There can be no solution to the Middle East conflict without the involvement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, President Thabo Mbeki said on Tuesday.
Mbeki was speaking at the United Nations African Meeting in Support of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
The conference opened with an address by Mbeki, and recorded messages by Arafat and UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
Mbeki condemned the restrictions placed by Israel on Arafat’s ability to travel and to lead his people. Israel should stop targeting Arafat and allow him to carry out the role the Palestinian people had elected him to do.
Arafat, he said, remained the only leader who had been democratically elected by the Palestinian people, and any solution to the Palestinian problem would have to involve him.
”Nobody should decide for the Palestinian people who their leaders should be,” Mbeki said.
Arafat has been confined to his West Bank headquarters for two years under threat from Israel.
”None of us can feel completely free when we are faced with the situation the Palestinians face. None of us can feel secure when we see so many people dying all the time,” Mbeki said.
Mbeki called on the meeting to produce an outcome which could be placed before the African Union summit which opens in Addis Ababa in less than two weeks. The Palestinian conflict should be regarded as an African issue and should receive the attentions of the AU.
In a pre-recorded speech, Arafat said the conference would help show the world how Israel was ignoring international human rights laws and destroying Palestinian homes and lives.
He said it could also act as an outstretched hand of reconciliation to Israel on behalf of ”peace-loving” Palestinians.
Arafat said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to build a wall dividing Israeli and Palestinian territories demonstrated his contempt for a peaceful compromise.
”The wall will tear apart tens of cities, villages and agricultural land.
”It will turn those areas into ghettos and isolated prisons. It even threatens our water supply,” he said.
Annan, in his message, called for all parties to abide by the agreements reached in the ”road map” to peace in the Middle East and to comply with international law.
The meeting drew criticism from the opposition political party, the Democratic Alliance. DA spokesperson Douglas Gibson said the meeting had little chance of success without the participation of Israel.
He said the DA firmly believed in a two-state solution to the problem of Palestine.
”We support what President Mbeki has said in his opening address at the conference about the need for a resolution of the problem,” Gibson said.
However, if there was one thing that delegates could learn from South Africa it was that for a just and lasting solution both sides needed to be involved, Gibson said.
During the lunch break a group of about 200 people took part in a demonstration outside the Cape Town international convention centre, where the conference is being held.
The Cape Town Anti-War Alliance was protesting against the conference being held under the auspices of the United Nations. The conference continues on Wednesday. – Sapa