GAZA CITY, 20 November 2004 — While the new Palestinian leadership readied the ground for presidential elections in January, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas stepped up calls yesterday to end “armed chaos” engulfing the occupied territories,.
Abbas has been locked in talks with faction leaders and security chiefs during a five-day visit to the Gaza Strip ahead of the poll to find a successor to Yasser Arafat, scheduled in seven weeks’ time.
“Armed chaos must stop. I think people and officials realize the importance of controlling arms because (chaos) serves the interests of no one,” he said, echoing an identical call from Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei. He went on to cite Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territory as the biggest obstacle to holding the leadership election, due on Jan. 9.
Arafat’s death has fueled fears that the passing of the veteran leader could worsen an already fragile security situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian policeman was killed and another wounded by Israeli tank fire in eastern Gaza City yesterday, medical sources said. “The Palestinian leadership has opened contacts with different countries so that the obstacles, particularly the occupation, be eliminated so that the election can go ahead normally,” Abbas told Voice of Palestine radio.
He is to wrap up his Gaza visit today, before tomorrow’s expected arrival of outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell for talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
“Armed chaos must cease, armed demonstrations must cease. Everybody must respect law and order,” Qorei said after meeting MPs and leftist groups on Thursday.
Qorei’s national security council has repeatedly called for better security in the territories, while Arafat’s mainstream Fatah party also called Thursday for “rapidly putting an end to the security chaos”.
Despite reiterating that the new leadership needed to disarm “terrorist groups”, even Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon conceded it was a “complex process” that could not be completed overnight.
Instead, he called for an “immediate stop to hate propaganda on Palestinian television and in other media”, which his spokesman said was “some kind of right of passage for the new Palestinian leadership”.
But Abbas hinted that any such move should cut both ways. “Such matters should be discussed if negotiations take place. Perhaps (propaganda) does exist among us, but it is far more of an issue among (Jewish Israelis),” he told reporters.
In Israel, Sharon came under fire from members of his right-wing Likud party, who accused him of going soft on the Palestinians since Arafat died.
— Additional input from agencies
