Palestina. forze armate Nyt 06-01-30
Nonostante la vittoria di Hamas, rimane incerto il
controllo delle forze di sicurezza palestinesi
GREG MYRE
Secondo le ultime precisazioni sui dati elettorali, Fatah ha
45 seggi, pari a poco più di 1/3 del totale, il che basta a consentirgli di
bloccare qualsiasi cambiamento della Costituzione, che governa la struttura
dell’Autorità palestinese.
Aperto il problema del controllo sulle forze di sicurezza
palestinesi fortemente armate:
–
diversi comandanti militari e membri di base non sono
disposti ad abbandonare Fatah;
–
il presidente Mahmoud
Abbas detiene solo l’autorità formale sulle forze armate, ma non il
controllo di fatto.
–
Si prevede che Hamas
agisca presto su questioni sociali, ma si
muova con cautela sui servizi di sicurezza;
–
prima delle elezioni Hamas ha dichiarato che intende operare assieme ad Abbas e agli
altri partiti per rendere più efficienti le forze di sicurezza, e ha
promesso che non ci saranno purghe.
–
L’impegno
elettorale di Hamas è stato quello di lottare contro la corruzione, molto
forte in particolare proprio nei servizi
di sicurezza, i cui leader si sono fortemente arricchiti.
–
In seguito alla vittoria elettorale di Hamas le forze
di sicurezza hanno causato disordini. Per Jibril Rajoub, uno dei maggiori
leader di Fatah e consigliere per la sicurezza di Abbas, Hamas non sarebbe in grado
di influire sulle forze di sicurezza.
–
Yassir Arafat
creò quasi una dozzina di servizi di sicurezza separati, che fece spesso
scontrare tra loro, per evitare il rafforzamento di un singolo comandante o
agenzia. Arafat accettò la creazione del Consiglio
di Sicurezza Nazionale, di cui fanno parte il presidente, il primo ministro
e il ministro degli Interni, allo scopo di precludere a una sola persona di
esercitare un potere eccessivo sulle forze di sicurezza.
–
Le forze di sicurezza sono in totale circa 60 000 su una popolazione
inferiore a 4 mn. nella West Bank e nella striscia di Gaza.
–
Abbas ora dovrà
sovrintendere alle forze di sicurezza assieme a un primo ministro di Hamas, o
allineato con Hamas.
Lo scorso anno, cooptati da Abbas,
sono entrati migliaia di militanti nelle forze di sicurezza, per la maggior
parte provenienti dal gruppo Brigate dei martiri di Al Aksa affiliato a Fatah.
Nyt 06-01-30
Despite
Victory by Hamas, Control of Palestinian Security Forces Remains Uncertain
By GREG MYRE
GAZA, Jan. 29 — The
Islamic militant group Hamas is poised to come to power and gunmen from the
rival Fatah movement are strutting in the streets, yet it is not clear who
will have effective control over the most heavily armed Palestinian group: the
security forces.
Hamas,
following its victory over the governing Fatah in the Palestinian legislative
elections on Wednesday, says that major changes are needed in the security
forces. Many of the forces’ commanders and rank-and-file members are
from Fatah, and many of them have expressed reluctance, or even outright
opposition, to a change in their membership.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud
Abbas, has formal authority over the forces, yet they have often seemed beyond
his control, even when the government was from his
own Fatah Party.
Mr. Abbas is expected to discuss how to
handle security, along with the formation of the government, when he travels
from his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah to Gaza City
for talks with Hamas. That is expected to happen any day now, though no date
has been set.
"You can look for Hamas to move
quickly on issues like education, health and social affairs, but I think they
will be very cautious when it comes to the security services," said
Mokhaimer Abu Sada, a political science professor at Al Azhar University in Gaza City.
"It’s a very sensitive issue."
Since their election victory, Hamas
leaders have said that they will work with Mr. Abbas and other parties to make
the security forces more effective, and that there will be no purges in the
ranks.
"We believe in making changes step
by step," said Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman. "We are not
going to turn the tables upside down."
In Damascus
on Saturday, the top Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, said Hamas would work to
build a Palestinian Army, which would presumably feature Hamas members in
prominent positions.
Security forces have been involved in
the unrest following the Hamas election victory. On
Saturday, a band of officers entered the parliament compound in Gaza City
to demand the prosecution of Hamas members suspected of killing a policeman. No
serious disturbances were reported in the West Bank
or the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
In Jerusalem on Sunday, the acting Israeli
prime minister, Ehud Olmert, told his cabinet that the country "will not
hold any contacts" with the Palestinians unless Hamas explicitly renounced
terrorism, recognized Israel, accepted all prior peace agreements and annulled
parts of its covenant that called for Israel’s destruction.
"These principles are accepted
by most of the international community and on this matter I do not intend
to make any compromises," Mr. Olmert said.
Hamas has shown no intention of taking
any such steps. However, it has largely abided by a truce for the past year. Shaul
Mofaz, the Israeli defense minister, who is known for his hard-line positions,
told the cabinet that Hamas was "behaving responsibly" and would
probably continue to curb attacks, Israeli news media reported.
