september 2004
| Dahlan launches unprecedented
attack against Arafat 01-08-2004, 11:52 |
Former Palestinian security
chief Mohammed Dahlan, one of Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat's  most
prominent critics, on Sunday expressed his
strongest public criticism yet of the Palestinian
leader, in a statement to a Kuwaiti newspaper. His remarks marked the first time such a powerful figure in the Gaza Strip has broken his silence over latest events with direct criticism on the Palestinian president. Dahlan told Al-Watan there is no choice but to implement reforms . He added that Arafat currently "sits on corpses and destruction" while Palestinians need a new way of thinking. Dahlan added that the logic that is controlling the Palestinian situation has no benefit and that the Palestinian life is destroyed. "We decided to act on the ground and what happened in Gaza is a reflection of our demands for reform," he said, in an apparent reference to three weeks of heavy protests in the Gaza Strip against new appointments made by Yasser Arafat. "The secret of the reformists is that they have went through the first and second Intifada and they are fighting against corrupt people - wherever they are." The former security chief noted that the Palestinian Authority received $5 billion in aid from international donors, but no one knows where this sum went. Dahlan served as former Internal Security Affairs minister in the Palestinian Authority. He was previously head of the Preventive Security Force in Gaza, with rank of colonel. Israeli premier Ariel Sharon has blamed him for an attack on a settlers' bus in the Strip in November 2000, bombed his offices and said that he deserved to die. His car was hit by Israeli bullets in April 2001. (Albawaba.com |