UN charges Israel not cooperating with flotilla probe

Israel is not cooperating with the UN Human Rights Council's probe of its deadly raid on an international aid flotilla that was trying to break the blockade of Gaza, a UN official said yesterday. Juan Carlos Monge said the fact-finding mission is speaking to witnesses and government officials in Turkey and Jordan, but that the team has not been granted access to Israel. Israel's UN mission declined to comment on the investigation. A three-member fact-finding team appointed by the UN Human Rights Council arrived in Turkey over the weekend and is currently examining evidence from Israel's May 31 attack, which killed eight Turks and one Turkish-American. In a statement released on Monday, the UN said the investigators have begun questioning witnesses of the attack, after hearing other witnesses in London and Geneva. After two weeks, it will move on to Amman, Jordan. Turkey, on the other hand, has pledged full cooperation with the UN investigators. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who met on Monday with the UN team's Desmond de Silva, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, said all the information in Turkey's hands would be shared with the three-member team with maximum transparency. Davutoglu said Israel has indirectly admitted its guilt by opposing such investigations but added that he hopes it will reverse this. Davutoglu said at the meeting that the response Israel gets from the international community will help promote peace by proving that no country is above the law.