http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/999114.html
Syria tells UN: Israel burying nuclear waste in Golan Heights
By The Associated Press
Syria has complained to the United Nations about a series of alleged
Israeli wrongdoings in the Golan Heights, including burying nuclear
waste and discriminating against the region's Druze residents.
The complaint was made in a re****t Syria handed to a UN fact-finding
committee comprised of Senegal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia's ambassadors.
The re****t came after Syria held a third round of indirect negotiations
with Israel in Turkey last week. A Turkish government source said
Thursday that both sides had agreed to hold a fourth round of indirect
negotiations in Turkey in late July.
Syria listed in the re****t a number of alleged Israeli violations of the
Golan's Druze inhabitants' human rights.
In addition the nuclear claim, Damascus charged that Israel confiscates
the Israeli ID cards of Druze students who return from studies in Syria,
and that residents of the Golan continue to serve prison terms in
Israeli jails, some for dozens of years.
Syria also protested the expansion in the strategic plateau of Israeli
communities, which it termed settlements, as well as lamenting the fact
that Golan residents continue to be injured by mines planted in the
region.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War,
and the strategic territory remains the primary bone of contention
between the two sides. Some 20,000 Druze live alongside a similar number
Israelis in the Golan, many of whom continue to maintain at least
nominal loyalty to Syria.
Druze Golan residents told Haaretz yesterday that the Syrian charge of
nuclear waste being dumped in the region relates to an old claim, and
that they have no knowledge of any such activity.
"We don't know about this, because this is not about activity within our
communities. Furthermore, Jews who live here would also be hurt by
this," the residents said.
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