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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (146836)	5/3/2002 1:48:33 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574852

Israel Raids West Bank City of Nablus; U.S. Plans Conference By Atef Sa'ad Reuters NABLUS, West Bank (May 3) - Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in clashes during a five-hour raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday as the United States announced plans for a Middle East peace conference this summer. In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States was preparing for a Middle East peace conference to capitalize on a ''window of opportunity'' presented by the end of a month-old Israeli siege on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters. On the ground, the adversaries remained locked in confrontation at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, where a siege of Palestinian militants who burst into the shrine to hide from Israeli troops entered its second month with no resolution in sight. In the latest in a series of Israeli raids into Palestinian areas, soldiers killed a Palestinian policeman and another unidentified man in a firefight. The army said the action was intended to prevent militant attacks and destroy what it called the ''terror infrastructure.'' Residents said armor and troops thrust deep into the city's old quarter, where they cordoned off several buildings and conducted house-to-house searches. About 15 people, mostly suspected Islamic militants, were detained, they said. Human Rights Watch, a human rights watchdog, said in a report published on Friday that it had found no evidence to back charges that hundreds of Palestinians were massacred at the Jenin refugee camp, but said the Israeli army may have committed war crimes there. Arafat told Reuters in an interview that he still saw Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a partner for peace despite the destruction wrought by an Israeli military offensive, the biggest in 20 years, launched after a series of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants against Israeli civilians. ''He is the person who has been elected by the Israelis and we are dealing with him...because our partner is the Israeli people,'' Arafat said. BUSH OPTIMISTIC President Bush said he believed progress was being made toward ending the 19-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation and restarting talks on creating a Palestinian state. But he cautioned both Arafat and Sharon: ''A Palestinian state must be achieved by negotiating an end to occupation, but such a state cannot be based on a foundation of terror or corruption.'' Powell said preparations were underway for a summer peace conference after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and two European Union leaders -- the so-called ''quartet'' set up to co-ordinate the international peace effort. ''This is a time for prompt action to take advantage of this new window of opportunity that has been presented to us, and we intend to do just that,'' Powell said. No venue or date has been set. Foreign ministers of the Arab League will meet in Cairo next Wednesday to follow up an Arab peace proposal, a League spokesman in the Egyptian capital said. U.N. JENIN MISSION ABANDONED At the United Nations, Annan ordered a fact-finding panel home, formally canceling the mission into Israel's devastating assault on the Jenin refugee camp. Arab nations gave up their attempt to have the Security Council adopt a resolution critical of Israel for blocking the mission and wanted to reconvene an emergency General Assembly session on the Middle East. At the request of Arab nations, the council set for Friday a new public debate on the crisis in the Middle East. In its report, Human Rights Watch said it had identified 52 Palestinians killed during eight days of fierce house-to-house fighting at the Jenin camp, of whom 22 were civilians. ''Many of the civilians were killed willfully or unlawfully,'' it said. ''Human Rights Watch also found that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) used Palestinian civilians as human shields and used indiscriminate and excessive force during the operation.'' But it added that Human Rights Watch found no evidence to support claims the Israeli army massacred hundreds of Palestinians in the camp. With Friday's casualties in Nablus, at least 1,336 Palestinians as well as 458 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began in September 2000. Reut10:53 05-03-02 Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited.