Inquiry after Israeli forces caught using boy as shield

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Inquiry after Israeli forces caught using boy as shield
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

24 April 2004

A photograph of a Palestinian boy tied to an Israeli police jeep has been handed to justice officials charged with investigating complaints over the use of "human shields" against demonstrators.

The boy, 13-year-old Mohammed Bedwan, and three adult protesters were tied to border police vehicles last week during one of what have become almost daily demonstrations against the routing of the Israeli government's barrier through Palestinian land.

The photograph, taken by human rights activists in the village of Biddo, north-west of Jerusalem, shows Mohammed tied by an arm to a mesh on the jeep windscreen - a mesh intended to protect the vehicle and its driver against stones and rocks. Police said last night that the Justice Ministry's police complaints unit was investigating the case.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=514691
At least four Palestinians have been shot dead in Biddo this year in rock-throwing protests against the barrier. An elderly man also died of heart failure after inhaling tear gas. Palestinian activists say border police had in two separate instances this month used villagers as shields to prevent stone-throwing, and that forces had also repeatedly used both rubber and live bullets to disperse protesters.