Mitzvah Hadassah's

111)

JINfrito

and training abroad, he added.
Except for a couple of "aber-
rations" in the past, Israelis
have acted only as instructors,
not combatants, according to
Mr. Eytan.
But Israeli mercenary ad-
ventures have at times been
egregious. A few years ago, ex-
military man Yair Klein was
convicted here of illegally ex-
porting to Colombia after he
was found to have been train-
ing the private armies of some
cocaine growers (he claimed his
clients said they were just reg-
ular farmers in need of protec-
tion from Colombian rebels.)
Former Mossad officer Mike
Harari was widely reported to
have been the right-hand man
of deposed Panamanian dicta-
tor Manuel Noriega. Mr. Harari
also allegedly ran a team of Is-
raeli mercenaries whose job was
to keep Mr. Noriega alive. (With
the American invasion of Pana-
ma, Mr. Harari hurried back to
Israel, where he insisted he had
only been an ordinary busi-
nessman abroad.)
Through government and
private channels, Israel has
been among the prominent
suppliers of military goods and
training to some of the world's
worst dictators of recent times:
Uganda's Idi Amin (before En-
tebbe), Zaire's Mobuto Sese
Seko, Chile's Augusto Pinochet,
Nicaragua's Anastasio Somoza,
and a succession of South
Africa's apartheid rulers.
Many argue that there are no
morals in international arms
dealings, that defense compa-
nies from democracies all over
the world sell to villains, and
that if Israel didn't do it, some
other country surely would.
But neither Israel, nor its
Jewish supporters abroad, take
such a blithe attitude when

"If Israel wants to
help the Congolese
government, let it
do so formally."

Meretz MK Naomi Chazan.

Western arms dealers sell their
wares to the villains who run
Syria, Libya or Iraq.
With Levdan's project in the
Congo, morality is not at issue;
the company's client is a demo-
cratic regime. One thing that is
at issue is the foreign policy wis-
dom of allowing Israelis to get
mixed up in a battle for a na-
tion.
Even if Israelis are on the
right side, MK Chazan said,
"For each heart and mind we
win, we lose another, and that's
the essential reason we
shouldn't touch it with a 10-foot
pole."

Nevertheless, the Defense
Ministry said Levdan is doing
everything above board, and so
there is no reason for the Israeli
government to interfere.
But there is still the poten-
tial for danger, no matter what
"Chico" and the young adven-
turers at the training camp say.
The latest statement from the
Congolese opposition is that the
Israelis constitute a "criminal"
presence in their country, and
that they had better go back
home. 0

War Crimes
Trials Set

London (JTA) — Britain's

first Nazi war crimes trials
are expected to take place
this year, parliamentary
sources have told the Lon-

don Jewish Chronicle.
The hearings would be the

first under the controversial
1991 War Crimes Act, which
was passed despite fierce op-
position, especially from
some members of the House
of Lords.
A spokesman for the all-
party Parliamentary War
Crimes Group — which
spearheaded the campaign
to pass the act — said there
were strong indications that
investigations by Scotland
Yard's Nazi-hunting war
crimes unit were nearing
completion.
A number of prosecutions
are being planned, the
spokesman believes.
But he described as
"speculative and pre-
mature" reports last week
that a decision already had
been made to charge at least
three suspects.
The director of public pros-
ecution, Barbara Mills, is
known to be examining
interim reports on the cases
of at least 10 suspected Nazi
criminals. They are among
the hundreds said to have
found refuge in Britain after
the war.
Bringing to trial the
suspects, some of whom are
both elderly and in poor
health, is bound to reignite
the furor about war crimes
trials.
Any decision to prosecute
will rest on discussions bet-
ween Mills and the attorney
general, Sir Nicholas Lyell.
Sir Lyell has stressed to
Britain's Jewish community
that, despite strong criticism
by some members of Parlia-
ment, the government has
no intention of abandoning
the search for suspected war
criminals. ❑

11 )

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