Calling for a joint U.S.-Soviet resolution in the United Nations to require Syria to adhere to basic international law and humanitarian considerations concerning prisoners of war. Rep. Bella S. Abzug (D.N.Y.) released photos last night showing the results of Syrian atrocities against captured Israeli soldiers.
The pictures, released by Rep. Abzug at a news conference at her New York office, were given to her by Prime Minister Golda Meir when the Congresswoman was in Israel last week with a House fact-finding group. They show some of the dead Israeli captured soldiers found at Wadi Yahudi, Golan Heights, after the territory was retaken from Syrian forces.
The men were bound, blindfolded and murdered. In all, according to information provided Rep. Abzug by official Israeli sources, approximately 30 men were located under similar circumstances at several Golan Heights sites–including Tel Faras, Mount Hermon and Nafah. Men were found shot, stabbed and with heads smashed by rifle butts. There was also evidence of torture, including eye-gouging. The Israeli sources told Rep. Abzug that Syrian prisoners as well as other informants had confirmed the commission of atrocities.
Rep. Abzug said the UN resolution should call on Syria to fulfill Geneva Convention requirements by providing Israel a list of prisoners and permitting the International Red Cross to contact the captives and visit POW facilities. The resolution, she suggested, should also call for release of wounded prisoners, as was arranged between the Egyptians and Israelis.
“It seems to me–particularly in light of the evidence of Syrian atrocities–that it is time for the world community to exert pressure on Syria to conform with basic international law and humanitarian considerations concerning prisoners of war,” she said. Decrying the apparent “knuckling under” by some European and Asian countries to Arab oil blackmail, the New York Congresswoman said that these countries should be willing to back such a resolution on simple humanitarian grounds. “It would be an important step toward achieving peace in the Middle East,” she said.
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