Still, Israel said it might
delay the payment to the Palestinian Authority of $50 million in tax and
customs receipts this month to ensure that none of it goes to Hamas, an
Israeli official told journalists after the cabinet met. "We are not ready
in any way to allow a situation in which money transferred by the government of
Israel will somehow end up in the control of murderous elements who want to
harm Israeli citizens," Mr. Olmert said at a news conference with the
German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Visiting Israel
for the first time since becoming chancellor, Mrs. Merkel said Sunday night
that it was "unthinkable" for Germany
or the European Union to continue financing the Palestinian Authority unless
Hamas recognized Israel’s
right to exist, disavowed violence and accepted all existing international
agreements governing the conflict.
In a news conference with Mr. Olmert in Jerusalem, Mrs. Merkel also said that an Iran with nuclear arms "is not just a
threat to Israel,
but also to the democratic countries of this world."
Mrs. Merkel is to meet with Mr. Abbas in
Ramallah on Monday, but not with any Hamas leaders.
Yasir Arafat, the Fatah founder and
Palestinian leader who died in 2004, created nearly a dozen separate security
services and often played them off against one another to ensure that no one
commander or agency became too powerful. The forces now have close to 60,000
members, out of a Palestinian population of fewer than four million in the West
Bank and the Gaza
Strip.
Mr. Abbas has sought to co-opt
militants by bringing them into the security forces, and in the past year,
thousands have joined, with most coming from a Fatah-affiliated group, Al Aksa
Martyrs Brigades.
The forces face criticism from all
sides. Israel
says they fail to prevent attacks against Israeli targets. Hamas says, though,
that the forces have served Israel’s
interest with periodic crackdowns on militants. Ordinary Palestinians say
they have done little or nothing to halt lawlessness.
Hamas won the election with a pledge
to uproot corruption, and it said some of the worst
abuses were in the security services.
"The leaders of these services
became multimillionaires," Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, said
Friday. "We are going to reform these services. This is our mission."
But on Saturday in Ramallah, Jibril
Rajoub, a prominent Fatah leader and a security adviser to Mr. Abbas, sounded a
very different tone: "Hamas has no power to meddle with the security
forces."
The United
States, Israel
and a range of Palestinians have called for an overhaul of the security forces
in recent years, with very limited results.
The Palestinian Interior Ministry
contends that there has been progress in streamlining the overlapping security
agencies into three main branches — the police, national security and
intelligence.
In 2003, when Mr. Arafat was alive, Mr.
Abbas, as the prime minister, sought to gain some authority over the security
forces. With great reluctance, Mr. Arafat eventually agreed to the formation
of a National Security Council, which includes the president, the prime minister
and the interior minister among its members.
It is intended to keep any one figure
from having too much power over the security forces,
but it has also blurred the lines of authority. Now that Mr. Abbas is the
president, he will have to oversee the security forces along with a prime
minister who will be from Hamas, or at least aligned with the group.
Tafiq Abu Khossa, a spokesman for the
Interior Ministry, said the president remains the single most important figure.
"The security institutions will receive their orders from the
president," he said.
But often it seems the security
forces are not taking orders from any Palestinian politicians.
Mr. Masri, the Hamas spokesman, said
Hamas understood the frustration of Fatah members, who had expected to win the
election. Hamas has sought to reduce tensions by limiting its own celebrations,
he said. "Once a government is formed, things will settle down," he
said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian election
officials slightly revised the results on Sunday, taking away 2 seats from
Hamas, leaving the group with 74, and giving 2 more to Fatah, raising its total
to 45. Hamas still has a solid majority, but Fatah now has just over one-third
of the 132 seats, which would allow it to block any changes to the Basic Law,
which governs the structure of the Palestinian Authority.
In the 12 years since the Palestinian
Authority was formed, the security forces have taken on a range of often
contradictory roles. When Israel
and the Palestinians were holding peace talks in the 1990’s, the security
forces from the two sides routinely carried out joint security patrols in an
effort to build mutual trust.
In 1996, in response to Hamas
bombings against Israel,
the Palestinian security forces waged a crackdown on the Islamic group. Many Hamas prisoners complained that they were abused and subjected
to humiliations.
Since the Palestinian uprising began in
2000, some security force members have been involved in attacks on Israeli
forces. Palestinian forces have often refused to intervene to prevent attacks
by armed Palestinian factions against Israel.
With Hamas in the government, the
security forces may take on yet another role. Palestinians in Gaza are already making wisecracks about it.
The next time armed Fatah men fire rockets at Israel, the Gazans say, Hamas
police officers will arrest them and call them terrorists.
Steven Erlanger contributed reporting
from Jerusalem
for this article.
