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| Middle East |
| Threats on prison monitors already |
| 2002-05-03 |
| Concern about the safety of British and American prison monitors in Jericho grew last night as Palestinian militants gave warning that the detention of six key prisoners under foreign supervision "will not pass unpunished". That didn't take long, did it? Hours after the international wardens helped to transfer the inmates from Yasser Arafat's besieged Ramallah headquarters to a jail in Jericho, a home-made grenade exploded outside the British Council offices in the Gaza Strip. That's Palestinian for, "Hi! How are ya?" The blast did not hurt anybody. But it was a warning, if any were needed, of the dangers facing British and American wardens, particularly if they are seen as Israeli stooges. This is the usual response when Palestinians can't have their way, isn't it? As several factions involved in the 20-month Palestinian uprising demanded the prisoners' release, one hardline group put up posters declaring: "Surrendering the heroes of the resistance and the intifada to Israeli and British intelligence and CIA agents will not pass unpunished. Agents of the CIA and their ideologues should leave our land." The posters, plastered on walls during a meeting of students and intellectuals in Ramallah, were signed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist faction counting five inmates among its members. Five out of six. That's pretty good. Andrew Coyle, a former governor of Brixton prison who was part of the advance party to set up the monitoring system, said: "It would be foolish to say there is no risk. We believe there is an acceptable level of risk. Those of us who haven't been dropped on our heads think there's an unacceptable level of risk. This is a camel's nose, and the Palestinians are salivating at the thought of having Americans and Brits around to throw bombs at and blow up in their beds. Yasser and Kofi are hollering for U.S. "peacekeepers" to get us pulled into the mess. Now, there's no real strategy to it; it's just the desire to have us close at hand to thump. There's no if-then-else thinking that sees our involvement as a step to an end, it's just an end in itself. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Five out of six is more than fifteen out of nineteen... |
| Posted by: BarCodeKing 2002-05-04 18:26:28 |