OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 22 September — Braving tank fire, Yasser Arafat yesterday vowed not to capitulate to Israel even as Israeli forces ordered everyone inside the Palestinian leader’s besieged compound to surrender or face certain death.

But the Palestinian leader — earlier showered by masonry dust after Israeli tank fire — called for an end to attacks inside Israel in his first public statement since the siege began Thursday.

"We are ready for peace but not for capitulation, and we will not give up Jerusalem or a grain of our soil which are guaranteed to us by international law," Arafat said in a written statement released by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Israel called on Arafat, whom it accuses of doing nothing to prevent anti-Israeli attacks, to surrender 20 wanted men it says are holed up in his headquarters and rejected international calls to ease up on the 73-year-old leader. It backed up its demands with guns that roared before daybreak and thunderous detonations of demolition charges.

Troops late yesterday called on everyone inside the besieged headquarters to evacuate the building immediately as there was going to be a "huge explosion." Speaking in Arabic over loudspeakers, soldiers called on everyone inside the building to "come out immediately one by one with your hands up because a huge explosion is going to happen," a witness reported. They also called on Palestinian residents in the area to evacuate their homes ahead of the explosion, he said.

"They have called on us to give up and surrender or they will blow up the offices on our heads," a Palestinian security officer inside Arafat’s offices said by satellite phone.

An army spokeswoman confirmed that troops were calling on everyone to leave the building ahead of an explosion, which was "part of an ongoing operation", but she refused to give further details.

Another Palestinian security officer inside the compound said that despite the warning, "nobody was going to surrender".

Local resident Hamad Ziyadeh, who lives close to the compound, said Israeli troops had told him to open the doors and windows of his house because a "big explosion" was due to happen. "Both my neighbor and I have taken our children out of the house because we are afraid the explosion will do serious damage," he said.

He said he saw a number of Israeli tanks drawing back from Arafat’s battered offices, in what he believed was a move to pull back from the scene ahead of the threatened blast.

Earlier, a Palestinian security source inside the building said the army had laid wires around Arafat’s office, and that those trapped inside were expecting Israeli troops to enter the compound in the coming hours.

Palestinian officials said the United States pressured Israel to stop shooting early yesterday. But armored bulldozers and a mechanical excavator carried on demolition work that left only two buildings standing.

Israel’s tightest confinement of Arafat since its forces surrounded him in 1982 during the Lebanon war raised fears of a new surge of violence that could complicate Washington’s plans for possible war on Iraq.

Senior Palestinian officials said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had turned down a US proposal to let Palestinian negotiators into the compound to start talks on ending the stalemate. Israeli government sources said Sharon would not budge from his demand Arafat hand over the men.

"Sharon does not want negotiations. He wants total surrender and the situation will keep deteriorating until the surrender. This time, it’s serious," said one official familiar with the US offer.

Hammering home a tough message, the long arm of an Israeli mechanical excavator clawed into outer walls of Arafat’s headquarters, only three offices away from the rooms where he took refuge after a tank shell showered him with dust overnight.

Thick black smoke, apparently from a fuel tank outside Arafat’s office, filled the late afternoon sky, and Palestinian officials said Israeli forces had cut off running water to the building, as they had during a previous raid in April.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said he had spoken to Israeli leaders "to convey my greatest concerns about the situation and particularly the siege of the Palestinian leadership".

But a statement by Shimon Peres’ office said the foreign minister told Solana the Palestinians should appoint a prime minister "to take care of business, including security".

The White House called on Israel to consider the consequences of its actions but also said it had a right to defend itself against bombings.

French President Jacques Chirac spoke to Arafat by telephone and said peace could only be achieved through diplomacy, Chirac’s spokeswoman said. "The president said he was appalled at how the situation is evolving. As France has repeatedly said, isolating the Palestinian Authority cannot have positive effects," the spokeswoman said.

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency session on the Middle East crisis for tomorrow, at the behest of Council member Syria.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, called French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin and asked France to intervene to stop the Israeli action. Maher told reporters that Israel’s actions "violate all agreements and humanitarian principles.".

