Arab Delegates to UN Human Rights Panel Accuse Each Other of Human Rights Violations

— The Syrian and Jordanian delegates to the United Nations Human Rights Commission each accused the other’s country today of human rights violations in a fierce verbal battle of charges, counter-charges and invective which culminated with each country introducing a

resolution condemning the other. The Iraqi delegate joined the fray in support of Jordan. The Israeli delegation could be forgiven for watching with some amusement and gratification as the facade of Arab unity was reduced to rubble.

Apparently forgetting that Israel was the common foe, the intra-Arab warfare broke out when the Jordanian delegation circulated an official complaint that Syria was violating human rights of her citizens and that 500 Moslem brethren imprisoned in Palmira had been savagely massacred last June by the Syrian Battalion of Defense.

The Jordanians said they captured five terrorists, themselves on a mission to assassinate the Jordanian Prime Minister, who told them of the blood bath at Palmira. The Jordanian delegate asked the Human Rights Commission to send a representative to Syria to investigate the matter.

SYRIA CHARGES JORDAN WITH SELLING OUT

The Syrian delegate retorted by accusing the Jordanians of selling out Palestinian interests for a handful of Dinars. He charged that Jordan was capitulating to pressure to join the Camp David process, a plot he said that was woven in Tel Aviv, Cairo and Washington. The Syrian also charged that Jordan violated the agreement by all Arab states never to ventilate their differences and internal fights to give comfort to Israel.

“I would rather be dead today than alive to witness the Jordanian attack on an Arab brother,” the Syrian said. He was further mortified when his Iraqi brother took the podium to back the Jordanian charges and demand that Syria be condemned for the Palmira massacre. The Syrian then observed that Iraq, too, was notorious for human rights violations.