Human rights watchdog slams Palestinian Authority

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Amnesty International accused the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday of trying to silence dissent by illegally detaining dozens of critics in the six years since the administration was created.

In a report published days before Palestinian leaders meet to consider whether to declare an independent state, the international human rights watchdog sharply criticized the Authority's record on human rights and democracy.

Palestinian officials said the accusations were inaccurate.

"In the past six years, the Palestinian Authority has detained dozens of persons for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression," Amnesty said.

"Human rights defenders, journalists, religious figures, writers, government officials, trade unionists and academics have all been detained as prisoners of conscience...They are almost always detained outside the law and often held incommunicado," it added.

"Often critics of the PA have been invited by one of the Palestinian security services for a short meeting over a 'cup of coffee', only to emerge from detention days, weeks or even months later."

It said some detainees had been tortured and the Authority held an estimated 600 long-term political prisoners.

The report, which followed past Amnesty criticism of Palestinian Authority detention practices, mentioned several specific cases.

It said Sabri Abu Diab, a preacher, had been detained last November two days after criticizing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in a sermon and was released only 21 days later.

It said Abdel Fattah Gahnem, a presidential adviser on refugees, was still in custody after being detained in June following remarks he made on the failure to find a "just settlement" to the problem of Palestinian refugees.

Amnesty also said the Authority had adopted laws restricting freedom of expression and governing the media which could be used to authorize the detention of prisoners of conscience.

Palestinian officials hit back

The latest criticism was a blow to Palestinian leaders four days before a leadership body meets in Gaza to consider whether to make a declaration of statehood as early as September 13.

Some international leaders have urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to delay the declaration until he has reached an agreement with Israel ending 52 years of conflict.

Hassan Asfour, the Palestinian minister of state for non-governmental affairs, said Amnesty's report was inaccurate and that the Authority's human rights record had improved.

Few people were detained last year and most of the detentions were not related to freedom of expression, he said.

"It seems that some rights groups insist on looking at the negative aspect of the Authority's work and ignore the positive developments. There have been mistakes but they're exaggerated by these groups," Asfour told Reuters.

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Arafat, said the abuses listed were not part of any official policy. Some criticisms also related to actions carried out as part of the Authority's commitment to the peace process, he said.

"We're building a civil society, we're not building a dictatorship regime. We're not against the people's right to speak," Abdel-Rahman said.

Agreements between Israel and the Palestinians call on the Authority to break up the infrastructure of opposition groups such as Moslem militant groups opposed to peace with Israel.

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