UNITED NATIONS, 12 August 2004 — A Palestinian Authority security overhaul has been largely cosmetic to date, reflecting a lack of political will to engage in serious reform, a senior UN official said yesterday, Undersecretary-General Kieran Prendergast appeared to step back, however, from the tough rhetoric directed toward President Yasser Arafat last month by another top UN aide, in a change in tone that drew praise from a Palestinian diplomat.
Palestinian officials had threatened to bar Terje Roed-Larsen, the top UN Middle East diplomat, from their territory after his July 14 briefing to the Security Council singled out Arafat for doing little to implement reforms.
The latest monthly briefing on the Middle East was “obviously much more balanced, much more based on international law and relevant UN resolutions than the one we heard last month,” Palestinian UN observer Nasser Al-Kidwa said.
Roed-Larsen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process, had warned in July of a paralyzed Palestinian Authority on the verge of collapse and said security reforms were crucial to restore law and order and the authority’s credibility abroad.
Prendergast said yesterday that implementation of security reforms demanded by the international community “continues to be slow, and mostly cosmetic.”
“This cannot be explained other than by a lack of political will to advance along that road,” he told the council.
Although Arafat agreed in late July to give his prime minister, Ahmed Qorie, full authority over security agencies previously under Interior Ministry control, “ultimate authority and control over all Palestinian Authority security agencies remains with the National Security Council, headed by President Arafat,” Prendergast said.
While Qorie had withdrawn an offer to resign, tendered in protest over growing lawlessness in Gaza, Arafat’s pledge to regroup security services “has yet to be reflected in real change on the ground” despite demands from both the Palestinian people and the international community, he said. He also criticized Israel for expanding settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, demolishing Palestinian homes and carrying out targeted killings of Palestinians
