PGPO COUNTS ON UN HELP TO ENSURE AID REACHES PALESTINIANS

SEPANG (Malaysia), June 6 (Bernama) -- Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO)
advisor Mukhriz Mahathir Sunday asked the United Nations (UN) to mediate with
the Israeli regime to ensure that PGPO's Gaza-bound aid reaches the
Palestinians.

He said he did not fully trust the Israeli regime to be generous enough to allow
the supplies on board the seized MV Rachel Corrie aid ship to reach Gaza safely.


"They have occupied Gaza for over three years. All this while, we have been
trying to send aid to the Palestinians there but they (Israel) have crossed the
line by blocking all doors and our efforts to deliver aid.

"That is why I don't believe that they will be so generous as to deliver our aid
to Gaza," he told reporters at the KL International Airport (KLIA), here.

He said direct negotiation with Israel was impossible as Malaysia did not have
any diplomatic ties with the regime.

Mukhriz, who is Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, was among
those who had welcomed home the 12 Malaysian peace activists who had been on the
Turkish aid ship "Mavi Marmara" bound for Gaza when it was attacked by Israeli
naval forces on Monday.

The Israeli naval forces seized the Rachel Corrie at about 2.45pm (Malaysian
time) yesterday and have towed it to Ashdod port in Israel.

There are six Malaysian activists on board the ship -- Member of Parliament Mohd
Nizar Zakaria, PGPO members Shamsul Akmar, Matthias Chang and Ahmad Faizal
Azumu, as well as two journalists, Halim Mohamed and Mohd Jufri Judin from
private television station TV3.

The humanitarian aid mission was sponsored by PGPO, a Malaysian
non-governmental organisation.

The Rachel Corrie is named after an American activist killed by an Israeli
forces' bulldozer while attempting to prevent them from demolishing Palestinian
homes in the Gaza Strip.
-- BERNAMA