Arafat loyalists urged to give up as front crumbles

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 8

Arafat loyalists urged to give up as front crumbles

NZPA-Reuter Tripoli Palestinian rebels have closed in on Yasser Arafat’s last bastion in Lebanon and have called on his defenders to lay down their arms after six days of internecine battles that have killed or injured hundreds of people. The fighting between the factions entered a decisive phase yesterday and both sides intensified shelling, the use of artillery, tanks and rocket-launchers.

Syrian-backed Palestinian dissidents advanced on Mr Arafat’s last base at the Baddawi refugee camp in northern Lebanon along three axes to within I.skm from the camp, said security sources.

The rebels shouted through loudspeakers from their frontline positions at the approaches to the camp, which adjoins the port city of Tripoli, calling on loyalist defenders to hold their fire, they said.

Mr Arafat’s forces continued to let off volleys of rocket fire from multiple launchers inside the city in spite of a call by factional and political leaders for an immediate cease-fire.

More than 200 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and hundreds wounded in the six days of fighting that could decide the future of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. A spokesman for Mr Arafat told reporters that the guerrilla chief was prepared to accept a cease-fire, but said loyalists may have

to continue fighting in selfdefence.

The Mayor of Tripoli, Mr Ashir el-Daye, said that a "co-ordination committee” of Lebanese factional leaders made the cease-fire call during a meeting with the beleaguered Mr Arafat.

Committee sources said that Mr Arafat had agreed to spare the city from a possible blood-bath after being asked to move his heavy artillery out'

Mr Arafat’s men moved heavy weapons to the Tripoli port area after the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp fell to the rebels.. Baddawi is Mr Arafat’s last stronghold in Lebanon.

The leader, aged 53, has seen his power base crumble over the last six months as thousands of guerrillas from his Fatah group defected to the rebel side led by Colonel Muhammad Saeed Musa, also known as Abu Musa. Abu Musa has invited Mr Arafat to a dialogue, but Arafat aides say the two have had no direct contacts.

Rebel military operations are being supervised by Abu Musa, Colonel Muhammad Badri (Abu Majdi) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command chief, Ahmed Jibril.

A Front spokesman, Fadel Shruro, told reporters that a joint rebel military command had been formed by Fatah rebels, the Front, Syrian-backed Assaiqa, the Popular Struggle Front and

the P.L.O. A rebels spokesman, Jihad Saleh, said their fighters had captured the officer in charge of Fatah Armed Struggle, Colonel Mustafa Deeb (Abu Taan), while leaving Baddawi on an inspection. Mr Saleh said he had committed crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese peoples and would be tried by a military court.

Meanwhile, Rashid Karami, Tripoli’s leading politician who is now visiting Damascus, has been mandated by the “co-ordina-tion committee” to negotiate a truce with the rebels in Syria.

Leaders from Saudi Arabia and five Gulf allies yesterday awaited Syria’s response to Arab efforts to end the inter-Palestinian fighting.

The leaders of the Gulf Co-operation Council have sent envoys to Damascus to seek an immediate ceasefire.

The envoys were expected to report back to the heads of State of the sixnation council, which groups Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates with Saudi Arabia.

Palestinian leaders oh the Israeli-occupied West Bank have also appealed for a halt to the inter-Pales-tinian fighting. Some of them have bitterly criticised Syria, saying that President Hafez Assad had played into Israeli hands by stoking up the rebellion against Mr Arafat.