960402

Arafat asks UN to

help in reopening

Palestinian territories

UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian President Yasir Arafat has asked the United Nations to demand that Israel reopen the West Bank and Gaza, sealed for more than a month in response to suicide bombings, according to a letter obtained late on Monday.

His letter was sent to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros- Ghali last Friday, a day after the U.N. chief wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres urging him to consider lifting "at least gradually" the closure of the Palestinian territories.

The closure has devastated the Palestinian economy, keeping some 60,000 people from jobs in Israel. It was imposed in response to a nine-day wave of bombings by the Moslem Hamas group that killed 58 people in Israel cities, beginning on Feb. 25.

Israel eased the ban somewhat on Monday, saying it would let 3,000 Gazans work on farms in the Jewish state.

Boutros-Ghali's letter, also obtained late on Monday, said he understood Israel's determination to ensure the security of its people after the "horrendous attacks."

But he expressed "profound concern" that the closures of the territories could have a "possible adverse impact on the peace process, and on international efforts to sustain important developments on the recent past.

"A prolonged closure may create a climate of frustration in the territories in which the ability of the Palestinian Authority to combat terrorism and to work constructively with the government of Israel to that end could be seriously hampered," he said.

"In view of these serious concerns, I urge you to consider lifting, at least gradually, the closure of Gaza and the West Bank," he said. Arafat, in his letter, asked Boutros-Ghali, currently travelling in Asia, to bring the issue to the "urgent and immediate attention of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations."

"The general security blockade the Israeli government has imposed on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, its re-occupation of areas from which Israeli forces had previously been withdrawn and its failure to withdraw from the city of Hebron ... are in flagrant vilation of all international covenants, conventions and customs," he said.

"We consider such a blockade and closure as tantamount to the declaration of state of war against the Palestinian people, a people that has chosen the road of peace but that for more than a month has been subjected to the worse and most unjust form of collective punishment," he added.

Proposal slammed

GAZA: Moreover Yasser Arafat on Tuesday slammed a proposal by Prime Minister Shimon Peres to hold a referendum in Israel on a future peace deal with the PLO.

"This is completely against what has been agreed upon," Arafat told reporters in Gaza when asked his view of the proposal and a vow by Peres not to remove Jewish settlements. Arafat did not elaborate.

Peres, in the thick of a hard-fought election campaign, made the surprise announcement on Monday, saying he would ask for a referendum before signing a final Israeli accord on the fate of Jerusalem and Jewish settlers.-Reuter