World

Arafat reinstates security chief amid Gaza civil-war fears

July 20, 2004 Edition 1

Gaza City - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has scrambled to defuse a leadership crisis triggered by turmoil in Gaza over corruption in his government and security forces.

He yesterday tried to calm public anger in the Gaza Strip by naming a new security chief over the head of a cousin whose appointment fuelled a weekend of violence spearheaded by gunmen demanding anti-corruption reforms.

But Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei kept up pressure on Arafat, saying his resignation - tendered in frustration after what he called an explosion of "chaos and lawlessness" - would stand for now.

Arafat is facing the sharpest challenge to his rule since Palestinians received a measure of self-rule a decade ago, and some fear it could eventually boil over into civil war.

The confrontation is widely seen as a power struggle between Arafat's Old Guard and younger rivals staking out turf before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon carries out a plan to remove Jewish settlements from Gaza by the end of 2005

Adding to tensions in the region, a bomb killed a senior member of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah in Beirut yesterday in an attack the group blamed on Israel.

Under intense public pressure to overhaul his security apparatus, Arafat named Abdel-Razek al-Majaideh to the new post of overall director of security for the West Bank and Gaza. He outranks Moussa Arafat, the cousin widely seen as a symbol of entrenched cronyism, officials said.

The reinstatement of Majaideh, a veteran commander who resigned earlier this month at Arafat's request, was greeted by supporters firing automatic weapons in the air.

Gunmen opposed to Moussa Arafat had battled security forces on Sunday in clashes that left 18 people wounded.

Compounding Arafat's woes was Qorei's decision on Saturday to tender his resignation after brief abductions on Friday of four French aid workers, a police chief and another official in Gaza. Arafat rejected Qorei's resignation on Sunday.

After a cabinet meeting yesterday, Qorei said his resignation would stand pending a written response from Arafat.

According to analysts, Palestinians have all the ingredients for civil war: rival security forces, quarrelsome militant groups, power-hungry local chiefs and desperate calls for reform to paralysed authorities.

Even if Arafat stills an explosion of chaos in Gaza and defuses the political crisis, the worst internal turmoil since Palestinians gained a measure of self-rule from Israel a decade ago has raised long-term fears of a wider crisis.

"What is happening is a power struggle," a senior Palestinian official said yesterday. He saw "indications for the start of a civil war".

As an expert at "managing chaos", Arafat has for decades used crises to strengthen his position as symbol of the struggle for statehood.