
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 2, 1994                   TAG: 9403020211
SECTION: NATIONAL/INT                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                LENGTH: Medium

PLO REJECTS ISRAELI CONCESSIONS

The Palestine Liberation Organization rejected major Israeli concessions aimed at coaxing it back to peace talks in the wake of the mosque massacre, saying Tuesday that the package did not go far enough to protect Palestinians in the occupied lands.

The major stumbling block was an offer announced hours earlier by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to allow unarmed international observers in the occupied territories.

``We still insist on military and armed peacekeeping forces to protect our people,'' PLO Executive Committee member Ali Ishak said in Tunis, Tunisia, after the committee rejected the offer.

Israel also offered to disarm settlers in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho and expand the proposed Palestinian police force in those areas, according to PLO officials.

Rabin made the offer for international observers in Jerusalem on Monday. Later, spokesmen for the prime minister and the Israeli Foreign Ministry said they had no information on a package of concessions, although they did not deny that one existed.

Such a package would mean that Israel had agreed to most demands put by the PLO following Friday's shooting of worshippers at a mosque in Hebron.

Two Palestinians were killed Monday in clashes with soldiers in the occupied territories, bringing the Arab death toll to 64.

In New York, diplomats from the United States, Russia, the PLO and Egypt said they were close to agreeing on a U.N. resolution condemning the massacre. Israel began cracking down on Jewish extremists Sunday and announced plans to release up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in the wake of the attack.

But PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat said those measures were not enough. He demanded all Jewish settlements be removed from the West Bank and Gaza.

The PLO also has demanded armed foreign troops in the territories - a step Rabin says would compromise Israel's control there - as well as the disarming of settlers and an expanded police force.

Mideast peace talks in Washington were suspended Sunday after Syria, Lebanon and Jordan walked out in support of the PLO.

Rabin has rejected PLO demands to dismantle Jewish settlements, declaring that Israel will make no compromises on its security - including the fate of the 120,000 Jewish settlers.

Monday night, Western and Arab diplomats in Tunis said Rabin had agreed to additional concessions after intensive efforts by American and Egyptian emissaries.

by CNB