KK-Forum,
Her er "nytt" om Arafats regime fra MER. Graham Usher skriver for "Middle
East International" (London) og "News from Within" (Jerusalem). PLC er The
Palestinian Legislative Council (det palestinske parlamentet i norske
medier) som Arafat nylig reorganiserte, dvs utvidet. Bassem Eid er leder
for Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. Et intervju med ham kan
leses på
http://home.sol.no/~knutro/BassemEidintervju.html
Som bakgrunn kan det også være nyttig å kjenne til det Haaretz skriver idag:
"...The IDF Æden israelske hærenÅ is not participating in drafting new
security
guidelines that are part of overall peace negotiations
with the Palestinians, leaving a retired general who
has been serving as an advisor to the prime minister
to draw up Israel's security demands.
...
Although the Shin Bet was not interested in preparing
the security guidelines for the prime minister, it did
put a senior representative on Dagan's staff. But the
IDF has so far refrained from doing even that. Dagan
consults with Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai,
but not with the IDF Planning Department.
On the U.S. side, negotiations on the security
guidelines are being handled by the CIA station chief
in Israel. The chief also serves as chairman of
three-way negotiations over a set of guidelines on
what each side must do to increase security in the
territories.
The Palestinian side is filled by
representatives from the PA's General Intelligence
Services, and in the past has included participation
by Preventive Security chiefs Jibril Rajoub and
Mohammed Dahlan. "
Disse to er tungt inne i de nedenfor omtalte GIS og PSF.
Hilsen Knut Rognes
*************Start MER artikkel*********************
From: Mid-EasT RealitieS <MER@MiddleEast.Org>
To: <MER@MiddleEast.Org>
Subject: The Lawless, Brutal, Mafia-Like ''PA'' -- The ''Arafat Regime''
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 08:11:06 -0400
- _______ ____ ______
/ ø/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
/ /ø_/ / /_/_ / /ØØ Making Sense of the Middle East
/_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ ØØ
www.MiddleEast.Org TORTURE AND MURDER IN
OCCUPIED PALESTINE
_______________________________________________________________
News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups,
and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know.
_______________________________________________________________
TO RECEIVE MER regularly Email with subject: SEND MER
_______________________________________________________________
TORTURE AND MURDER IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE
MER - Washington - 8/25:
Sadistic torture, brutal extortion, severe intimidation,
major press censorship, murder and coverup -- these are all
terms applicable to the Arafat regime that today rules over
and suppresses the Palestinian people, primarily on behalf
of the U.S., Israel, and the Hashemite Regime in Jordan.
"...it is difficult to resist the conclusion
that the PA security forces, under the
pretext of clamping down on tax fraud, are
extorting money from Palestinian civilians
to fund the militaristic regime that
increasingly rules over them rather than
on their behalf."
This is the conclusion reached by Graham Usher, after investigating
what is going on in today's "doubly occupied" Palestine. Usher had
the help of a courageous Palestinian Human Rights champion, Basem Eid.
Eid was featured in a series of MERTV programs last year (Programs
145-147) -- for details email to INFOMERTV@MiddleEast.Org. These
excerpts are from a recent article published in the weekly Al Ahram.
EXTORTION OF PA PRISONERS TO FINANCE PA MILITARY
TAXED BY TORTURE
By Graham Usher
Walid Mahmoud Al-Qawasmi became the 20th Palestinian to die in PA
custody. A manager of a Bethlehem insurance firm and father of eight,
Al-Qawasmi had been arrested in Hebron on 25 July by officers from the
PA's General Intelligence Service (GIS), one of the PA's 11
intelligence forces that operate in the Occupied Territories.
Two weeks later, his family visited him at a GIS detention centre in
Jericho. Clearly in declining health, Al-Qawasmi's only comment was
that he was "innocent." It is unclear of what, since the GIS had filed
no charges against him.
On 9 August Al-Qawasmi died en route from Jericho to Rafidia
Hospital in Nablus.. ... A witness at the autopsy told the Palestinian
Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) that Al-Qawasmi's death was the
result of a brain hemorrhage caused by a fractured skull. The
fracture, said the witness, was the result of "severe beating to the
head."
