Palestinian militants eyed for security

JERICHO, West Bank — A secret plan to incorporate fighters from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and other militants into the official Palestinian security system is starting to take shape here, as British security experts help to create a training infrastructure for Palestinian police forces.

“We were approached by the Palestinians for help and we identified a crucial way we can help — to make a discreet and small contribution,” said a senior British official who asked not to be identified given the confidentiality of the work.

Isolated on top of a sandy hill overlooking the city, the Judean Desert and the Jordan River, the Jericho Police Training Center is about to be remodeled.

Britain has allocated $480,000 for several of the sprawling and dilapidated single-story buildings to be spruced up and to have a second floor added, and to install equipment. A pipeline is to be laid to lead water from a presently flooded well so that trees can be planted and clean drinking and bathing water made available.

The academy will house around 500 trainees, according to security sources here. It will be completed by the end of March next year, the British official said.

“The Americans know about what we’re doing, they approve,” the source added. “But for as long as [the late Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat was around, they found it very difficult to get involved.”

Palestinian officials were coy about who precisely will be trained at the facility. But a source closely involved with the project told The Washington Times that they would include as many Al Aqsa militants as could be induced to participate.

Other hard-line Islamist militias — principally Hamas and Islamic Jihad — have not been approached to join the official forces, the sources said.

Gunmen who have become increasingly violent and apparently beyond the control of the official security forces will be given uniforms and disciplinary training, the source said.

The carrot is substantial — regular salaries plus incentive bonuses, providing the sort of income that many of the gunmen could not have enjoyed in their previous occupations.

“We’re not going to be vetting who the Palestinians choose to bring to the training center,” the senior British official said. “So it’s up to the Palestinians to select who they want trained, and we have no idea who they’ll choose.”

The location, Jericho, had been chosen because it is the only major city in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has not erupted into major violence during the four-year uprising, the British official said.

Official Palestinian approaches to the militants are of special importance during the volatile transition period after Mr. Arafat’s death. They are intended to head off unrest within militant groups affiliated to Fatah, the revolutionary movement founded and headed by Mr. Arafat till his death last week. Fatah is the core organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

One clash on Sunday left two Palestinian security men dead and the likely next Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, scrambling for safety during a wake for Mr. Arafat in Gaza City.

“It was a shameful episode, and we must use every means to stamp out warlords,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told The Washington Times. Mr. Erekat is the top Palestinian official in Jericho.

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