Chairing a United Nations inquiry into Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound international convoy will be a "very challenging and demanding task," New Zealand's former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer said Tuesday according to dpa. "I really don't underestimate how difficult it will be," he told Radio New Zealand. "I can't say anything of substance on the details of this inquiry or indeed its procedures until I've been to New York and discussed the issues with both the Secretary General (Ban Ki-moon) and my colleagues on the inquiry." Palmer, an international lawyer who briefly headed the former New Zealand Labour Party government in 1990, said: "This is a very sensitive matter. It's a quasi-judicial inquiry, so it is really very important to maintain a sense of detachment." Palmer said he would go to New York to start work on the inquiry on the May 31 incident, in which Israel raided a six-ship convoy carrying humanitarian goods and activists heading for Gaza. Nine civilians died and at least 30 others were injured in the raid, which took place in international waters. Ban described his decision to launch the inquiry as an "unprecedented development." Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose term ends this week, will vice-chair the panel, which will have one additional member each from Israel and Turkey. Palmer said the inquiry would be based in New York and may not travel to the Middle East.