Journalist rejects weapons of mass destruction charge

TOPPLING of the Iraqi government, establishing control over Iraq's vast petroleum resources, and alienating Iraq from the Arab-Israeli conflict were identified yesterday by a senior Iraqi journalist as some of the main objectives of the threatened US attack on Iraq. Speaking at the Dubai Press Club on 'Iraqi media: 12 years of siege', Dr Sabah Nahi, vice-president of the Iraqi Union of Journalists, denied US allegations about accumulation of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms in Iraq.

"International inspectors conducted a series of investigation at different Iraqi sites and landmarks in the past but they failed to detect any sign that might indicate the storage of weapons of mass destruction which could pose a threat to international security," Dr Nahi said. In this connection, he referred to the destruction of the last Iraqi nuclear reactor by Israeli warplanes in 1981.

Dr Nahi said that the proposed return of international inspectors to Iraq would affect the sovereignty of the people of the country and their spirit of freedom. He pointed out that US and British warplanes had been raiding the south of Iraq for several years which too amounted to violation of the territorial sovereignty of the country. "The devastation caused by the British and US warplanes in southern Iraq," Dr Nahi said, "equalled six times the havoc caused by the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the World War II."

Dr Nahi drew the attention of the international community to the plight of children born in southern Iraq which had been exposed to constant radiation from uranium caused by the continuous bomb attacks. Commenting on the media scene in Iraq under the US-UK siege, Dr Nahi said there were around 40 monthly and weekly publications in the country and the Iraqi Union of Journalists Union had 2,000 members. "These journalists are banned from travelling outside the country on professional assignments, and they are entirely dependent on local training institutes."

12 more die as Kashmir gears for second round of elections

SRINAGAR: Another 12 people, including two ruling party activists, have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir, police said yesterday, as violence spiralled ahead of a second phase of voting in the state.

A police spokesman said troops yesterday shot dead four militants trying to cross into Kashmir from Pakistan.

The spokesman said the four militants had crossed the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, in northwestern Baramulla district.

A defence ministry statement issued in New Delhi said the militants had been killed in an exchange of fire with troops on the LoC, claiming it was the seventh such incident in the past 20 days. “Pakistan has stepped up infiltration with a view to disrupting the elections in,” the statement said.

On Thursday, US ambassador to India Robert Blackwill said militants have been crossing from the Pakistani to Jammu and Kashmir in increasing numbers since New Delhi announced on August 2 dates for elections.

In further violence, a member of the security forces was killed and three others injured in a landmine explosion near Shopian township, 50km south of the summer capital Srinagar.

A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) vehicle was completely destroyed when it hit a landmine planted by suspected militants, police said.

Militants have vowed to disrupt the polling and kill those taking part in the four-phased elections, which have also been opposed by separatists in Kashmir.

Police also reported that another two members of the ruling National Conference (NC) party were gunned down by militants, bringing to 29 the number of pro-India activists killed since New Delhi announced the dates for the Kashassembly poll in early August.

Police said two militants walked up to NC party activist Azad Ahmed Khan as he was walking from the party headquarters in Srinagar late Thursday, pumped him full of bullets and then fled. Another NC official, Molvi Mohamed Hussain, was shot dead near Achabal in southern Anantnag district overnight, police said.

An independent candidate Abdul Hamid was injured when militants attacked his motorcade in Surankote area of southern Poonch district overnight.

Militants also opened fire at a canvassing vehicle near Kulgam in southern Anantnag district yesterday, injuring a campaign worker of an independent candidate.

Militants also hurled hand grenade at the residence of a Congress candidate in southern Pulwama district yesterday, without causing any casualties.

The first phase of voting took place in five districts on Monday, with authorities recording a “satisfactory” 47% voter turnout. The second phase of voting is taking place in Srinagar, Budgam and Jammu districts on Tuesday. The voting ends on October 8 and the results are expected to be finalised by October 12.

Meanwhile, border guards shot dead a company commander of Kashmir’s dominant militant group Hizbul Mujahedin in Sopore overnight, a spokesman for the Border Security Force (BSF) said yesterday. He identified the slain militant as Javed Ahmed alias Jajja, adding he was carrying a Rs100,000 bounty on his head.

“The slain militant was responsible for killing more than a dozen security personnel and informers and has been active since 1994,” the spokesman said.

