UN rights boss Arbour to go to Israel, territories

GENEVA, Sep 28 (Reuters) U N High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour announced today she would soon visit Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories to study the ''deteriorating situation''.

In a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, she also reminded both sides of their responsibility to uphold international humanitarian and human rights law, but declared that only a political solution could end the suffering.

''Soon, I will have an opportunity to conduct a first-hand assessment of the situation by visiting Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,'' Arbour told the 47-member state forum, which is holding a three-week session.

President Mahmoud Abbas is struggling to form a Palestinian unity coalition amid worsening poverty and lawlessness. The West cut off aid and contact with the Hamas-led government formed in March after it refused to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements.

Arbour, a former U N war crimes prosecutor, has received permission from Israel to visit, but the date is not yet being announced, her spokesman said.

A predecessor in the top U N rights post, Mary Robinson, visited the territories in November 2000, when her convoy came under sniper fire in the West Bank town of Hebron.

Arbour also expressed concern about ''the deteriorating security situation'' in Afghanistan, where violence is the worst since the Taliban were ousted in a U.S.-led offensive in 2001.

She denounced the murder of Safia Ama Jan, director of the Women's Affairs Department of Kandahar province, shot dead last Monday by gunmen. The Taliban said they had killed her.

Despite reform efforts, the Afghan justice system ''continues to suffer from severe and systematic problems,'' she added.

Constraints on freedom of conscience and religion, and on freedom of expression were on the rise, according to Arbour.

REUTERS SP HT1625