Last Update: 01/08/2004 12:39 Dahlan: Arafat is 'sitting on...

Last Update: 01/08/2004 12:39

Dahlan: Arafat is 'sitting on corpses of Palestinians'

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

Former Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan, one of Yasser Arafat's most prominent critics, voiced his strongest criticism yet of the Palestinian Authority chairman, according to an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan.

"Arafat is sitting on the corpses and destruction of the Palestinians at a time when they're desperately in need of a new mentality," Dahlan was quoted as saying during the interview, which was held in Jordan.

If Arafat does not carry out real reforms within the PA by August 10, 30,000 Palestinians will demonstrate in the streets of Gaza, Dahlan said.

"What has happened in Gaza is an expression of our demands for reform," he said, in an apparent reference to three weeks of protests in the Strip against decisions made by Arafat.

All of the funds that foreign nations have donated to the Palestinian Authority, a total of $5 billion, "have gone down the drain, and we don't know to where." (bullshit.....everyone knows where, even Dahlan.......Snooker)

Arafat's policies have brought the Palestinians damage, and have brought about a situation in which Palestinians' lives are in "ruin," he was further quoted as saying.

"The Palestinian situation is not putting up with any more corruption, and there is no escape aside from reforms that Arafat himself has authorized," Dahlan said.

Dahlan's demands include the firing of Arafat's cousin Musa Arafat as head of PA security forces in the Strip; and the naming of three new PA ministers to take overall responsibility for security issues: interior, general intelligence, and national security.