RAMALLAH — The United States has appointed a general to train and restructure the
Palestinian security forces.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named U.S. Army Lt. Gen.
William Ward to head the U.S. liasion with the Palestinian Authority. Rice said Ward would be responsible for the international effort to reorganize the PA security forces as well as coordination with Israel.
U.S. officials said much of the $350 million pledged by the Bush
administration to the PA would help restore the security forces. The
administration has also ordered emergency aid of an additional $40 million
over the next three months to restore Palestinian services, Middle East Newsline reported.
The money would also be used to coopt Fatah and other insurgents to
renounce violence. Officials said Rice has proposed that each insurgent
receive a retirement stipend of $100 a month in an effort that would be
supervised by Ward's team.
Rice said Ward would serve as "senior U.S. security coordinator to
assist the Palestinian Authority to consolidate and expand their recent
efforts at security and encourage the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian
security coordination, including, if necessary, through the trilateral
security committee."
The reference was to the U.S.-Israel-PA committee established in the
mid-1990s to help resolve security issues between Israel and the PA. The
committee, formerly headed by then-CIA director George Tenet and
former Central Command chief Anthony Zinni, has not been functioning since
the Israeli-Palestinian war in 2000.
Rice said Ward would work with Egypt, Jordan and other countries to
coordinate assistance to the PA during the restoration of its security
forces. Egypt and Jordan — in an effort financed by Britain and the United
States — have already launched training programs for the PA police.
"The Palestinians will be the first to tell you that they need help,"
Rice said. "We are going to be active with the parties on security."
The appointment of Ward was also meant to facilitate the capture of
those who ambushed a U.S. embassy convoy in the Gaza Strip in 2003, in which
three security guards were killed. During her visit, Rice pressed PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to capture and prosecute the killers, suspected of
being members of the ruling Fatah movement.
Since 2003, Ward has been deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army in
Europe. In 2002, Ward commanded the NATO-led peacekeeping forces in Bosnia.
In 1999, Ward was chief of the Office of Military Cooperation, based in the
U.S. embassy in Egypt.
"The focus would be on helping develop a security program with the
Palestinians, helping them develop their capabilities, as well as working
with others in ways that can coordinate all of our efforts to address what
is a very critical and high-priority item, which is the reform of
Palestinian security institutions and development of capabilities of
Palestinian services," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said in
Washington.
The PA has reported that 600 officers of its security forces have been
killed during the four-year-old war with Israel. A senior PA security
official told The Jerusalem Post that most of the slain PA security officers
participated in the insurgency in late 2000, with the majority of police,
including those trained by Britain and the United States, joining Fatah's Al
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
A State Department statement said the $40 million would include aid for
higher education and training programs, job creation, youth programs, health
care, water infrastructure and private sector development. The
administration also plans to allocate $200 million for housing in the Gaza
Strip, economic infrastructure and social services.
For fiscal 2006, the administration has sought $150 million in economic
assistance for the West Bank and Gaza, an increase of $75 million over the
current year. Officials said the planned increase would help reconstruct the
Gaza Strip in wake of the planned Israeli withdrawal from the area.
