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Palestinian Official Threatens to Use Force if Awad, Other Suspects Refuse to Surrender

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Written by Editor

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Palestine Liberation Organization official Kamal Medhat on Thursday threatened to use force if Fatah al-Islam suspects refused to surrender to Lebanese authorities. He said Palestinian factions were putting pressure on the suspects to surrender.

"If they don't do so, we will take other measures," Medhat told AFP. "Any use of force will be undertaken by Palestinian factions.

"We will not allow any fugitives to seek refuge in the camp.

"We will not allow a repeat of what happened in Nahr al-Bared because factions in Ain el-Hilweh do not want the camp to become a safe haven for wanted people."

Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are considered highly volatile and fertile breeding grounds for extremists.

The army does not enter the camps, leaving responsibility for security to Palestinian factions.

Lebanese troops on Thursday reportedly tightened the noose around the remaining Fatah al-Islam militants and other persons wanted in terror-related cases amid reports that both the Lebanese and Palestinian sides were trying to avoid a deadly showdown at the sprawling Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirst of the port city of Sidon.

The daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Thursday that Awad is secretly moving around Ain el-Hilweh, accompanied by his aides, and refusing to surrender.

It quoted Palestinian sources as saying that arresting Awad alive would be a difficult task amid reports he sleeps with an explosive belt around his waist.

The sources quoted those negotiating Awad's handover as saying that the new Fatah al-Islam leader refuses to surrender to "disbelievers" and that he prefers to be killed.

As-Safir newspaper, for its part, quoted Quds Imam Sheikh Maher Hammoud as vowing to settle Awad's case and that of other persons wanted by the Lebanese army "such as it safeguards the dignity of the Lebanese state as well as the camp's security."

Hammoud said he has conveyed a message to Awad, asking him to turn himself in to Lebanese judicial authorities "where there is a change of getting punishment reduction."

Hammoud, however, was skeptical of the surrender, stressing the need to hold a one-on-one meeting with Awad in an effort to convince him to turn himself in "through a dialogue with a scholar," a reference to the camp's sheikh.

As-Safir said the Lebanese army was moving in two parallel directions: The first is to give mediators a chance to talk Awad into surrendering without violence. The second is an army intelligence task to track down Awad's activities by strictly monitoring passages.

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