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| Middle East |
| Fatah warns it will get tough if Hamas repeats assassination |
| 2002-10-10 |
| Yasser Arafat's Fatah group warned the Islamist resistance group Hamas it would react with "an iron fist" to any threats to Palestinian security, following the assassination by members of the group of a riot police chief. "I'm warnin' you! One more time, young man, and you're gonna get it! Don't make me come down there!" In a statement received by AFP here Wednesday, the Palestinian leader's mainstream faction also urged Hamas, which claims Brigadier General Rajeh Abu Lehya was killed in a vendetta, to hand over his killers. A vendetta, huh? Perhaps an indignant husband and 19 of his friends? What was the part about revenge for something or other? "We will act with an iron fist against those who play with the security of the Palestinian people," said Fatah, the main political component of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the main provider of loyalist security forces. "We ask Hamas to condemn this ugly crime and not to provide a cover to outlaws. We ask that the men be handed over and brought in front of a court. We strongly warn against this kind of actvity, which goes against the national interest, and Fatah will not allow anyone to lead the Palestinians into an internal fight and divert them from the struggle against Israeli occupation." "Yeah. Don't go cheesing us off. We'll maybe let you get away with it this once, but..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |