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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (533417)	1/31/2004 10:00:35 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Respond to of 769667

DEATH CULTURE FEATURE-Anarchy in Nablus evokes disorder of Arafat's rule By Mark Heinrich NABLUS, West Bank, Feb 1 (Reuters) - "Law is only a word in Palestinian areas," murmured Roula al-Shashir, widowed at 29 by a gunman who mistook her husband for a factional foe and who moves about town today without fear of arrest. Shouib al-Shashir, shot in his furniture shop, became another victim of gang anarchy filling a vacuum created as the Palestinian Authority has crumpled under Israeli military crackdowns on Palestinian militant groups. Palestinians ultimately blame the chaos on Israel's occupation of land where they seek a state. But for many the heart of the matter is lawless Palestinian governance, a system with no one in charge below a remote President Yasser Arafat. "We see the guy who shot Shouib moving about openly because no agency has the power or will to seize him," said Roula's brother Faris al-Shashir as she wept at home in Nablus, worst hit by the gang crime which is increasingly afflicting Palestinian cities. "From this experience we have learned that the Palestinian Authority is really 1,000 competing authorities who cancel each other out -- a lot of officials or semi-officials with their own groups of gunmen. We don't know whom to turn to for justice." Similar complaints were voiced by relatives of some of the other 32 people shot dead recently in Nablus, a toll that included the businessman brother of Mayor Ghassan Shaqa. No one has been arrested or prosecuted. Some of the dead fell in feuds over flourishing rackets in stolen cars, drugs and extortion. Some were "collaborators" said to have steered Israeli forces toward wanted militants in the city of 150,000, the historical hub of Palestinian nationalism. MOSTLY INNOCENT CASUALTIES But the majority have been cases of mistaken identity or people caught in the middle of fighting between rival gangs. Amneh Abu Hijleh, 37, entered a pharmacy to buy cough syrup for her infant daughter only to be shot dead in a botched abduction. Firas Aghbar, 13, was killed when he walked into a gang battle on his way to the barber for a birthday trim. Gunmen have also taken to shooting at the legs of those they accuse of "bad behaviour" -- from profiteering in Palestinian Authority posts to making advances to women in public in this conservative Muslim society. An ex-Nablus police chief was shot in the back of the knees after he was accused of black market activity in leaflets circulated by the local branch of Arafat's Fatah movement. Many analysts say the suicide bombings and ambushes by a group of young Fatah and Islamist militants has been not just a fight against occupation but against incompetence and corruption permeating the Palestinians' entrenched ruling older generation. "The agenda has been hijacked by a faceless young generation on the ground fed up with the old guard's slogans and talks (with Israel) that delivered nothing," said Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, director of the Palestinian think-tank PASSIA. Distinctions between nationalist militant and criminal gang activities have blurred as Fatah has splintered into armed groups, many spun off from Palestinian security services disabled by Israeli offensives in the West Bank. A regional Fatah official who asked not to be named said 90 percent of gang lawlessness could be traced to people still on a Palestinian Authority payroll. "Faced with continued occupation, raids and rudderless leaders, belief in process has given way to a street culture of despair and rage that has made for chaos," Abdul-Hadi said. ISRAELI OFFENSIVES IMPAIR PALESTINIAN POLICING Palestinian leaders blame Israel for the legal void, citing its ban on uniformed Palestinian police in most West Bank cities and destruction during army raids of security infrastructure such as police stations. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath singled out Israel's isolation of Arafat inside his Ramallah compound since 2001 on the grounds that he has masterminded "terror", a charge he denies. "The loss of Arafat's charismatic, direct contact with his people has helped to unravel our society," Shaath told Reuters. But political analysts and biographers of Arafat say the anarchy has thrived in his system of overlapping security services and political appointments designed to prevent others forming power bases to contest his rule -- but which have also provided cover for abuses of public office from top to bottom. "This is President Arafat's secret of survival. But it is not the way to a modern state," said Tayseer Nasrallah, a Nablus Fatah leader who advocates democratic reform. Mayor Shaqa and regional Governor Mahmoud al-Aloul, both Arafat appointees and Fatah veterans, deny talk that they have done nothing to punish gunmen because of murky links to them. Such speculation rose when Fatah gunmen abducted al-Aloul's brother from a technical college he runs. They freed him after a personal appeal from Arafat. But the governor lost his car, and another brother his coffee shop, to arson attacks. Shaqa said "personal grudges" might have driven the killers of his brother. Residents and political analysts say Shaqa's ruling style has won him enemies. The lawlessness has stirred emotional debate and protests in a series of community meetings and the Palestinian parliament. Nablus lawmakers demanded a Palestinian Authority crackdown on "arms not used to resist occupation" -- but without result. Israel believes Nablus's turmoil is a harbinger of "warlord feudalism" in Palestinian areas after Arafat dies because of his failure to forge a responsible rule of law. Without it, a peace deal allowing Palestinian statehood is inconceivable, it says.