By Jihad Abu Falah
Albawaba.com – Shuna, Jordan Valley
Jordan’s riot police used force on Tuesday to disperse tens of thousands who took part in a rally that headed to the border crossing to emphasize the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
Shots were fired in the air, and colored water canons and teargas were used to disperse the huge crowd and block the rally’s route to King Hussein Bridge, which links Jordan to the West Bank.
The clashes led to the injury of 63 protestors, mainly bruises in the head as a result of being beaten with batons. Many others suffered breathing difficulties and irritation in the eyes because of inhaling teargas. Some of the wounded were rushed to the health center in Shuna, while others were treated at the homes of the locals in the area.
Albawaba.com has learnt that among the injured were the leading opposition figure Laith Shbeilat, who was attacked by the police while addressing the crowds, and Mahmoud Abu Ghanima, secretary general of the professional associations.
Kayan Ali Hattar, 10, was also injured, according to her father, a poet and political activist.
In addition, the security forces arrested more than 100 demonstrators, including columnist and Islamist figure Ziad Abu Ghanima.
However, chief of the Jordanian preventive security Brigadier Mohammad Falah Otein denied there have been any arrests, saying “I challenge any one to say we have arrested demonstrators. Prove it and I will released them all.”
The organizers of the rally, the Jordan’s professional associations, had agreed on the government’s conditions to limit the number of participants to 2000 at most, not to reach the King Hussein Bridge, at the Jordanian border with the West Bank and to control the participants.
Murad Adayleh, head of the Palestine Committee at the Professional Associations earlier told Albawaba.com that “the government gave permission for only 45 vehicles (carrying participants) to take part in the rally. He said 25 buses were to set off from Amman and the others from other Jordanian regions.
AFP quoted Minister of Information Taleb Rifai’ as saying that the clashes broke out because demonstrators defied an agreement between the authorities and organizers of the protest march to stop short of the bridge which crosses the Jordan River, he said.
"Strong police intervention was needed to stop them because if they had reached the bridge things would have been uncontrollable," said the minister.
AFP had filed an official complaint at the ministry claiming their photographer, Jamal Nasrallah, received bruises to the face and the head when he was beaten by the police while covering the event.
Security vehicles were blocking all the roads leading to the bridge, and helicopters were hovering over the marchers, who carried Palestinian and the Lebanese Hizbollah flags chanting slogans against the Arab leaders’ “weak stands” at the Cairo summit, which concluded on Sunday. They also called for the return of the Palestinian refugees, rejecting “plans to settle them in host countries.”
Thousands of people, including women and children joined the rally, apparently without prior arrangement with the organizers.
Organizers said that about 3000 citizens were barred from joining the march from Amman. They were gathering opposite the offices of the associations in Shmeisani.
The ‘Return’ rally brought together members of political parties, and other groups and organizations in the kingdom, along with members of parliament and public figures.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
