Arafat Announces Elections, Sweeping Review of PA

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit


Agence France-Presse via Yahoo singapore - May 16, 2002
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/020515/afp/020515160618top.html 


Arafat promises elections, overhaul of Palestinian Authority

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Yasser Arafat promised elections and a
shake-up of his Palestinian Authority, but critics including Israel
and the United States, as well as within his own camp, called for
action not words.

The Israeli government's initial response to Arafat's 40-minute
speech to the Palestinian parliament was dismissive, and while US and
EU reactions were warmer, analysts said the Palestinian leader should
have gone further with concrete pledges and a timetable.

Under strong international pressure, Arafat for the first time
addressed growing calls for reforms to his eight-year-old
administration, notably to the host of rival security forces.

"I will present a new formula for the administration of the
Palestinian Authority and its ministries and security apparatus in
order to rebuild it on a firmer basis," he told a special
parliamentary session.

"We should discuss everything that was correct and what was wrong --
and this re-evaluation should focus on all aspects of political
life," he said.

"This is the time for work, for reconstruction, for correction."

"We must prepare for elections and prepare for reforms," Arafat added
to applause from the legislature.

He gave no date for polling, but European Union foreign policy chief
Javier Solana said in Strasbourg Arafat had told the EU he plans
legislative and municipal elections at the end of the summer or early
autumn.

The first and only Palestinian elections were held in January 1996,
two years after the launch of Palestinian self-rule under the Oslo
autonomy accords with Israel.

In his first address to parliament since emerging at the start of May
from five months pinned down in his Ramallah HQ by the Israeli army,
Arafat also said, "If there was an error, I am the one to blame."

"We are now badly in need of re-evaluation of our policies and our
plans, in order to repair our errors, to correct our march toward
independence."

The Israeli government said it would assess Arafat's speech in full
before giving its verdict, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP, "He did not say anything new."

"Arafat is the same old Arafat," Gissin added.

Sharon Tuesday accused the Palestinian Authority of being
"dictatorial and corrupt" and said no talks would be held until it
made fundamental reforms.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday that US President
George W. Bush "is looking for action that will lead to a better life
for the Palestinian people and will enhance the prospects for an
enduring peace."

"Yasser Arafat's words are positive," Fleischer added. "What is
important, and what the president will wait to see, is whether there
is any action."

Solana said elections would boost international efforts to restart
the Middle East peace process and "a bit of breath to democratic life
and to the life of Palestinian structures."

EU spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said in Brussels, "If these elections can
take place in a reasonable time period, if they are well prepared and
allow for a fully democratic process, that would be a very welcome
development, obviously.

"We all have an interest that the Palestinian Authority is based on a
clear democratic mandate which is renewed, and that we would be in a
process of reform and reconstruction."

But Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi said Arafat had merely
presented "a statement of intent" instead of "taking actual concrete
steps or presenting us with a work plan."

"The Palestinian people need to see immediate effective concrete
steps that would translate this statement of intent into seriousness
and implementation," she told CNN.

Top priorities included transparency, accountability and an end to
abuse, she said, as well as a timetable for polls.
 
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