Palestinians take brutal revenge

Brutal, bloody and swift, this is how they took revenge on the West Bank today.

The lifeless body of an alleged collaborator is strung up by his ankle from an electricity pylon in Hebron as his arms and other leg dangle at grotesque angles.

The body of another suspected collaborator was dragged through the city's streets by masked Palestinian gunmen. His hands and feet were bound and his body was riddled with bullets. As his corpse was paraded before a crowd of curious onlookers, his pants and trousers were pulled down. Bystanders kicked and spat at his body.

In all, three men were killed today. But there was just one message: This is what happens to anyone who helps Israel.

About 20 gunmen dragged the victims out of a prison in the West Bank town of Hebron, meeting no resistance from the handful of police on duty there. They took them to the wreck of the car hit overnight by an Israeli helicopter gunship, and shot them there as a crowd screamed "revenge, revenge."

"The gunmen sprayed the collaborators with machinegun fire. Bullets penetrated various parts of their bodies," said a witness.

Men, women and children spat at the bodies as they were dragged through the streets. All three were strung up on electricity poles.

"This is what these collaborators deserve. They betrayed the nation and have been liquidated,"-said one of the gunmen. Palestinian security sources said Mohammed Dibassah, Zuhair al-Muhtesseb and Moussa Rjoub had been jailed for collaborating with Israel.

"They had admitted to giving information to Israel that led to many deaths of Palestinians," one security source said. The gunmen believed they had assisted the helicopter gunships which killed a prominent Fatah fighter and his bodyguard last night.

Today's courtroom of instant justice was the dusty street where Marwan Zuloum's car was destroyed hours earlier by the Israelis. The jury was a posse of some 20 gunmen, the sentence a bullet in the head.

The execution was witnessed by a large crowd, including children. One boy climbed on the pylon to help with the hanging of one of the bodies. "The fate of all collaborators will be like this," said one masked militiaman, wearing a headband of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, before he and six other gunmen sped away.

The vigilante attacks raised concern about growing lawlessness in the Palestinian areas following Israel's three-week military offensive, which has left the Palestinian security services largely in disarray.

Palestinian sources identified Zuloum as the local commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction and responsible for deadly assaults on Israelis.

The summary execution of the socalled collaborators was the second spate of revenge killings in as many days. It follows the murder of another Palestinian and wounding of two more in Ramallah yesterday.

The helicopter strike came after Israel pulled out of Nablus and Jenin but maintained a siege of both cities as well as Arafat's Ramallah headquarters and the Basilica in Bethlehem. Israel's invasion began on 29 March after suicide attacks that killed scores of Israelis.

At two other flashpoints - the Palestinian leader's headquarters and Bethlehem's Basilica of the Nativity - there are continuing efforts to resolve standoffs between Israeli troops and wanted Palestinians. The mayor of Bethlehem said Israeli and Palestinian officials are holding their first direct talks.

Negotiators met at a tourism centre on Manger Square for the first time since some 230 armed Palestinians forced their way into the Basilica on 2 April to seek cover from advancing Israeli troops. Several dozen clergy and Palestinian civilians are also in the compound. Israel has offered the wanted men among those in the church exile or trial in Israel, a proposal the Palestinians have rejected.

"These are exploratory talks. I hope they will lead to a breakthrough," Bethlehem mayor Hanna Nasser said.

At the Mukaata, Mr Arafat's besieged Ramallah headquarters, four Palestinian gunmen accused of killing Israel's tourism minister are being tried by a military court in an apparent attempt to head off an Israeli raid to arrest them.

According to sources at the Mukaata, where Mr Arafat has been trapped since December, the four men - one in a wheel chair - were being tried by a "supreme court for security" made up of senior officers.

They stand accused of the killing of Rehavan Zeevi, a far-right politician who was part of Ariel Sharon's cabinet. He was shot dead in a Jerusalem hotel last year.

The Palestinians insist that under agreements with Israel they are not obliged to hand the men over but can try them in a Palestinian tribunal. Israel has insisted that the men face charges in Israel and that there is now close alliance between Mr Arafat, the PFLP, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad - the three main extremist groups opposed to the collapsed Oslo Peace Process.

The Palestinians have said they will not begin truce talks until Israel has left all Palestinian-controlled-territory in the West Bank, particularly Bethlehem and Ramallah. Israel, in turn, has said it will not let wanted men escape.

Meanwhile former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari was picked by Kofi Annan to head a United Nations fact-finding mission to Jenin, where the Israelis have been accused of grave violations of human rights. He will be joined by Sadako Ogata, former UN high commissioner for refugees, and Cornelio Sommaruga, former Swiss head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The Israeli army, which lost 23 men in fierce fighting in the Jenin refugee camp, has insisted that it went out of its way to avoid civilian casualties in heavy fighting in a densely populated area. However, the ICRC's delegate in Jerusalem, Renee Kosirnik, said: "When we are confronted with the extent of destruction in a civilian area as we were, it is difficult to accept that international humanitarian law has been respected."

He said the ICRC had been denied access to the wounded inside the refugee camp for six days after the worst fighting was over.

Palestinians make myths equally as well as bombs