“He created terror in Sopore city and its peripheries before the assembly elections so that the masses would not participate in the election process.”

Sopore, which is part of Baramulla district, recorded a voter turnout of only 7.8% in the first phase of polling.

Four more people, including a schoolteacher, died elsewhere in Kashmir yesterday, police said.- AFP

Khaleej Times, 9/22/02

"I reply to the US administration that the choice of head of state is the affair of the countries and peoples concerned," Maher said in remarks published in the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat. "The American position is neither in line with American principles nor with international law," said Maher, who was interviewed by the London-based daily while visiting the UN General Assembly in New York.

He was asked to comment on US calls to replace Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose position was increasingly under threat, and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who has slowed momentum for military action by agreeing last week to readmit UN weapons inspectors.

The US administration, which seeks to topple Saddam, is pushing for a tough new UN Security Council resolution that would include a military option should Iraq renege on commitments to disarm.

But Maher said: "I see no need for a new resolution and most countries don't feel the need because there are already resolutions and demands for their implementation.

"The US administration is trying to have one or two resolutions to use force against Iraq but according to my information, consultations between permanent members of the UN Security Council have not reached agreement," he said.

Iraq "has responded to an international request accepting the return of inspectors in line with UN Security Council resolutions. From this fact, I see no reason to believe that Iraq will not cooperate," he said. - AFP

US challenges allies ahead of NATO meeting

BRUSSELS - The United States has challenged its NATO allies with a new security strategy that includes pre-emptive action and by seeking the creation of a quick-strike force for operations anywhere in the world.

US President George W. Bush has thrown into doubt the defining principle of the 19-nation alliance - collective defence - by calling in his new National Security Strategy on Friday for pre-emptive strikes when necessary.

Diplomats said his stand will quicken debate when NATO defence ministers meet in Warsaw on Tuesday and Wednesday about whether to move towards pre-emption as a doctrine to thwart terrorist attacks and attacks with weapons of mass destruction. The US doctrine challenges NATO allies to consider following suit or risk being left on the sidelines in future conflicts.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson has himself illustrated the dilemma, stating on one occasion "we do not go out looking for problems to solve" and on another that "waiting for an attack to take place might not be the best choice".

But with Bush's campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein the sub-text of his new security strategy, many European allies are bound to be wary about handing the United States a blank cheque to carry out the kind of wars it wants to conduct.

"Is there scope for a doctrine, a revision, that builds in pre-emption?" said one senior NATO diplomat. "My answer is very clearly not." Even without the challenge posed by the new US priorities, NATO defence ministers will have plenty to occupy them in Warsaw this week.

First there will be sparring to do over how to tackle Iraq. And there will be further debate over how to transform NATO from a Cold War relic into a force to be reckoned with for post-September 11 threats without busting European budgets.

Reaction force

The allies have also been tantalised over the past week by sketchy details of a US proposal to create a "NATO Response Force", which some -- particularly the French -- fear could undermine the European Union's fledgling Rapid Reaction Force.

Under the plan, which US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will spell out to ministers in Warsaw, NATO would set up a standing force of 20,000 troops with a core of some 5,000 that could be deployed in seven to 30 days.

The concept fits with an alliance drive for rapidly deployable forces that can be equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and sustained in hotspots far beyond NATO borders.

NATO invoked its Article Five mutual defence clause for the first time in its history after last year's September 11 attacks on America, but Washington did not seek the alliance's support for its military response in Afghanistan. This sidelining highlighted the trans-Atlantic gap in military capability -- last year the United States spent 85 percent more on defence than the other 18 allies combined -- and stoked debate about what NATO is for.

The U.S. security strategy paper made clear last week that Washington is still committed to NATO. But the United States -- which often criticises the NATO-led Kosovo conflict as a cumbersome "war by committee" -- now sees the alliance less as a fighting force in its own right and more as a pool of military resources from which to put together "coalitions of the willing" for specific missions. "For the Americans this response force is just an additional tool in the NATO toolbox," said one diplomat. "It doesn't change their view that there shouldn't be a war by committee."

Washington hopes its proposal will be discussed and carried forward to a NATO summit in Prague this November and approved as part of an overhaul of the alliance's military capability. - Reuters

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