Leading German politicians are calling on the European Union to freeze its aid to the Palestinian Authority amid reports that PA chairman Yasser Arafat made multi-million-dollar transfers to a personal bank account abroad.
The allegations, substantiated by documents, were made this week by German public broadcaster ARD, which reported that Arafat had wired some $5.1 million to his personal account at the Arab Bank in Cairo in September 2001.
Following the disclosure, Armin Laschet, co-chair of the EU parliamentary committee that oversees aid to the Palestinians, told the Hamburger Abendblatt that the Palestinians had used the funds illegally. And, he conceded, the EU had committed "grave errors" in its funding of Arafat.
Laschet, a representative of Germany's opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at the European Parliament, noted that the EU had provided the Palestinian Authority with some $10 million a month from 2000 to 2003. He admitted that there were inadequate controls over the funds.
Meanwhile, CDU spokesman on Middle East policy Ruprecht Polenz has called for the freezing of Arafat's account, "in which aid money is apparently sitting illegally."
At the same time, the foreign policy spokesman of Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party, Gert Weisskirchen, told the Berliner Zeitung that EU foreign ministers should stop aid to the PA if the internal power struggle leads to a further deterioration in security.
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-Rudey
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