Law commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer will lead a UN inquiry into the Turkish flotilla that attempted to break the Israeli naval blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza.Israeli commanders boarded one vessel and in the ensuing conflict nine Turkish-born militants, inc
Law commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer will lead a UN inquiry into the Turkish flotilla that attempted to break the Israeli naval blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Israeli commanders boarded one vessel and in the ensuing conflict nine Turkish-born militants, including one Turkish-American, were killed.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon also announced outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe would be vice chairman of the panel, which will also have one Israeli and one Turkish member.
The four-person group will start work on August 10 and submit its first progress report by mid-September, said Mr Ban, who first proposed the inquiry soon after the flotilla incident.
The storming on May 31 of the Turkish-owned flotilla, which was trying to run Israel's blockade, caused an international outcry. Sir Geoffrey’s name emerged at the time to hold a potential inquiry (see third item, “Unbridled inquiry?”)
Mr Ban's announcement came shortly after Israel, which has already completed its own military investigation and begun a civilian one, said it had decided to cooperate with him.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had told Mr Ban on Monday of his agreement "following diplomatic contacts over the past several weeks aimed at ensuring the panel and its mandate will be fair and balanced."
It quoted Netanyahu as saying, "Israel has nothing to hide. On the contrary, Israel's national interest is to ensure that the factual truth about the entire flotilla incident is revealed to the whole world."
Ban called the launch of the panel "an unprecedented development" and thanked the leaders of Israel and Turkey "for their spirit of compromise and forward-looking cooperation."
He said the panel would give recommendations for preventing future incidents and hoped the agreement to open the inquiry would help Turkish-Israeli ties.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said it was not a criminal investigation. "It's been tasked with making findings about the facts and circumstances and the context of the incident," he told reporters.
The UN Security Council, in a statement the day after the flotilla incident, had called for "a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards."
Washington's UN envoy Susan Rice said in a statement that the panel, which will review Israeli and Turkish inquiries, was "not a substitute for those national investigations" and its focus was "appropriately on the future."
Turkey welcomed the establishment of the panel. The Foreign Ministry called it "a right step in the right direction" and promised that Ankara would assist the inquiry's work.
A report released by the Israeli military last month found operational errors in the raid on the flotilla but defended the use of force, saying activists on one ship attacked troops with knives and clubs.
Reuters reports that Israeli sources said Israel was discussing its representation and that a former diplomat or judge would likely be appointed.
