Slain senior Palestinian official Kamal Medhat had reportedly received several death threats and had recently sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas detailing the threats, a top Fatah commander said on Tuesday. "We will not issue haphazard accusations and we leave it to the Lebanese judiciary and security forces to uncover the truth," Brigadier Munir al-Maqdah told reporters following a large-scale meeting of Palestinian factions inside Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon.
Senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Kamal Medhat, two of his bodyguards and another Palestinian official were traveling in a convoy when the bomb exploded at the entrance of the Mieh Mieh camp near the coastal town of Sidon. He said Medhat's killing is "a blow to security in stability not only inside Palestinian refugee camps but also in Lebanon."
"Today's meeting stressed the need to reinforce Palestinian unity in order to counter all the threats and dangers that surround us," he added.
Maqdah said Palestinian factions agreed not to turn Lebanon "into an arena to settle Palestinian disputes."
"We will cooperate with the Lebanese judiciary," he stressed.
The 58-year-old Medhat, who was a close aide to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, was the highest-ranking Palestinian official killed in Lebanon since the PLO was forced to pull out of the country in 1982 after the Israeli invasion.
In Mieh Mieh on Tuesday, residents ruled out a deteriorating situation in the camp. "The assassination aimed to send a message to all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, not only to the Mieh Mieh camp," Maryam Zbib told The Daily Star.
Another resident, Mohammad al-Hassan said the assassination "aims to create rifts between Palestinians."
Meanwhile, Medhat's assassination drew widespread condemnation. UN chief Ban Ki-moon slammed late on Monday the "terrorist" roadside bombing that killed Medhat. "The secretary general condemns the terrorist attack today," his press office said in a statement, adding that the UN chief hoped "the perpetrators of this crime will be brought to justice promptly."
"Such actions must not be allowed to endanger the climate of calm that currently prevails in Lebanon," Ban added.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt paid a visit to PLO representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki on Tuesday to offer condolences. "I extend my condolences to the Fatah party and the Palestinian national authority. Fatah has always sacrificed its prominent members, for the Palestinian cause," Jumblatt told reporters afterward.
"As long as the Palestinian state has not yet been established, we should work on securing [Palestinian refugees] certain civil rights, because if we want to prevent naturalization, then we should not deprive them of their essential rights," the PSP leader said, urging Lebanese authorities to stop discriminating against refugees.
"In Nahr al-Bared the Palestinians had nothing to do with what happened, and so they should be able go back to the camp," he said, referring to the 106 days of fighting between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam militant group in 2007 that reduced the northern refugee camp to rubble.
"I was also told that that some Lebanese security forces are not treating the Palestinians properly," Jumblatt added.
For his part, Zaki welcomed Jumblatt's support, adding that the PSP leader was "the first to call him after Medhat's killing." Zaki said Jumblatt advised him "to urge his followers to practice self-restraint and to avoid any attempt to sow discord among the Palestinians."
In other reactions Tuesday, Lebanese Forces boss Samir Geagea condemned Monday's killing saying it was a "terrorist" attack that targeted both Lebanese and Palestinian stability. Geagea called on the Palestinians to unite around their "just cause" and to stay away from conflicts that would "drain their will to persevere."
Lebanese newspapers on Tuesday described the assassination as a settling of scores between rival Palestinian factions. "Mieh Mieh: a fratricide?" said the French language L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper.
The As-Safir newspaper echoed the view. "Although all Palestinian factions were quick to denounce the crime and blame Israel and its agents, security officials believe that Medhat was killed in a settling of scores," it said. |
