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CNN Live Today

Negotiations to End Three Week-Old-Standoff at Church of the Nativity Under Way

Aired April 23, 2002 - 11:10   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get to another one of our big stories this morning, and that is negotiations to end the three week-old-standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Those talks got under way today.

Our John Vause is in Bethlehem.

John, when we talked to you last hour, you said the Palestinians had put a deal on the table, but we're still waiting to hear what the Israelis had to say about that.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn. By our calculations, the people we've contacted are due to go back into another round of discussions, about now actually. It's very difficult to get confirmation about anything about this. Even our usual contacts, who are quite talkative, have told us they're not willing to negotiate through the media. So it's all very tight-lipped at this stage. But they will be discussing that Palestinian offer when, in fact, they do meet again, which as I said, should be around now.

And that offer, in fact, from the Palestinians, an offer to the Israelis that the Palestinians will deal with those 30 men inside the church, who the Israelis say are terrorists; the Palestinian say, let us take care of them, we will take them to Gaza, we will deal with them in our own way. The Israeli response now is set to come in the next hour or so. But just to give you a bit of idea where these negotiations are taking place in relation to Church of the Nativity.

We got Philip (ph), our cameraman, just to push in a bit closer to the Manger Square area and into the church. If you look into that scene there, you can see basically the courtyard area -- that's Manger Square --- and the Church of the Nativity, also in the background there.

The talks are actually taking place at the Peace Center, which is just slightly off to the left. It's barely a hundred meters to the left of Manger Square there. That Bethlehem Peace Center was built as part of the millennium celebrations here. So the negotiators and the delegates who are taking part in these very crucial discussions are very, very close to those 200 or so people who have been holed up in that church there for about three weeks. So they've got a very good bird's-eye view of exactly what's going on there. As I said, in the next couple of hours, we should get some idea what the Israeli response is to that Palestinian offer -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And, John, no one is more interested in seeing a peaceful end to standoff than those 200 so people that are inside the church. Remind us again what we know about the very difficult conditions that are inside the Church of the Nativity right now.

VAUSE: Yes, difficult conditions, Daryn, and getting more difficult by the day by all accounts. There's two decaying bodies in there of Palestinians who have been shot. There are at least 10 people with gunshot wounds, a number of people who are quite ill. The food has all but run out. They're getting water from a well, which by all accounts is getting very close to running dry.

There are also children in there. That coming out the other day, confirmed by the Israelis that there are two boys who are 10 years old and some other young children, dozens of young children in fact, who have been spending there days in the "grotto" below the basilica, which is the cave where Christians believe Jesus was born.

And we've also had a number of priests who've come out today, three Armenian priests. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, these priests put up a sign saying "help us" or "save us," and then the Israeli army came to their rescue. This coming from the IDF, and those priests were then taken away and are out of the church.

A number of people have come out of the church over the last couple of weeks, and all of them described a very, very bad situation indeed inside that church -- Daryn.

KAGAN: John, just one quick point about the kids. When you mention there's a number of children inside there, it just blows my mind that it's not in the interests of both sides to get those kids out of there into a safer environment.

VAUSE: Yes, this is very true. In fact, we heard from a teenager who managed to get out of the church earlier this week. He basically got out of the church, and he said that he left because he was bored and because he was hungry. He went there to be with some of his friends. He got stuck inside, couldn't get out, but then he managed to slip away, and he describes some of the conditions inside the church.

But there's once again conflicting reports about what is happening with these people inside the churches. Israelis say they're being held hostage. The Palestinian say that they're afraid to leave, and then of course you've got the clergy who are inside there as well, and the clergy don't want to leave, this coming from the church, because the clergy workers are afraid of what may happen to the church if in fact they do leave. But the situation with the kids inside there, of course we're worrying for both sides when you've got boys as young as 10 inside such a volatile situation, one which is getting worse by the day.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

John Vause, thanks for bringing us the latest from Bethlehem. We will check back with you often.

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