Weak Palestinian forces may hurt Gaza pullout-report
Reuters
Date: 07-26-05
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces are in such disarray they may not be able to fill a vacuum left by Israel after it withdraws from the occupied Gaza Strip this year, an independent report released on Tuesday said.
The survey by a Washington-based think tank advising U.S. security coordinator Lt.-Gen. William Ward said Palestinian security services were over-staffed, poorly armed and undermined by corruption and rivalry between security chiefs.
While admitting some security personnel had been mired in corruption, the Palestinian Authority said the findings of the Strategic Assessments Initiative did not sufficiently take into account recent reforms under President Mahmoud Abbas.
The report also criticized Israel for undermining the effectiveness of the Palestinian security services through military operations during a nearly 5-year-old Palestinian uprising as well as failing to coordinate the Gaza withdrawal.
The report was released as Ward, assigned by Washington to overhaul the Palestinian Authority forces, told U.S. lawmakers the Palestinian forces were emerging from a fractured and dysfunctional structure, with no clear lines of control.
"The things that we are doing today are precisely designed to overcome those deficiencies and progress is occuring," Ward said in Washington. "It is not an overnight affair, this is a long term proposition."
He also reported more arrests had been made since Palestinian forces began reporting to a central authority under the minister of interior and national security.
The independent report said Palestinian security forces "lacked the capacity and capability to fulfill core functions" and might have trouble taking control when Israel pulls its troops and 9,000 settlers out of Gaza and the northern West Bank starting mid-August.
'THREAT TO STABILITY'
"Lack of clarity in relation to the future of settlement assets, land allocation and property rights may present a threat to stability," the report said.
The Gaza withdrawal, Israel's first removal of settlements from occupied land Palestinians want for a state, is seen as a test of the Palestinians' ability to assert control before any future peace talks.
Ward said meetings between Israeli and Palestinian security forces were showing some success, while Palestinian forces were being retrained and properly equipped.
But, he added, Palestinian forces' ability to deal with disruptions during the pullout was still uncertain.
"The chance that something could occur that they could not control does exist," Ward said.
The Palestinian Authority's top security official responded to the report saying time was needed to repair the damage of Israeli raids and mismanagement by the old guard.
"In the recent period there has been a process of restructuring most forces. Many senior officers and commanders were sent into retirement," said a spokesman for Interior Minister Nasser Youssef.
"Maybe it does not yet achieve the goal of correcting the security services but it constituted a number of steps in the right direction," he said.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said they would press ahead with meetings to coordinate the withdrawal and prevent attacks by militants or looting of property left by settlers.
Brig-Gen. Jamal Kayed, commander of Palestinian forces in south Gaza, said about 7,000 police and paramilitary troops would be deployed to secure evacuated settlements.
The report said that while coordination might reduce the likelihood of militant attacks, it was doubtful that Palestinian security forces could exert full control, especially in southern Gaza where militants control areas near Jewish settlements.
Israel has said the withdrawal will not take place under fire and that troops could seize Palestinian areas near settlements if militants attack.
Source
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