ramallah (pic) — abbas’s security men on thursday quelled a peaceful demonstration in ramallah protesting bush’s visit to the city arresting a number of participants.
local sources said that the security men attacked the demonstrators beat them with truncheons and tore down the banners they were carrying despite the fact that the participants included prominent figures and members of the plc such as dr. mustafa al-barghouthi (former minister of information) khalida jarrar (mp and a leading pflp figure) abdel-rahim mallouh (deputy leader of the pflp) qais abdul-karim (a dflp leading figure) and others.
bashir khairi a pflp leading figure suffered broken bones in the shoulder another received a broken nose and many suffered suffocation as a result of inhaling teargas.
meanwhile al-sharq la-awsat newspaper reported that security men at al-muqata’a were relieved of their duties during the visit of president bush and that only a handful of unarmed security men were allowed to remain inside al-muqata’a. as to the more than 4000 security men who were deployed in the streets of ramallah they were ordered to empty their guns of ammunition and only point them to the ground otherwise they risk being shot by any of the 250 american snipers stationed on rooftops around the area according to the paper.
streets were dug and resurfaced on orders from american security to ensure safety of the president. sewage networks were also inspected.
bethlehem’s mayor sidelined
the elected mayor of bethlehem was excluded from president bush’s programme. it is thought that the fact that he is affiliated with the pflp rather than fatah that was behind the exclusion.
victor hanna batarsa told afp that he was not informed of anything and that he was asked to clean the streets for the visiting president and he did that.
while the israeli mayor of jerusalem met with bush and told him that it was important to keep jerusalem united (ie under israeli occupation.)
there many issues which the mayor of bethlehem could have raised with president bush such as the suffocating apartheid wall which is killing the historic city and the birth place of christ.
