Hamas militia beat pay system

2007-08-08 18:23

Gaza City - The government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas inadvertently paid one month's salary to 3 500 members of the Hamas militia he outlawed, Finance Ministry officials said on Wednesday.

The ministry ordered banks on Wednesday to cancel the deposits - totalling $2.3m - made the day before, officials said.

But by then, some of the militiamen had withdrawn the money, said a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza, Ahab Ghussen.

"First we thought that the people in Ramallah were showing regret and wanted to compensate the legitimate forces in Gaza, but we found that they still are displaying aggression toward their own people," Ghussen said.

Abbas ousted Hamas

One of the Finance Ministry officials said a computer error was responsible for the unintended payment. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter with the media.

Abbas outlawed the Hamas militia in June after it wrested control of the Gaza Strip. The Finance Ministry is controlled by the emergency government Abbas set up in the West Bank town of Ramallah after Hamas' Gaza takeover.

In recent weeks, the ministry has been paying overdue wages to 170 000 civil servants, half of them security forces.

For more than a year, the Palestinian Authority was able to pay only partial wages because of international sanctions imposed against it while it was controlled by Hamas.

Those sanctions were lifted after Abbas ousted Hamas from power and set up a loyalist government.

- AP