middle East 'road map' way out of date: UN envoy

By Laura MacInnis
March 8, 2006
Reuters
Original Source: http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-03-08T141718Z_01_L08535155_RTRUKOC_0_US-PALESTINIAN-UN-RIGHTS.xml

GENEVA (Reuters) - A U.S.-backed road map for Middle East peace is hopelessly out of date and needs to be revamped, a United Nations human rights envoy said.
In a report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, South African professor John Dugard said Israel and the Palestinians had failed to adhere to the plan drawn up three years ago by the United States, Russia, the United Nations and European Union.
It called for a deal on ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of 2005, but no such agreement was even in sight, Dugard said.
Furthermore, the 2003 road map was drafted before Israel started building its controversial barrier in the West Bank which has come to symbolize Israeli territorial expansion and oppression, Dugard said.
There is a need for a new road map which takes account of present political realities and is anchored in respect for human rights and the rule of law in the resolution of the conflict, he said.
The report, to be discussed at the annual commission session starting next week in Geneva, said that despite Israel's withdrawal from Gaza settlements last summer, the territory was still effectively occupied.
Strict border restrictions, repeated sonic booms and targeted militant assassinations serve as a constant reminder to the people of Gaza that they remain occupied.
Dugard, special envoy on the situation in the occupied territories, has been criticized by Israel for past reports critical of the Jewish state.
In the latest report, posted on the commission's Web site, Dugard reaffirmed his earlier charge that the West Bank wall, or barrier, aimed more at seizing land beyond the pre-1967 border, and not just at keeping out suicide bombers as Israel insists.
He said the wall also seemed intended to reduce the number of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of an independent state.
It seems that already 15,000 persons have been displaced as a result of the construction of the wall, Dugard said. This new generation of displaced persons creates a new category of Palestinian refugees.
Spates of settler violence, pervasive unemployment, poor health and education services and restrictions on Palestinian movements were also cited as pressing human rights concerns.