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Palestine: Time for accountability
As the desire for change sweeps through the territories, Khaled Amayreh talks to former Palestinian information minister Nabil Amr about the future of the PA
Nabil Amr, the former Palestinian information minister who survived an assassination attempt in Ramallah earlier this year, has strongly criticised "rampant misgovernment, lawlessness and lack of accountability" in the Palestinian Authority (PA), warning that Palestinians have to choose between genuine democracy based on the rule of law, or the demise of their national aspirations.
Amr returned this week to his home town of Dura, south-west of Hebron, after a lengthy recuperation period in Germany, where he had his right leg amputated.
It is widely believed that gunmen close to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were implicated in shooting Amr. The PA police have so far failed to apprehend the perpetrators, a fact Amr says epitomises the incompetence and chaos permeating not only the Palestinian government, but the entire polity.
In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly in Dura this week, he accused the PA of failing to deal "properly and seriously with the attempt on my life".
"If this had happened anywhere else in the world, the perpetrator would have been caught within 24 hours!" said Amr. "But in Ramallah, those who are supposed to uphold the law and ensure our security have rushed to hide and protect the would-be assassin. They are preserving him so that in future he can make attempts on the life of others."
He added: "Anyone who thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds does not know what he is talking about."
Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/719/re3.htm
Amr returned this week to his home town of Dura, south-west of Hebron, after a lengthy recuperation period in Germany, where he had his right leg amputated.
It is widely believed that gunmen close to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were implicated in shooting Amr. The PA police have so far failed to apprehend the perpetrators, a fact Amr says epitomises the incompetence and chaos permeating not only the Palestinian government, but the entire polity.
In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly in Dura this week, he accused the PA of failing to deal "properly and seriously with the attempt on my life".
"If this had happened anywhere else in the world, the perpetrator would have been caught within 24 hours!" said Amr. "But in Ramallah, those who are supposed to uphold the law and ensure our security have rushed to hide and protect the would-be assassin. They are preserving him so that in future he can make attempts on the life of others."
He added: "Anyone who thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds does not know what he is talking about."
Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/719/re3.htm
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Three weeks after Yasser Arafat's death the old/new Palestinian leadership is navigating the rapids of succession. Last week PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and interim PA president Rouhi Fattouh played host to a procession of foreign ministers, each one blessing the new order, supporting the PA presidential elections on 9 January and expressing the hope that Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan would somehow evolve in to a peace process (as opposed to Israel's unilateral abandonment of one).
This week the three went to Egypt and Jordan to garner support for the same goals and invest the new leadership with regional legitimacy. Next week Abbas, Qurei and Fattouh will visit Damascus, aiming to close the door on the cold war that existed between the PLO and Syria during so much of Arafat's leadership. They will probably also meet with Palestinian faction heads based in Damascus, including Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal.
But there have been squalls. Potentially the most damaging of these came in the throes of Fatah's choice of Abbas as its candidate for the PA presidency. The decision was taken by the movement's supreme Central Committee and Revolutionary Council, two bodies dominated by the so-called "old guard" -- Fatah leaders who returned with Arafat from exile in the mid-1990s and who have been jealously guarding their positions ever since.
Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/719/fr1.htm