Restive militants lash out at Arafat

By The Associated Press and Christian Science Monitor

Moussa Arafat's choice as security chief drew anger.

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Militants urged Arafat to try officials accused of corruption and said trouble could spread to the West Bank, home to 2.3 million Palestinians as well as Arafat and most of his Authority's institutions. About 1.3 million Palestinians live in Gaza.

Palestinian Authority Cabinet member Saeb Erekat called the situation a "major crisis."

Arafat is reluctant to yield significant power, but Palestinian militants, including some of his own officers, are demanding deep reforms and new faces, Palestinian analysts said.

"The solution must be more radical than that — the change of a few people," said Hafez Barghouthi, editor of Al Hayat Al Jadida newspaper, normally a staunch supporter of Arafat.

	Yasser Arafat may be facing his biggest crisis yet.

"We are very tired of the same faces, the same ministers, the same security chiefs, the same politicians," Barghouthi said. "If Arafat wants to have success, he must take other measures, not just put his relatives into place here and there.

"Give the intelligentsia or some other people a chance. Things must change drastically, and until now, no changes [have] been made."

The divide centered on the appointment of Moussa Arafat, Arafat's cousin, as the new head of Palestinian security. Many Palestinians rejected him as a symbol of corruption and cronyism.

Protesting the appointment, militants broke into a building of the Palestinian Authority in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis early yesterday and burned two offices. A security guard was wounded in a gunfight.

Hundreds of Palestinians, many carrying assault rifles, marched through the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza after sundown yesterday, chanting, "No to Moussa Arafat, yes to reform."

In the Rafah refugee camp, gunmen exchanged fire with guards at security headquarters and attempted to break into the complex with a bulldozer. The guards wounded three attackers; no casualties were reported among the security forces.

In 2003, protests against corruption forced Arafat to promise reforms and appoint a new government, led by Mahmoud Abbas, who resigned as prime minister after four months. His successor, Ahmed Qureia, resigned Saturday, citing an inability to effect changes.

The unrest began Friday when two Palestinian Authority security officials and four French humanitarian workers were kidnapped by militants. All were released after Arafat promised changes, but a reorganization of the security organization and the new appointments deepened the rift between Arafat's generation, which led the Palestinian struggle from exile for decades, and young Palestinians who lived under Israeli occupation and now accuse the old guard of corruption and monopolizing power.

Dissent, however, went beyond the generational divide and spread to the security forces.

Navy chief Gomma Ghali, an Arafat loyalist, handed in his resignation to protest Moussa Arafat's appointment, joining the head of intelligence and the head of the preventative security, who resigned Friday. A statement from the office of Maj. Gen. Amin Al-Hindi, the intelligence chief, said Arafat's recent appointments "cannot help solve the internal situation and the internal reforms."

"The new appointees are a part of the problem and therefore cannot be part of the solution," said Issa Abu Aram, the head of operations for West Bank security.

Moussa Arafat brushed aside protests over his appointment.

"I take my orders from His Excellency President Arafat," he said, seated below a huge portrait of his mentor. "He is the only one who can ask me to quit my job."

He said he was ready to "engage in any battle against any potential enemy," and made it clear the enemy could come from within the Palestinian camp.

Previously the head of the Palestinian intelligence services, Moussa Arafat has a reputation for ruthlessness. In 1996, during a mass roundup of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, Moussa Arafat shaved the heads and beards of the men he imprisoned to humiliate them. Human-rights groups accused him of torture.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a longtime enemy of Yasser Arafat, said yesterday the turmoil reinforced his contention that Israel cannot negotiate with the present Palestinian leadership.

However, analysts say Sharon has contributed to the situation with his plan to withdraw from Gaza next year, which set off a struggle for power and influence among Palestinian factions.

However, it appears that groups jostling for power in the Gaza of tomorrow are not waiting until the last Israeli settlers and soldiers are pulled out. Instead, they are trying to establish their supremacy as soon as possible.

The result, Qureia said, could be "unprecedented chaos."

Some observers say Arafat has no elbowroom. He has not been able to leave Ramallah for more than two years, confined to his compound by Sharon, who blames him for fomenting violence and launching the uprising over land that began in September 2000.

"The problem is, Arafat is under siege," said Barghouthi, the newspaper editor. "He cannot move, so people are working in the field as they want, and so the situation in Gaza is now very bad.

Material from Reuters and Los Angles Times is included in this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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