Fatah and Hamas form Committee to Resolve Political Detainees Issue

By Salaah jum'ah Asharq Al-Awsat 29/06/2009
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=17245

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- The Fatah and Hamas movements agreed at the first
session of the Palestinian national dialogue round held at present in Cairo
to form a joint subcommittee at Egypt's proposal to resolve the issue of
political detainees which Hamas is making its ending a condition before
signing any reconciliation agreement. The two delegations and Egyptian
Intelligence Director Minister Omar Suleiman will meet later after the
latter's return from Saudi Arabia where he is accompanying President Hosni
Mubarak during his visit.

Identical sources from Fatah and Hamas told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hamas was
determined during this morning's (yesterday) session to discuss only the
issue of political detention and refused to discuss the other pending
dossiers but the Egyptian officials proposed forming a subcommittee to
resolve the issue of political detainees. They added that "we will continue
the dialogue over the pending issues during the ongoing sixth round in Cairo
and these are the elections law and the settlement rate, how to reorganize
the security organs on professional bases, and the factional committee while
the subcommittee determines the issue of political detention."

Dr. Mahmud al-Zahhar told Asharq al-Awsat: The dialogue has made good
progress inside the five committees (government, PLO, reconciliation,
security, and elections) and only few issues remain but they are important
ones. The Egyptian stand says agreement can be reached on 7 July and we say
also we can reach agreement. But "events" happened which might delay the
agreement and probably undermine it, especially the killing of Al-Qassam's
members and cadres in Qalqiliya and the measures to uproot establishments,
charities, schools, and university teachers and students affiliated to
Hamas.

He added: Egypt understood this fact completely and that what is happening
in the West Bank is in fact hardening the internal division and disunity and
therefore the Egyptian leadership demanded from Fatah to re-establish the
committees which it had previously rejected. They agreed and the committees
met in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to end the division but they did not
reach a satisfactory result.

The Hamas leader went on to say: The reconciliation issue was over as well
as the PLO one but these two issues are linked to the achievement of the
remaining pending issues in the government, elections, and security
committees. These three have simple issues that have not been resolved yet
but they are important ones. In the elections issue, Fatah wants to enact a
law that removes Hamas from the political stage and brings small factions
into the world of political blackmail so as to adopt as much as possible the
proportional representation so that Hamas cannot get more than 40 or 45
percent while the rest can be bought like it is happening in Israel and
Italy where they do not care about the political results as much as reaching
power. We are adhering to our stand on this point.

Regarding the joint [security] force, this issued cropped up before us at
the last meetings. Fatah wants a joint force in Gaza made up of the former
security organs which follow the Fatah authority in everything and attach to
it the Hamas security organs in Gaza. Fatah refused to have this proposal
applied to the West Bank even the situations there are stable. This is
unacceptable. On the joint factional committee, they want it to be
affiliated to Abu-Mazin and to carry out its functions in Gaza through
UNRWA, the Red Crescent, and the Fatah organizations while ignoring the
results of the elections and the presence of Hamas as a government. This too
is unacceptable. I believe that Egypt's stand is clear, namely, that the
parties have to deal with the fait accompli in Gaza whether Fatah accepts it
or not. He added that in the issue of the Legislative Council, Fatah does
not want to embarrass Israel and wants to deprive Hamas of the majority in
the Council. This is not a nationalist stand. We were elected to represent
the people for four years and will continue until this period ends. The
Council will remain until new elections are held and a new council is
formed.

On his part, Azzam al-Ahmad [member of Fatah delegation to dialogue] said
"the political detention is the result of the division and not its cause. If
the division ends, then this dossier will most certainly ends. We have 209
Fatah detainees in the Hamas movement's jails in the Gaza Strip in addition
to hundreds put under house arrest by Hamas."

On the means for overcoming the pending issues, he said: "The Egyptians
proposed drafting what was agreed on and signing the agreement ending the
division in the presence of all the secretaries general of all the factions
on 7 July." He disclosed that there is an Egyptian proposal about the
elections which is being examined based on a mixed system of 75 proportional
representation, 25 percent districts, and 3 percent settlement rate.
Regarding the joint security force, Al-Ahmad said the disagreement over it
has continued since the start of the dialogue and expressed his hope that
there would be anew proposal that would push it forward.