Yasser Arafat acknowledged Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority had made mistakes.
In a televised speech to parliament, the Palestinian president said "There were wrong practices in some institutions, and some misused their positions." "There were not enough efforts to strengthen the rule of law, the independence of the judicial institutions...Be we have launched measures to solve this."
Arafat acknowledged there is some official corruption, and added those engaged in wrongdoing should be prosecuted. He reiterated that he would streamline the security forces.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei sat next to Arafat during his speech. At one point, Arafat turned to Qureia, saying: "My brother, my historical comrade, you have all my support for the work of your government."
Arafat accused the Israeli government of trying to wreck the Palestinian government. "Israel has not stopped for a minute its campaign to end our Palestinian National Authority but this will all be in vain," Arafat said. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
