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CNN Live Today

Interview With Hanan Ashrawi

Aired April 04, 2002 - 14:03   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We want to now bring in yet one more perspective from the Middle East, by Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi. She joins us now on the telephone to give us a better view as to whether there is encouragement on your part that Secretary of State Colin Powell will be heading to the Middle East. Can you hear me OK?

HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Yes, I can hear you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: How encouraged are you?

ASHRAWI: The real question, we've had a lot of statements and we've heard a lot about visions of two states, and so on. But I hope the firmness in saying enough is enough reaches Sharon. Because for the whole week he's been shelling, bashing, battering, besieging and killing Palestinians.

And we cannot afford to buy more time, by President Bush, for Sharon to continue his incursions until next week when Powell comes in. So let's hope they stop this massive military assault against the defenseless and captive population immediately. This is a real test of American resolve and of Israeli intentions.

And the second thing is, if Powell is coming next week, we hope he comes with a mandate, with the will, and with the concrete plan to bring Israel to compliance and to deal with the real causes, which of course, are the occupation and Sharon's policies of escalation and brute force.

WHITFIELD: So you are still appealing to the Bush administration to somehow convey to the Israeli government more immediately, to ask them to withdraw now, because the worry is that the Israelis will continue with their military siege until next week, when Powell is to arrive there.

ASHRAWI: Absolutely. Because in our case, time is lives. Time is not money. We are losing -- the Israelis are killing scores of Palestinians every day. There are people starving in the siege. There are children absolutely traumatized and terrified. There are men, women and children dying.

This is a situation that has reached the proportions of a tremendous humanitarian crisis. It's a tragedy. And every minute that passes, we lose lives, and more people are brutalized and traumatized. This has to stop immediately. Buying time for Sharon is really bringing down more death and destruction on the Palestinians.

And he is trying to destroy our infrastructure, our institutions. They destroyed all the computers, all the hardware, and the servers of the ministry of education. They destroyed our hospitals. They prevented ambulances from getting to the wounded and to the killed.

We had to bury 29 people in a mass grave because the hospital morgue in Ramallah couldn't take them all. There are people locked in their homes for a week, without electricity, without water. without phone lines. And without sleep, because they're being shelled relentlessly.

So it is time that this stopped. That's my main concern right now. Not nice speeches, and not all this outside talk about terrorism. Because from our angle, the only terrorism we see is the brutality of the Israeli army, exercising violence against a captive and defenseless population.

WHITFIELD: How suspicious are you, if at all, of Prime Minister Sharon now giving the green light to Anthony Zinni meeting with Yasser Arafat, after earlier in the week saying no?

ASHRAWI: I think it is time that the Americans declared their independence from Israeli dictate. Because Israel is occupied Palestine. But they cannot behave like an occupied in the U.S. They cannot hijack American policy. So it is time that Zinni, the U.S., meets with whomever it wants, wherever and whenever it wants, rather than waiting for permission from Sharon.

WHITFIELD: OK.

ASHRAWI: Let's hope that Zinni has a clear message, that they will implement U.N. resolutions and all the American documents, and not to change (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WHITFIELD: All right, Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, thanks very much for joining us by phone.

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