Unpaid policemen close roads in Gaza, burn tyres

GAZA, Sep 28 (Reuters) Hundreds of Palestinian police and security officers blocked all main roads in Gaza City with garbage containers and burning tyres today in a protest against unpaid wages.

Policemen, firing rifles into the air, turned some garbage bins upside down, causing rubbish to spill out and also broke up concrete to halt traffic on Gaza City's main streets, in a further sign of growing unrest over delayed salaries.

Most police were from security services loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been locked in an increasingly bitter confrontation with the Hamas-led government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh over stalled efforts to form a unity coalition.

Palestinians hope a unity government will lead to the lifting of Western sanctions imposed when the Hamas Islamist movement took office in March. The embargo has prevented the Palestinian Authority from paying full salaries since then.

''Our protest is not politically motivated, it is motivated by the hunger and needs of our children,'' said one policeman, his face smeared with black from the smoke of burning tyres.

''Haniyeh or Abbas, we do not care about their problems. We care about our welfare.'' The West cut direct aid to the Palestinian Authority over Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace accords with the Jewish state.

Senior Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri accused some ''political parties'' of sponsoring the rallies.

He blamed officials at Abbas's office for not making good on the president's promise to help make a full salary payment for September to 165,000 government workers. Haniyeh made a similar pledge.

''There are administrative measures that were supposed to be made by the president's office. They have not been finalised yet,'' Masri told Reuters.

Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, spokesman for Abbas's Fatah movement in Gaza and the West Bank, said Hamas was trying to escape its responsibility for ending the financial crisis.

''The reality on the ground says people need food for their children. They do not care who pays the salaries, the government or the president,'' Abu Khoussa said.

The protests closed almost all main roads in Gaza City.

Taxi drivers struggled to find their way through, travelling long distances through alleyways to get to their destinations.

The police action comes amid a month-long strike by many other government workers such as teachers over unpaid wages.

Some analysts had speculated such pressure might have forced Hamas to meet Abbas's demand that the planned unity government recognise interim peace deals with Israel as an attempt to satisfy the West.

Hamas, which trounced Fatah in January parliamentary elections, has insisted it would never recognise the Jewish state. Both Hamas and Fatah have traded accusations over who is to blame for the breakdown in unity talks.

REUTERS SP KN1801