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American Morning

Arafat Emerges from Compound to Cheering Crowd

Aired May 02, 2002 - 07:02   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, we have two major stories developing in Afghanistan. British Marines are spearheading a new hunt for al Qaeda fighters. And in the Middle East, Yasser Arafat is tasting freedom, as we said, for the first time in a month, and he was greeted outside his compound by hundreds of cheering Palestinians.

We begin in Ramallah with CNN's Matthew Chance, who is standing by with the very latest. Matthew, I know you are outside and maybe not in a position to get the same information as Walt Rodgers. Have you heard confirmation of that same report that there is a belief in Bethlehem, which of course you are not near to right now, that the church is in fact booby-trapped?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, my understanding on that issue is that the IDF, the Israel military, have told journalists that they believe that the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is booby-trapped. I certainly don't have any confirmation of that, and I don't know where they are getting that from. But certainly, they have their own intelligence-gathering techniques, and I'm sure those have come to bear in order for them to make this statement.

I suppose we must speak to the Palestinians inside and perhaps even ultimately get into the Church of the Nativity to confirm for ourselves that allegation -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Tell us what is going on now in Ramallah, as Mr. Arafat tastes his first day of freedom.

CHANCE: Well, as you can see, it's daytime here in Ramallah now, of course, and that's revealing the true extent of the damage of Yasser Arafat's presidential compound in the heart of the town. Now, you can see many of the buildings here have been extremely badly damaged, pockmarked the walls with bullet holes and scorch marks and the flames that ensued during the Israeli siege for a month of this presidential compound.

Take a look down at the cars that have been piled up to form this makeshift barricade by Israeli bulldozers. You can't see it from here, but just inside this building here, there are several other cars, presidential limousines, four-wheel drive vehicles that have been simply smashed up by bulldozers.

So a great amount of damage that has been caused here. There is also a lot of furniture inside has been destroyed. The sanitation conditions are pretty appalling.

I managed to get into this compound after the last tank, the last Israeli tank left last night, sat down for a one-on-one interview with Yasser Arafat. He told me of his concerns, for instance, about the siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

He also though thanked President Bush and Crown Price Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for their efforts in bringing to an end this siege of his presidential compound in Ramallah. And he said that despite everything that had gone before into recent weeks, he still had hope that the peace process here between the Palestinians and the Israelis could somehow be revived.

Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YASSER ARAFAT, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: To follow up this strong start from his excellency (ph) and his excellence (ph) President Bush and to complete what his father, President Bush the father, when he started the Mideast conference, the peace conference, land for peace for our children and for their children, for the Palestinians and for the Israelis, and for the whole Middle East area and for the whole world and not forget the terrasanta (ph), the land of peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: For the immediate future, Paula, Yasser Arafat has been touring areas of Ramallah that have also been -- outside the compound that have been badly damaged during this month-long siege.

As for afterwards, he told me last night he intends, after having seen the damage in Gaza and the West Bank, to travel outside of the region to Arab countries and to countries in the European Union -- Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: All right. Matthew Chance, thanks so much for that update.

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