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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush Administration Supports Fact-Finding Mission In Jenin

Aired April 20, 2002 - 09:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The Bush administration is pushing for a probe into what happened at the Jenin refugee camp. Press secretary Ari Fleischer has said the president wants the facts. For more now, we turn to CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett. Good morning, Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra.

It was a fascinating sequence of events here at the White House and the State Department yesterday that led to this United Nations sanctified fact-finding mission in the refugee camp of Jenin. It all got started here at the White House yesterday morning, when Ari Fleischer made it clear for the very first time that the Bush administration supported an investigation into what happened in the Jenin refugee camp. And when reporters pressed him and said, does that mean a United Nations investigation? He said, no, not necessarily, but we want one that is open and transparent.

Well, a couple of hours later, the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, basically said the same thing. And then the Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met with the Secretary of State Colin Powell. Afterward, the United Nations announced that Israel had just notified them that they, in fact, were welcoming the United Nations mission to find the facts in Jenin.

You don't have to be a doctorate holder in international studies to sort of look at that sequence of events. The United States first said it was open to it, but did not want to say directly that Israel had to agree that the United Nations should lead this fact-finding mission. But by the end of the day, that is exactly what happened, and the United States supports the U.N. mission in Jenin to resolve this question and this question only, Kyra: How many people died and was there, in fact, any type of massacre?

Now, Israel completely denies that. The Palestinians say that there are hundreds of civilians dead and that they were massacred. Israel says that all that happened is that dozens died in what they described as very tough urban fighting in the Jenin refugee camp -- a lamentable, but inevitable casualty of kind of urban warfare that was fought there.

Overall, the president yesterday tried to at least give an impression that he is increasingly concerned about the overall humanitarian conditions in the Jenin refugee camp. He was in Beltsville, Maryland, touring a Secret Service training facility. Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I share deep concern about the humanitarian plight of people who live in that region. Obviously I'm worried about the families whose lives have been affected by the terror.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: And the president also has his current envoy in the region, William Burns, a high-ranking State Department official in the region. He toured the Jenin refugee camp earlier today, described the massive demonstration there, said it was a real humanitarian crisis. The United States also supports very active involvement of all humanitarian agencies to try to rebuild, at least initially, what's left of Jenin -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett, thank you.

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