Left-wing Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament Willy Meyer criticized the selection of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as vice chairman in a United Nations (U.N.) inquiry into an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
In an interview with Europa Press Meyer said he was “completely indignant” that a leader of a country which “has the largest mass grave in Latin America” would be included in the U.N. panel, because “it is like leaving the fox to guard the chickens.”
According to Meyer, “a man who has not investigated what is going on in his own country is not going to do it now” in the U.N. investigation.
Meyer was referring to allegations made by opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba and a group of NGOs of a mass grave in La Macarena municipality, located in Colombia’s central Meta department.
On Monday UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced Uribe’s inclusion in the panel, which will investigate Israel’s May 31 storming of the Turkish-owned flotilla, in which eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed, after the boat tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza strip.
Israel and Turkey have accepted Ban’s inquiry panel, which will be chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, as well as Israeli and Turkish representatives.
The four-person panel will start work on August 10, three days after Uribe hands over to President-elect Juan Manuel Santos after eight years in power.
