Camp visit sparks storm

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 10

Camp visit sparks storm

NZPA-AAP Jerusalem The Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Bill Hayden, yesterday appeared to have started a big diplomatic storm when he visited the Kalandia Palestinian refugee camp on the West Bank. Foreign Affairs officials said that Mr Hayden was the most senior foreign dignitary to visit the camps, where tension between the Palestinians . and Israeli soldiers patrolling nearby often runs high. Stone-throwing incidents

are common when Israeli soldiers patrol too close to the camp’s perimeters. Mr Hayden was taken on the tour by officials of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency, which runs the camps, and it was billed as a private visit. The officials said they had emphasised they wanted low-key security arrangements for Mr Hayden’s camp tour so his party was split into two groups because of fears that one large party could provoke tensions.

The agency said it had told the Israeli military that the level of security provided by them should only consist of one jeep following the United Nations convoy carrying the Minister at a discreet distance, as well as some military presence at the camp entrance. However, when Mr Hayden entered the camp, there was a military vehicle carrying armed soldiers, soldiers stationed on the road and others placed on roofs of tall buildings. The agency’s director on

the West Bank, Roy Skinner, was heard to say that he intended making an official complaint about the level of Israeli security. He was responsible for organising Mr Hayden’s security during the tour and when asked whether the Israeli military presence was unnecessary, he said: “Yes.” The Israeli Government was understood to have indicated that it was upset by Mr Hayden’s personal interest in the Palestinian question.