Terrorist leader blames massacre on U.S. and Israel

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33413, 20 December 1973, Page 1

Terrorist leader blames massacre on U.S. and Israel

(N.ZP.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

KUWAIT, December ,19.

The leader of the Palestinian terrorists who hijacked a Lufthansa airliner after ‘"the Rome massacre” said on landing in Kuwait that he was “fighting for the whole world that America and Israel have sentenced to death.”

The leader of the five-man guerrilla squad harangued Kuwaiti Ministers and officials for more than two hours last night when the hijacked Boeing 737 jet reached Kuwait after landings in Athens and Damascus.

A recording heard today of his emotional speech gave the clearest picture yet of the views of the commandos who left 32 dead and 20 injured in a bomh and machine-gun attack at Rome Airport before the hijacking.

The five men who firebombed an American airliner in Rome on Monday, fired machine-guns indiscriminately, and seized a Lufthansa jet, released all 12 hostages and crew on their arrival, and calmly gave themselves up to Kuwait security officials. They are thought to have received some form of safe conduct pledge in negotiations by radio with the airport control tower before they surrendered. The freed hostages included five Italian policemen and an Ethiopian, as well as the iet’s crew of six. West Germany’s Ambassador (Mr Hans Freundt) listened to tense exchanges between the “boss”—as his fellow hijackers referred to him—and the airport control tower, as the guerrilla leader claimed that the United States “taught me criminality.” ‘U.S. to blame" Addressing his unseen audience from the pilot’s cabin as the jet sat on the runway 300 yards from the control tower, the “boss” said that the Americans “were the ones who taught me to use napalm and how to burn aircraft, because they are burning me.” He linked the United States and Israel as “enemies” of the Palestinian people and all the Arabs.

The leader of the guerrilla squad whose massacre and hijack were denounced by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (P.L.0.), and generally condemned in the Arab world spoke fiercely about what had driven the five men.

He said that he negotiated not for his life, but for what he called honour, and he refused to surrender to demands that he and his companions leave the aircraft with hands on their heads. Kuwaiti officials, led by the Minister of Defence and the Interior (Sheikh Saad Al Abdulla), the Under-Secretary for Defence (Major-General Badel-Latif Al-Thuweini) and the airport commander (Colonel Abdel-Aziz AlMetuq) bargained at length with the hijackers before they agreed to free the hostages and give themselves up. The final act in the 27-hour drama took place in the glare of lights from Kuwaiti firetrucks which moved near the parked jet. Macabre threats

In the interval the guerrillas had spent 17 hours with hostages aboard the plane at Athens Airport. There they tried to exchange the hostages for the release of two Arabs held in Greek gaols after a machine-gun and grenade attack at the airport earlier this year.

■ They flew to Damascus ‘yesterday, then to a for-

bidden but last-chance landing at dusk in Kuwait. At one point during the radio exchanges, one of the two Lufthansa stewardesses was given the aircraft’s microphone by the guerrillas and implored the people in the control tower, “please help us. We want to go back home to our families.”

The five hijackers were today reported to be under heavy guard at an undisclosed Kuwaiti military base. Their identities were unknown.

‘V for victory’

Television pictures of them as they finally left the jet showed them smiling and giving "V for Victory” signals.

A Palestinian-born resident who heard the exchanges between the guerrilla “boss” and the control tower said there could be no doubt the man spoke with a “heavy Palestinian accent.”

According to those who saw the surrender and heard the protracted negotiation, the Kuwaiti authorities gave only one guarantee to the hijackers: they would not be shot and killed as they left the aircraft after freeing their hostages and the crew. “I am talking to you in the name of the Palestinian people,” the guerrilla leader repeatedly told Kuwaiti officials from the pilot’s cabin.

The guerrilla, who spoke as if he were addressing a political rally, shouted, "I am one of the people who is being slaughtered every day. I am an Arab and I am telling you we are brothers.” Link with Frankfurt

As tension rose and Kuwaiti officials conferred with the West German ambassador, who was linked over an open line with authorities in Frankfurt, the “boss” continued his passionate oration. “I am not a criminal,” he insisted. “I am fighting for my rights.”

He accused Israel and the United States of “bombing civilian targets using napalm, and using heavy artillery in the south of Lebanon or in Syria, and on Egypt. Do you know? They have reached even into Libya. If they could have reached to Kuwait they would have done it.”

He yelled to the Kuwaiti officials, “We are all one people. If I am hurt, you are hurt, and if you are hurt I am hurt.”

The longest and most emotional argument holding up the freeing of the hostages was the demand by the Kuwaiti authorities that the hijackers should leave the jet unarmed and with their hands on their heads.

“I will never put my hands on my head, and never leave this aircraft with mv hands on my head, even if I die,” the “boss” shouted. “I will come out and shake hands with my brothers who are fighting for human rights." Rough handling He finally won the reluctant approval of the Kuwaiti authorities. None of the hijackers left the aircraft with his hands on his head, but they left their weapons — a machine-gun and eight pistols, including those seized from five Rome airport policemen who were among the hostages — aboard the jet and set foot on Kuwaiti soil unarmed.

From the control tower, came the words, “You are on Arab land that welcomes you and your brothers, and you have a safe guarantee. We will not put our request that you put your hands on your heads, but we insist your weapons stay aboard.” Armed Kuwaiti troops surrounded the hijackers, who were shoved roughly into an army vehicle by Colonel Al-Metuq and driven away. The freed hostages spent the night at Kuwait City’s Hilton Hotel as guests of the State at a minister’s personal invitation.

Another Lufthansa plane was due to take them back to Rome this morning.

When a Palestinian band surrendered themselves and diplomat hostages in September, at the end of an action beginning with a raid on Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Paris, their future was dedecided in a series of top level exchanges between the Government and the P.L.O.

They were to be handed over to the P.L.O. and taken to Iraq or Syria for trial by the commando movement. There were repeated delays, and the group eventually vanished from sight as members of a party of Palestinian volunteers for the Syrian front in the October war.

A fishing boat was pulled to shore by the Sumner jet lifeboat Cranleigh Barton last evening after its motor failed, and It began to drift towards the Sumner bar.

The fishing boat Matuka, based at Lyttelton and captained by Mr W. Williams, was heading away from Sumner about 7 p.m. when it stripped its gearbox about 500 yards offshore. Mr Williams put out a sea anchor, but this failed to hold the vessel, which began to drift into the breakers. It was low tide, and the water was shallow.

He sent up a distress flare and waved a red flag to attract attention, and was seen on shore by a member of the Sumner lifeboat crew, who raised the alarm.

Because of the low tide, it was decided to launch the jet lifeboat rather than the lifeboat Rescue 111, which has a deeper draught

The jet boat attached a line to the Matuka (see photograph) about 7.30 p.m., and pulled it to shore in about 20 minutes, in spite of the larger size of the fishing boat.

Mr Williams was not injured.