Powell, Arafat to meet today

Palestinian leader issues statement against terrorism

BARBARA SLAVIN, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Originally published Sunday, April 14, 2002

JERUSALEM -- A neatly orchestrated exchange of statements by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday resurrected plans for the two to meet and gave frail hope to Powell's Middle East peace mission.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that Powell will go to Ramallah today, a day later than scheduled, after Arafat issued a written statement in Arabic condemning attacks on civilians, including a suicide bombing in Jerusalem on Friday that killed six people.

"President Arafat and the Palestinian leadership express their condemnation of all terrorist attacks against civilians, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian, and whether this terrorism is sponsored by a state, groups or person," the statement said, according to an official Palestinian translation. "We strongly condemn the violent operations that target Israeli civilians, especially the recent operation in Jerusalem."

The statement also condemned what it called "massacres" committed by the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The statement, on Palestinian Authority stationery, was shown on Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arabic satellite channel that is watched throughout the Arab world, and also broadcast on Palestinian television.

Boucher said that the statement issued earlier by Arafat contained a number of "interesting and positive elements," including a reaffirmation of a commitment to a negotiated peace

Boucher said Powell would work with Arafat to get him to "show leadership and to help make those statements a reality."

The carefully crafted document had been drafted Friday, Palestinian sources said, but Arafat refused to issue it until the United States criticized Israel's reoccupation of Palestinian areas on the West Bank, and in particular an offensive in Jenin that by Israeli admission has killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians.

Powell gave Arafat part of what he wanted Saturday morning when he met with representatives of international organizations who have been blocked by Israel from alleviating what appears to be a mounting humanitarian disaster on the West Bank.

Powell issued a statement that urged Israeli forces to "exercise the utmost restraint and discipline and refrain from the excessive use of force in the conduct of military operations, in order to ensure that civilians are protected and to avoid worsening the already grave conditions inside Palestinian areas."

It also called on Israel to let humanitarian organizations do their work and said the United States was "particularly concerned at the humanitarian situation in Jenin."

Powell also announced that the United States is adding $30 million to the $80 million it gives each year for West Bank and Gaza programs to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the organization responsible for the welfare of Palestinians in refugee camps.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is providing $62 million for health care, water system repairs and emergency food aid, Powell said.

Rene Kosirnik, chief representative in Israel of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told reporters after seeing Powell that the "Palestinian population is in a particularly grave situation" and being subjected to "collective punishment" by the Israeli occupation forces.

He singled out for criticism "the behavior of the Israeli soldiers toward our own people and Palestinian medical workers, in particular the Palestinian Red Crescent Society."

Israel has prevented doctors and medics from treating wounded Palestinian fighters and civilians, and an untold number have died of their wounds.

Ambulances have also been blocked from removing dead bodies. Israel has charged that the Palestinians have hidden explosives and attackers on some of their ambulances.

The worst situation is believed to exist in Jenin, a breeding ground for suicide bombers and scene of fierce fighting last week.

"We have been waiting five days to get in," Kosirnik said.

He also said the Israelis had hampered Red Cross access to what are believed to be more than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners held at special detention camps.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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