MIDDLE EAST

HAMAS, ISLAMIC JIHAD REJECT CALL TO HALT ATTACKS BEFORE ELECTION

Islamic terrorist groups behind many suicide bombings dismissed yesterday a call from interim Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas to halt attacks in the run-up to a January 9 election to replace Yasser Arafat. Mr. Abbas, who is trying to work out a deal with rival Palestinian Arab groups on a cease-fire and possible power-sharing, resisted a call by the groups for a leadership role despite their planned boycott of the January 9 election. Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not accept the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. They refuse to take part in governments formed as a result of agreements with Israel and say they will not participate in the election. However, the two movements, responsible for hundreds of deadly terror attacks against Israelis in four years of violence, are demanding a leadership role outside the electoral process. They want a “unified leadership” that would exert influence on the Palestinian government. Mr. Abbas was cool to the idea and recommended instead that even if they skip the presidential race, the radical groups try their hand in parliamentary elections to be held at an unspecified later date. He is said to be proposing parliamentary and local elections four or five months after the vote.

– Associated Press

REPORT: ARAFAT’S DEATH CAUSED BY LIVER DISEASE

Yasser Arafat suffered from cirrhosis – widespread disruption of normal liver structure usually caused by alcohol abuse – although he was “a true water drinker,” the French newspaper Le Monde reported today. Quoting medical sources familiar with Arafat’s medical file, France’s most prestigious daily reported that “the most probable scenario is that Arafat’s death was due to multiple causes. His coma must have been cause by an aggravation of his hepatic system, in other words his cirrhosis, culminating in a hemorrhage.”

– Jerusalem Post

WESTERN EUROPE

MOROCCAN CHARGED IN KILLING OF DUTCH FILMMAKER

MADRID, Spain – A judge charged a jailed Moroccan yesterday with being a leading member of Islamic extremist groups in three countries, including an organization suspected in the killing of a Dutch filmmaker. Judge Baltasar Garzon filed the provisional charges after interrogating Abdeladim Akoudad, who has been jailed in Spain since October 2003 on an extradition request from Morocco over bombings in Casablanca in May of that year. In his order, the judge said Mr. Akoudad, 36, was a “a leading member” of an Islamic extremist cell – known in the Netherlands as the Hofstad Network – believed to be responsible for the November 2 killing of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, who made a film criticizing the treatment of women under Islam. Fellow alleged cell member Mohamed Bouyeri is the prime suspect in the killing. A court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Akoudad denied any links with the Dutch group. Judge Garzon also accused him of belonging to a cell of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant group, which was dismantled in Belgium. The group allegedly funded and recruited fighters to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq.

– Associated Press

WEST AFRICA

GBAGBO CONCILIATORY TO FRENCH

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Ivory Coast’s embattled leader sounded one of the first conciliatory notes yesterday in his West African nation’s devastating confrontation with its former colonial ruler, declaring: “We are not at war with France.” President Gbagbo, unshaven and looking worn, was at his Abidjan villa, which aides confirmed he had not left since a November 6 air strike killed nine French peacekeepers and an American. Mr. Gbagbo rejected immediate blame for the air strike, saying, an “inquiry must establish responsibility. …If they are Ivorian soldiers, we will punish them – because we are not at war with France.” He sounded less conciliatory on an arms embargo imposed on his country late Monday by the U.N. Security Council, urged on by France but with backing from African leaders. “A country like Ivory Coast…cannot stay with an ill-equipped army,” said Mr. Gbagbo. The president stopped short of saying Ivory Coast would not obey the embargo and did not repeat his promise to buy Ivory Coast a new air force, but, he stressed, “We need a well-equipped army. This must be done.”

– Associated Press

CENTRAL AFRICA

EQUATORIAL GUINEA SEEKS EXTRADITION OF THATCHER IN COUP CASE

The prime witness in an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea repudiated his confession yesterday, saying it was coerced by interrogators who threatened him with death. Equatorial Guinea now intends to seek the extradition of the most prominent figure in the case – Mark Thatcher, the 51-year-old son of Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, a legal official close to the prosecution said. Mr. Thatcher is charged as an alleged bankroller in the plot, defense attorney Fabian Nsue Nguema told reporters. However, no new charges were announced in court yesterday, when the coup trial resumed after a two-month break. Mr. Thatcher’s lawyer maintains his innocence. Equatorial Guinea has already charged 19 Africans and Armenians as alleged mercenaries in the purported conspiracy to overthrow the regime of President Obiang. The government claims that Mr. Thatcher and other, mostly British, financiers intended to install an exiled opposition figure, Severo Moto, as the figurehead leader of Africa’s no. 3 oil-producing nation. The attorney general, Jose Olo Obono, closed arguments yesterday by renewing his request for the death penalty against his own top witness, South African arms dealer Nick du Toit.

– Associated Press