`No indication` captured "Israelis" are dead - Amnesty

Source: Daily Star, 8-12-2006
The head of Amnesty International, who is visiting "Israel", told the Jerusalem Post in an article published Thursday that Hizbullah members have not indicated that two "Israeli" soldiers captured in a July border raid are dead.
Irene Khan said she spoke to Hizbullah members during a three-day visit to Lebanon earlier this week.
"We did not get any indication from them that the two men were not alive," Khan said, adding that she asked Hizbullah to allow the international Red Cross to see the soldiers.
"They acknowledged that under international law there is an obligation for them to give access, but they said they would not do it, because they wanted to put pressure on "Israel" to release prisoners," Khan said.
A senior Hizbullah official, Sheik Hassan Ezzeddine, said he knew nothing about the conditions of the two soldiers.
"Only Sayyed Nasrallah knows," he told the Associated Press, referring to the Hizbullah leader.
"Israeli" officials for the first time raised the possibility Wednesday that two soldiers whose capture came at the start of a bloody, destructive war in Lebanon last summer might not have survived.
Military officials speaking to the Associated Press Wednesday said a previously classified report determined that one of the soldiers was critically wounded and the other seriously wounded when they were captured, without giving further details. They spoke on condition of anonymity under military rules.
"Israeli" Prime Minister Ehud Olmert caused an uproar this week with a comment about the captured soldiers, "if they [are alive], and we hope they are alive," saying it would have been improper to extend the summer war to try to win their freedom.
The death of the soldiers would have implications on negotiations with Hizbullah, though "Israel" has released prisoners both for soldiers and for bodies. The UN is trying to mediate, but there are no reports of progress or of actual contacts.
"Israeli" radio said Thursday that outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had told the country`s former foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, that, even after he leaves his post, Annan will continue to use his connections to obtain information about the soldiers and to bring about their release.
Hizbullah has not released any details on the conditions of the soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.