Palestinian intelligence chief quits
Reuters
Date: 03-31-05
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian security chief has resigned, complaining to President Mahmoud Abbas that too little was being done to halt lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza, officials say.
"I cannot work under these conditions," Tawfik Tirawi, head of Palestinian Intelligence in the West Bank, wrote in a letter of resignation that he gave Abbas on Thursday after a meeting of security commanders at the president's headquarters, the officials said.
Tirawi, the most senior security official to resign since Abbas's election in January, quit a day after half a dozen gunmen from the ruling Fatah faction fired at the presidential Muqata compound in Ramallah and then rampaged through the city.
There was no immediate word if Abbas, who officials said gets along well with Tirawi, would ask him to reconsider.
The officials said Tirawi complained that other heads of Palestinian security organisations had not done enough to impose the rule of law Abbas had promised after taking over from the late Yasser Arafat.
Earlier in the day, Abbas expelled from the Muqata the 26 militants to whom Arafat had given sanctuary at the height of the 4-1/2-old Palestinian uprising.
The 26, on an Israeli wanted list of 70 members of the Fatah-affiliated al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, had defied Abbas's demands to lay down their arms under peace moves he had agreed with Israel.
The flare-up in Ramallah began after security commanders met representatives of the 70 earlier in the week to press them to put aside their weapons.
A spokesman for the 26 said all the gunmen had left the compound on Abbas's orders and had gone to hiding places in Ramallah, the West Bank's political and commercial hub.
MILITANTS' DEMANDS
Some of the militants had refused to disarm, saying they wanted better job and pay guarantees as well as assurances of their safety, officials said. Israel has pledged to stop hunting them if they disarm.
Six of the militants vented their anger by carrying out the shooting spree, the officials said.
"We wanted our voice to be heard," one of the gunmen told Reuters. "We want our rights and we want protection."
In another sign of lawlessness plaguing the Palestinian territories, an angry crowd burned down tents used as offices by Palestinian police in the West Bank town of Tulkarm after police shot and wounded three suspects.
"Abbas has issued an order to prevent any security violations and harm to citizens' property," a spokesman from the Palestinian president said. "Security units have been deployed to prevent further attacks."
Abbas, elected in January after Arafat's death, is struggling to impose law and order and reform corruption-tainted security forces after reaching a ceasefire deal with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month.
He has so far used dialogue instead of confrontation in his dealings with militants.
Abbas has complained some senior Palestinian officials are blocking his reform efforts and has even suggested he might have to postpone an expected meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in April, Fatah officials said.
Source
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