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Mix-Ansicht- Arafat on terrorism - Popeye, 14.04.2002, 18:26
Arafat on terrorism
Saturday, 13 April, 2002, 15:00 GMT 16:00 UK
Arafat's statement on
terrorism
Arafat condemned Israeli"massacres" in the West Bank
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
specifically condemned the suicide attack
on a bus in Jerusalem in a statement
issued on Saturday.
He criticized all attacks on civilians, and
accused Israeli of"massacres" in the Jenin
refugee camp, Nablus, Bethlehem and
elsewhere.
Here is the full text of the statement -
originally issued in Arabic by the
Palestinian news agency Wafa:
President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian
leadership express their condemnation of all
terrorist acts against civilians, whether they
are Israelis or Palestinians and whether this
terrorism is sponsored by a state, group or
person.
This is based on the firm
principle of rejecting the
use of violence and
terrorism against
civilians or as a means
of achieving political
aims.
We have embraced this
position since 1988. We
expressed it on signing the Oslo accord at the
White House and reiterated it several times,
including in what we announced on 16
December 2001 and thereafter.
We however received no Israeli response, but
rather a military escalation, a choking siege, a
continued occupation of our people, camps,
cities, and villages, and a comprehensive
destruction of our infrastructure.
Condemns Jerusalem attack
On this basis, we strongly condemn the violent
operations that target Israeli civilians,
especially the recent operation in Jerusalem.
We also strongly condemn the massacres the
Israeli occupation forces have been committing
for the past two weeks against the Palestinian
civilians and refugees in the city of Nablus and
Jenin Camp, against the Church of the Nativity
in Bethlehem, and in other Palestinian areas.
We urge the international community, the
Security Council and Mr Colin Powell, who is on
an international mission for peace, to become
acquainted with these massacres and
bloodbaths plaguing our people due to the
Israeli occupation and also to the Israeli
Government's determination to squash our
people's quest for freedom and independence
with military force, tanks, aircraft, missiles,
shells and machine guns.
Peace call
We, on behalf of the Palestinian people,
reiterate anew our commitment to the option
of a just peace between the two peoples and
two countries, a peace that would bring
security to the Israelis and independence and
freedom in an independent state for the
Palestinian people.
For it is only peace, and
not occupation, military
force, massacres and
terrorist acts,
particularly those
committed against
civilians, that can bring
security to all. The
latter can bring neither security nor peace to
either the Israelis or the Palestinians.
We have to work all together, especially after
the Security Council resolutions, the
international resolutions, and the statements
made by President Bush and his secretary of
state, and the US-Russian-European-UN
committee in Madrid, and in light of the tour
made by Colin Powell and his presence among
us to stop this war, secure an immediate
Israeli withdrawal, start an immediate
implementation of the Tenet understanding and
Mitchell report, begin immediate negotiations
on the basis of the Arab summits, the Saudi
initiative adopted by the Arab summit in Beirut,
and protect our Christian and Islamic holy
places.
We emphasize the importance of the presence
of an international peace force to ensure the
implementation of the above mentioned
resolutions and initiatives.
Quelle BBC
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