PALESTINE: Hamas denies paying captors to free BBC journalist

Official says Army of Islam handed over Johnston after coming under siege

Straits Times
Saturday, July 7, 2007

By Abraham Rabinovich

Jerusalem --- The deal which won the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston this week from captivity in the Gaza Strip gave his captors their lives, their weapons and several million dollars, according to reports.

According to the Palestinian news agency Ma'an yesterday, Hamas paid US$5 million (S$7.6 million) to the clan and handed over five million bullets as the price for Mr Johnston's release. Officials of the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority said US$2 million was paid.

But Hamas officials have termed the reports of payment "nonsense."

Mr Ahmed Bahr, a top Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said Mumtaz Dughmush, leader of the Dughmush clan responsible for Johnston's capture, realised the game was up when hundreds of Hamas fighters surrounded the houses in Gaza City where his clan is concentrated.

"He asked for a fatwa (religious ruling) from a sheikh stating that foreigners must be protected when visiting Muslims," said Mr Bahr.

Two of the leading clerics in Gaza agreed to provide such a fatwa, giving the clan leader the religious cover he sought in order to back down.

A member of the clan told the Jerusalem Post by telephone that Mumtaz had received assurances from Hamas officials that neither he nor his relatives would be killed if Mr Johnston was handed over.

"We wanted to avoid a bloodbath in the Gaza Strip," he said. "It is forbidden for a Muslim to shed the blood of his Muslim brothers."

He said the agreement for Mr Johnston's release included recognition of the Army of Islam, which the clan calls itself, as a legitimate faction in the Gaza Strip and permission for it to keep its weapons.

According to observers in the Gaza Strip, the Dughmush clan, numbering several hundred fighters, has thrived on selling arms which are smuggled into the Gaza Strip through tunnels from Egypt.

Its members have reportedly been used as contract killers over the years by both Fatah and Hamas.

Some of the clan's senior figures, including Mumtaz himself, have been marked for retribution by Hamas for the killing of several Hamas operatives in the past year.

A Hamas official said the Army of Islam is "nothing but a group of thugs operating under the cover of Islam."

"There is a decision by Hamas to confiscate the weapons of all clans and gangs in the Gaza strip," said a senior Hamas official.

"It is only a matter of time before the Dughmush clan is also disarmed."

The intervention of Muslim clerics as intermediaries in the negotiations before Mr Johnston's release provides Hamas and the clan with a framework of religiously sanctioned accommodation.

However, in view of Hamas' declared intention to disarm all private militias in Gaza, a clash appears inevitable.

Hamas sees its enforcement of law and order in the Gaza Strip as the best way of achieving legitimacy in the eyes of the international community which at present largely boycotts it.

"We proved to the world that we respect the freedom of the media and that we will not allow anyone to harm a foreigner who visits us," said a Hamas spokesman after Mr Johnston's release.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops, penetrating 1km into the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killed 11 Palestinian militants, an Israeli army spokesman said.

It was the highest casualty toll since Hamas wrested control of Gaza from Fatah last month.

The Israeli spokesman said the raid was part of ongoing operations intended to keep Hamas from building up a military infrastructure close to the border fence, including the digging of tunnels that would enable militants to infiltrate into Israel.

Date Posted: 7/7/2007