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CNN Live At Daybreak

Arafat Visiting Battle-Scarred Church of the Nativity

Aired May 13, 2002 - 06:06   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is visiting the battle-scarred Church of the Nativity today in Bethlehem. It's part of a tour of West Bank communities to inspect damage from Israeli military action.

CNN's Rula Amin joins us again live by phone from Bethlehem. And Yasser Arafat has already toured the Church of the Nativity. Where is he off to now?

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He did, Carol. Now, he is in Jenin town. This is the first time Yasser Arafat leaves Ramallah since early December. He took off from Ramallah this morning in Jordanian helicopters that he borrowed from the Jordanian government.

Two helicopters took Yasser Arafat and his security personnel to Bethlehem. His first stop was at the Church of the Nativity. He is there. He went and visited different quarters in the church, where there was a standoff between the Israelis outside and the Palestinians inside for five weeks.

He said that he was inspecting the damage. He spoke to the church leaders inside. He went to the Armenian sector. He went to the Greek Orthodox sector. He went to the Catholic sector of the Franciscans. And he said that he offered the church leaders there, he said that his cabinet is on standby, ready to help, to fix any damage that has happened to this church during that standoff.

From the church, he went to the mosque next to the church in Bethlehem, and then to the municipalities.

The message he had was to the international community saying that he doesn't the -- he hopes that the international community will not allow what has happened in Bethlehem to be repeated. He urged on them to intervene.

Now, on the other hand, he was also talking to his people. This is his first time to be in tough with Palestinians in five months, Palestinians from outside Ramallah, because this is the first time he leave. And from there, he went to Jenin, Jenin town and Jenin refugee camp.

The camp had been the site of fierce fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, and the Palestinians have been claiming that war crimes were committed there by Israeli soldiers. The Israelis deny these charges vehemently.

However, Yasser Arafat will have to face the people there, many of them are angry and furious that the fact-finding mission that was composed and commissioned by the United Nations to come to Jenin refugee camp had been abandoned. They are going to talk to Yasser Arafat about that, and probably he will have to talk to them about rebuilding that camp. There is a lot of damage and a lot of destruction in that camp, and this is something that Yasser Arafat has to tackle there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: He doesn't really have the resources to rebuild much though, does he?

AMIN: Well, it's not just the money. It's also the ability to have control over these areas. He is being promised help from different parties, from the U.S., from the European community, and the United Nations says it wants to help. However, he still is not in total control of these areas.

We saw today, for example, in Bethlehem, we were trying to get on his helicopter to go with him on this tour, and they said no way, because we have to get as many security personnel with him as possible, his own guards, because the Palestinian Authority is not in complete control of these areas anymore.

The Israeli army has just pulled out of Bethlehem three days ago, four days ago. And that means that for Palestinian police, Palestinian security don't really have the upper hand yet, and this is something Yasser Arafat will have to face, as he is also pressured to crack down on Palestinian militants, and he will have to use his Palestinian police and his authority to do that -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Got you. All right. Rula Amin, thank you very much, reporting live from Bethlehem this morning.

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