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EU brushes off pressure from Bush to blacklist Hamas
2003-06-28 14:02:24
By Retuers
June 28, 2003
The European Commission on Friday brushed off pressure from U.S. President George W. Bush for the European Union to put the Palestinian militant group Hamas on its list of outlawed terrorist organisations.
Bush publicly urged EU leaders at a summit in Washington on Wednesday to act to stamp out fundraising and organised support for the radical Islamic movement, notably among Europe's large Muslim immigrant communities.
Hamas has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings as part of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
The European Union last year outlawed Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, enabling member states to seize suspected assets of the group and prosecute activists. But unlike the United States, it has not banned the political wing.
"You can't say that the whole of Hamas is a terrorist organisation and certainly that is not our position," said Reijo Kemppinen, chief spokesman of the executive Commission. "Clearly there is some disagreement" (with the U.S. view), Kemppinen told a news briefing.
Kemppinen cited the organisation's social welfare activities, such as running clinics and schools, for which he suggested funding was legitimate. EU officials stress the 15-nation bloc, the biggest donor to the Palestinian authority, does not fund any Hamas institutions with taxpayers' money but it has not barred private fundraising for Hamas-linked charities.
Kemppinen said the Union wanted Hamas to denounce "terrorist activities" and reach agreement with the Palestinian Authority on a ceasefire and an end to all attacks against Israel.
EU diplomats said Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas
privately urged the Europeans to pressure Hamas to accept a cease-fire but refrain from any move that could make his negotiations with the group more difficult.
"That clearly suggests we should not put Hamas on the blacklist at this stage, when there is still a hope of getting them to sign up to a ceasefire," a senior EU diplomat said. The diplomat voiced fears that the issue of outlawing Hamas could be used to prevent progress on a Middle East peace "road map" jointly developed by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, in the same way as Israeli demands for a period of absolute calm had stymied earlier diplomatic efforts.
France has voiced the strongest opposition to completely outlawing Hamas, arguing that its political wing was a necessary player in the Middle East peace process.
However, diplomats said that at a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday, Paris faced strong pressure from its EU peers, led by Britain, to agree to put the whole movement on the blacklist.
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