The New York Times
Die Welt 06-01-31
Spagat für
die Europäer
Brüssel muß
den Einfluß in der Region wahren und sich gleichzeitig hart von den Terroristen
abgrenzen
Der
Schlüssel für die Zusammenarbeit der palästinensischen Regierung mit der EU
liegt nach Ansicht von Bundesaußenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) in den
palästinensischen Gebieten. "Dort muß entschieden werden, ob man den politischen Weg geht",
sagte Steinmeier am Montag in Brüssel am Rande des Treffens der
EU-Außenminister. Dies bedeute, auf Gewalt zu verzichten, die Waffen
niederzulegen und das Existenzrecht Israels anzuerkennen. Dann würden sich
"Optionen öffnen". EU-Außenkommissarin Benita Ferrero-Waldner
empfahl, vor weiteren Entscheidungen der Hamas Zeit für die Regierungsbildung
zu geben.
Die Frage der
weiteren finanziellen Unterstützung der palästinensischen Behörde stehe im
Augenblick noch nicht im Vordergrund, sagte Steinmeier. Das Ergebnis der Wahlen
in den palästinensischen Gebieten habe aber "natürlich" Fragen
aufgeworfen, die noch nicht erschöpfend beantwortet werden könnten. Wichtig
sei, daß die EU-Außenminister zu einer gemeinsamen Analyse und zu einer
gemeinsamen Verständigung kämen. Steinmeier räumte dabei ein, daß dies
"nicht ganz einfach" sei.
Die EU habe
eine sehr klare Position zu den Wahlen bezogen, sagte Ferrero-Waldner. Nun sei
es an der Hamas, darauf zu reagieren. Dies sei aber nicht von einem auf den
anderen Tag zu erwarten, weshalb es sehr
weise sei, eine Art Übergangszeit einzuräumen. Hamas habe mit dem Wahlsieg
die politische Tribüne betreten. Nun
müsse gewartet werden, ob die Organisation wirklich willens sei, sich in eine
politische Partei zu wandeln. Die EU sei grundsätzlich bereit, mit einer
palästinensischen Regierung zusammenzuarbeiten, wenn diese den Frieden mit
friedlichen Mitteln suche und sich den Prinzipien des Nahost-Friedensplans
verpflichte.
Offenbar wolle
Palästinenserpräsident Mahmud Abbas eine Art Übergangsregierung, sagte
Ferrero-Waldner weiter. Die EU wolle Abbas dabei unterstützen, eine stabile
Regierung aufzustellen. Die finanzielle Lage der palästinensischen Behörde sei
der EU bewußt. Jeder solle sich an den gemeinsamen Bemühungen beteiligen,
damit die Behörde nicht in sich zusammenbreche.
Luxemburgs
Außenminister Jean Asselborn sprach von einem "Spagat" für die Europäer. Einerseits
müsse die EU versuchen, ihren Einfluß in der Region aufrechtzuerhalten, andererseits
könne die EU "selbstverständlich nicht" von ihren Steuerzahlern
verlangen, daß aus der Gemeinschaftskasse Terroristen bezahlt würden. Diese
Frage sei "sehr schwierig", aber lösbar. "Ich kann mir nicht
vorstellen, daß sich am Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts Menschen, Parteien zur Wahl
stellen, um Krieg zu wollen", sagte Asselborn: "Wenn man sich
demokratischen Wahlen stellt, sucht man Frieden, darauf müssen wir bauen."
Auch die
Sozialisten im Europaparlament riefen die Hamas zum Gewaltverzicht auf. Dies
sei "absolut unverzichtbar", erklärte der Fraktionsvorsitzende Martin
Schulz (SPD). Die Hamas
müsse eine Regierung bilden, die mit anderen, auch mit Israel, in
"positiver Partnerschaft" zusammenarbeite, um Frieden und Sicherheit
in die Region zu bringen. "Ohne diese Garantie
wird die Finanzhilfe eingefroren", warnte er.
Die EU hat
die Palästinenser im vergangenen Jahr mit knapp 500 Millionen Euro unterstützt
– damit sind die Europäer der größte Geldgeber. 280 Millionen Euro stammen
direkt aus dem EU-Haushalt, den Rest haben die einzelnen Mitgliedsstaaten an
die Palästinenser überwiesen. Von den 280 Millionen gingen 210 Millionen direkt
an das "palästinensische Volk", für spezielle Projekte wie den Aufbau
von Krankenhäusern und Schulen. 70 Millionen Euro hat die EU als s genannte
Budgethilfen an die palästinensische Regierung gezahlt. Die Autonomiebehörde
hat diese Gelder vor allem für die Bezahlung der Staatsdiener, wie Polizisten,
eingesetzt. Die 70 Millionen Euro für die Fatah-Regierung
wurden allerdings seit dem Jahr 2004 in einen Fonds eingezahlt, der von der
Weltbank treuhänderisch verwaltet wird. Damit wollte die EU einem Mißbrauch ihrer Gelder
durch die Fatah-Regierung vorbeugen. Seit
Ende 2005 hat die Weltbank die Budgethilfen eingefroren, die Auszahlung von
35 Millionen Euro EU-Geldern wurde damit
gestoppt. Grund: Die Weltbank hat Hinweise auf einen teilweisen Mißbrauch
der Gelder. cbs
Artikel erschienen am Die, 31. Januar 2006 © WELT.de 1995 – 2006