Military

DATE=04/17/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-288812

TITLE=POWELL-ARAFAT (S)

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: U-S Secretary of State Colin Powell completed six days of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Wednesday with a second visit to Yasser Arafat at his besieged headquarters in Ramallah. The Palestinian leader expressed thanks for the American effort but anger at his continuing confinement in the bullet-ridden compound. V-O-A's David Gollust reports from Jerusalem.

TEXT: In an impromptu news conference after the two-hour meeting with the secretary, Mr. Arafat said he was grateful for the U-S effort to try to get an Israeli-Palestinian truce and an Israel troop pullback from the West Bank. But he was in a furious mood about the Israeli siege of his compound, which has kept him confined to a single building of the complex since late last month, with only intermittent water and electrical supplies:

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I have to ask the whole international world. I have to ask his excellency President Bush. I have to ask the United Nations. Is this acceptable that I can't go outside from this door? Is this acceptable? For how long. Do you see? Do you see?

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Mr. Arafat said Israel's re-occupation of West Bank towns, especially its actions in Jenin and Bethlehem were an "international outrage." His chief negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of torpedoing the Powell mission, which did not achieve a hoped-for cease-fire deal. (Signed)

NEB/DAG / WD