Why was Al-Qawasmi arrested? A report on Israel's Army Radio quoted
Palestinian security sources as saying that Al-Qawasmi was suspected
of selling land to Israelis. But Al-Qawasmi's Palestinian
acquaintances reject the explanation. Al-Qawasmi was involved in
insurance, not real estate, they say, and had a clean reputation in
the community. The allegation is further weakened by the PA's unusual
response to the death.
Five Palestinians suspected of land-dealing (a crime viewed as
collaboration by the PA and the vast majority of Palestinians) have
been killed since the PA was installed in 1994. The corpses are
usually dumped outside the Palestinian areas and usually accompanied
by official denials from the PA that it had anything to do with the
deaths (a disavowal that has convinced neither the Israeli government
nor Palestinian human rights groups). In Al-Qawasmi's case, however,
the PA could not deny involvement. Nor, for the most part, did it try
to.
On 10 August, Arafat ordered an official investigation into the
circumstances of Al-Qawasmi's death, pledging that the findings would
be "revealed soon."
Neither the condolences nor the promise of an official inquiry cut
much ice with Palestinian human rights groups. "There have been 20
such promises, every time, in fact, a Palestinian dies in PA custody,"
says Bassem Eid, the PHRMG's director. "Nothing will come from the
investigation."
Eid believes the reason for Al-Qawasmi's arrest may have been
financial and that the PA's decision to open an investigation was less
to uncover the facts than to prevent the public and PLC from probing
too deeply into the real cause of his detention by the GIS.
Eid bases his hunch on 40 testimonies collected by his organisation
over the last two years from Palestinian contractors and
sub-contractors, mostly from the Hebron area. Thirty-six of the
testimonies accuse the GIS and the PA's Preventive Security Force
(PSF) of illegal arrest, torture and prolonged detention, sometimes as
long as 14 months. The charge levelled against the contractors is tax
fraud, with the GIS and PSF alleging that the contractors are
producing fake invoices to evade paying taxes to the PA. Under
interrogation, and often under torture, some of the detainees
have confessed to the crime. But the issue at hand is "not whether the
individual contractors are innocent or guilty," says Eid. "It is the
illegal procedures used against them." ...
Aside from the use of torture and absence of any due process, the
most disturbing aspect of the detainees' testimonies is the obscurity
over where the money extorted from them eventually ends up. Most claim
they paid cash, without getting a receipt, directly to the
intelligence forces to secure their release. But the PA's Ministry of
Finance says it has received payment from only one of the victims. "On
the basis of our testimonies, we are talking about one million shekels
that is currently unaccounted for," says Eid. "Where is the money?"
Many Palestinians have a fair idea, though few would openly say so.
According to the Oslo Accords, the PA is supposed to employ around
21,000 people in its security forces, paid and accounted for out of
the PA's budget. But the actual number of Palestinians currently
working for the security and intelligence bodies is between 35,000 and
40,000. How these excess officers are salaried, equipped and armed has
long been a source of speculation by PLC members and by Palestinians
at large.
And, on the basis of the PHRMG's report, it is difficult to resist
the conclusion that the PA security forces, under the pretext of
clamping down on tax fraud, are extorting money from Palestinian
civilians to fund the militaristic regime that increasingly rules over
them rather than on their behalf.
ÆExcerpts from Al-Ahram Weekly week of 20-26 AugustÅ
----------------------------------------------------------------
TO RECEIVE MER regularly Email with subject: SEND MER
To stop receiving MER email with subject: Stop MER
________________________________________________________________
MID-EAST REALITIES is published a number of times weekly and the
MERTV Program shows weekly on Cable TV.
M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
(c) Copyright 1998
MER may be freely distributed by email unedited.
For any print publication permission in writing is required.
MER@MiddleEast.Org / Fax: 202 362-6965 / Phone: 202 362-5266
**************************Slutt*********************************