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CNN Sunday Morning

Arafat Plans to Announce Reforms of Palestinian Authority

Aired June 09, 2002 - 08:01   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our top story. In the Middle East, the Palestinian power structure is about to change, and Yasser Arafat will soon provide a glimpse of that. CNN's Matthew Chance is covering this story from Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. He has this preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): After a great deal of pressure has been placed on Yasser Arafat to reform his Palestinian Authority, we are now expecting the latest of those reforms to be announced publicly later on today. Israel has, of course, made it a condition for resuming its peace talks with the Palestinians that the Palestinian Authority be reformed, that its organization is given greater financial transparency, they say, so moneys can't be diverted to what they say are militant groups.

They also want to see radical change in the very wide Palestinian security forces. A number of organizations make up the 40,000 or so men apparently under the control of Yasser Arafat in various security organizations. Israel says it wants greater unified command so they know who to come and talk to if a militant group carries out a act and the Palestinian Authority don't act to take those militants off the streets.

Palestinians, too, I have to say, also have a great deal of concern about this. They've been pushing for a number of years for internal reform of the Palestinian Authority to make it less corrupt, less inefficient. Their concern, though, is that the Palestinian Authority become more democratic, not that it becomes more able to answer the interests of Israel and to a lesser extent, the United States.

Now, the indications that we are receiving from within the Palestinian Authority suggest to us that the reforms that are likely to be enacted later today are somewhat limited in scope, reducing the number of Palestinian ministers from 29 to 21. They will also be introducing another Palestinian ministry, a Ministry of the Interior, to oversee the overall security of the Palestinian Authority. It may not be enough to satisfy the Israelis or the United States at this stage, or indeed, the Palestinians. But Palestinian officials say at least this process has now fully begun.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Ramallah, in the West Bank. (END VIDEOTAPE)

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