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CNN Sunday Morning
Peaceful Protesters Approach Arafat Headquarters
Aired March 31, 2002 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, back now to our lead story, and specifically, Ramallah, where our Michael Holmes has been in the midst of some remarkable scenes today. We just showed you those pictures of Palestinian supporters literally marching before tanks to embrace Yasser Arafat. Michael Holmes in the midst of all that had an opportunity to speak with Chairman Arafat. Michael joins us now live -- Michael.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, it was an extraordinary event, given the security and the level of alert here in Ramallah. When we drove back from the compound, by the way, is the highest-level presence of Israeli troops that I've seen here in the city square yet. Tanks on most corners. There are civilian cars being pushed into barricades. It was very difficult for us to even get back here.
It's a very tense situation, and we saw dozens of troops on the ground, on foot, which is the first time we've seen troops in these numbers in the center of Ramallah. After the events at the compound itself, as you said it was an extraordinary thing. We've been there for most of the day, through events and the sound of tanks in the distance and gunfire as well. All of a sudden, down this road that runs alongside the perimeter wall, comes marching a group of 40 people with white flags, white t-shirts. There were doctors from -- Palestinian doctors leading, linking arms and walking along, and a group of international peace demonstrators, if you like.
They say they're a part of an international group of foreigners who have come together, they say, to support Palestinians, not just at this time, but they say they've been around for a long time. They walked right past an armored vehicle, catching the two soldiers on duty in that vehicle completely off guard. We followed them, with some members of the media. Other members of the media who tried to catch up with the group had warning shots fired at the ground in front of them. Quite frankly, I don't think either side, Palestinian or Israeli, knew quite what to make of it all.
Warning shots were fired several times, probably 10 or 12 bullets by two different soldiers that we saw. Tanks were swung around in surprise, and people just kept on walking, Miles, went up the steps to the double doors that lead into Yasser Arafat's own building. They partially barricaded by desks and chairs, and filing cabinets. Palestinian soldiers pulled that apart to let us in, part of the Palestinian security detail there.
They let us in. We walked in. It was a surreal sort of scene. Armed Palestinian security officers there, with AK-47s and Other automatic weapons. They walked in and the first Thing any of them said to me was do you have any cigarettes? We then gathered in an ante-room and within a minute or two we were called upstairs, passed armed gunmen on the stairs, passed armed gunmen into a live sort of conference room with a long rectangular table and there standing at the end of that table, Yasser Arafat and a group of his closest advisers.
An extraordinary scene. At first they said to us, just pictures, just pictures. Yasser Arafat was beaming. He was caught off guard, too but seemed quite buoyed by this show of solidarity, by these peace demonstrators. They hugged him. They kissed him, and we then moved into and started to ask questions.
Essentially what he said was, repeating previous calls to the international community to act, and act now, to end the siege of his -- I was going to say compound, but it's really down to his building now. The rest of the compound very firmly in Israeli hands.
He also said, I asked him if he felt that he was at risk, given Israeli assurances that he is not a physical target, and his reply was essentially that the Palestinian people are more important to me and as far as the -- than me. And as far as the assurance goes that whether Israel made that he was not a physical target, he pointed to the aide on his right and he said, is -- does bullet know the difference between me and him?
Certainly, there was a firefight early on in the day. However, between Palestinian and Israeli troops, both of them say that the other side fired first. The only other event of note at the compound itself was the explosion of a -- what the Israeli forces say was a stun grenade. It certainly made a loud bang. That was right out the front of Yasser Arafat's office.
Apart from that Miles, it had been a quiet day until this group came walking down the street.
O'BRIEN: Michael, do you have the sense -- I know it's difficult to sort of figure this one out because it sort of surprised everyone. Do you have the sense, though, that it might have been orchestrated from inside the office there or was it, in fact, something that sort of welled up from the streets there?
HOLMES: Well not necessarily from the streets. The Palestinians that were there were mainly medical people, and the rest were foreigners.
O'BRIEN: OK and do you have the sense -- was there a certain leadership to this? How was it instigated? Do you have any sense of that?
HOLMES: This group tells us that they acted spontaneously today. They had planned to do a similar march yesterday, but didn't. And they say that they are here to support the Palestinian people -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: And just a word on Yasser Arafat's health. We know he has been ailing in recent years under the duress that he has been placed. You described him as buoyed, but does he appear as we look at some pictures from this interview that you were just referring to, does he appear to be in good health?
HOLMES: Miles, yes he did. You know I've seen him on a couple of occasions in the last few days. He seems in as good a health as he has been in the last year or two. He was certainly in good spirits. He was fervent in his comments, very forthright, very confident, and yes, his health seemed fine to me. There were reports that he had been injured. That is absolutely not the case.
O'BRIEN: And just one quick question before you get away. Lots of conflicting information on his ability to communicate with the world. Did you see any active cellular telephones or any other way of communicating inside that office?
HOLMES: Very difficult Miles, very difficult at all. We, of course while I was in there, I was trying to call you guys on our cell phones. They did not work and I looked at a couple of the Palestinian phones that were there in that room and checked them, and I actually picked one up and tried to make a call on that one. No signal in there, so we found ourselves even outside the compound that cellular coverage was fairly patchy today whereas yesterday it had not been -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Michael Holmes. Got to let you go, we're about to run out of satellite time. We'll check in with you a little bit later. Thank you.
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