In an attempt to bridge the bitter divisions between Kuwaitis and the country's resident Palestinian community, leading Palestinians yesterday attacked Yasser Arafat's support for Iraq during the Gulf conflict, and pledged themselves to rebuilding Kuwait.

The group, including businessmen, doctors and artists, said the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation had violated the PLO constitution by supporting President Saddam Hussein in his war of conquest. The PLO's backing for Iraq had placed the 400,000 Palestinians in Kuwait on August 2 in a very difficult position, said Dr Adil Risheq, the managing director of an electronics company.

Dr Risheq said, if he got the chance, "I would tell Arafat to his face, without fear ... We should not take sides. It is in the constitution of the PLO."

The open criticism of Mr Arafat reflects the pressure under which Palestinians have been living here since Kuwait was liberated on February 26. A recent Middle East Watch survey claimed several dozen suspected Palestinian collaborators had been killed by Kuwaiti security forces, and hundreds detained without charge, of whom many had been tortured.

The number of Palestinians in Kuwait has fallen to about 170,000 since the Iraqi invasion. Last month, the Kuwaiti government announced plans to restrict foreign communities to less than half the total population.

The group led by Dr Risheq included several signatories of a March 1990 petition by Kuwait-based Palestinians which called for free and democratic elections to the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, which has always had a pro-Arafat majority. One member of the group complained yesterday that Mr Arafat had never been elected PLO chairman.

Their statements followed a meeting last Tuesday between the group and Kuwait's Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah. According to a semi-official report of the meeting, the delegation assured the crown prince that most Palestinians had always supported Kuwaiti independence, while only "some misguided elements" had co-operated with the Iraqis.

Dr Risheq claimed that many Palestinians had assisted the Kuwaiti resistance during the Iraqi occupation. Referring to the coming "show trials" of up to 600 Palestinians accused of collaboration, he said the crown prince had assured him that justice would be done. "Everybody has to be treated according to his behaviour, not his nationality."

The support of Palestinians in Kuwait has been financially important for the PLO. Before the war, a 5 per cent deduction for the PLO was automatically imposed on Palestinian salaries by the Kuwaiti government.

Original Source

April 2, 1991 | The Guardian

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