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LV Amman roof tops-smoke from fires in background
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DR RASHID SPEAKS
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TRANSCRIPT: SEQ. 2: RASHID: "The situation is really a very grim one. On the one hand you have real butchery in Amman which is unequalled and unparalleled. We have people who have just come back from Amman on the plane this morning, newspaper men and some of our friends from the embassies in Amman. And they corroborate what we have from our wireless. In Amman there is at least 30,000 killed and wounded. All the wounded are dying because they are all bleeding in the streets. Many of the mountains have been levelled, completely levelled and the houses in Amman, fifty per cent of which must have been totally destroyed. But beside this grim tale of ah, as Anya Franco, the journalist said, just looked like Warsaw after -- immediately at the ceasefire after the war, at the same time our people are showing heroic defence, heroic resistance....."



REPORTER: "They are still fighting on........"



RASHID: "They are still fighting, all the downtown area is in the hands of people, the Fedayeen, the militia, the people of Jordan, and all the mountains where the camps, the refugee camps are, even Djebel Hussein, are in full control of our people. Even in Djebel Amman, where the army tanks occupied the place, our snipers and mortar shells are going on day and night."



REPORTER: "And you are prepared to go on fighting to the bitter end, it was said this morning......."



RASHID: "Well you see, we have passed the stage of return. After ???0,000 people killed or wounded in Amman alone, at least 6,000 people killed in Zarqa, all the killing and butchery unequalled savagery, you can't stop."



REPORTER: "Dr. Rashid, it's been suggested by King Hussein that a four-point compromise might be reached, are your people prepared to compromise with the Jordanian regime?"



RASHID: "We are not willing to compromise with the King, the butcher. He is really the true modern Nero of Amman. We are willing to accept any national government. We don't insist on our own government. But we can not settle with the king."



REPORTER: "Does that mean that you would be prepared to see Palestinian guerrilla members, some of your leaders participate in a new national government?"



RASHID: "Oh, that has to be discussed and studied. We have not really yet got to the stage of finding out exactly what king of Government we want. We would be willing to accept a government which is totally Jordanian."



REPORTER: "Is there any possible solution that would be favourable in your eyes at present that you could suggest to us?"



RASHID: "Yes, of course. In the continued fighting, the intervention of the Arab Governments in the right direction, not just a neutral between two warring parties, could get the King to abdicate, leave the country, which I think he has always been prepared for that eventuality, there could be a formation of an interim government which could come to a peace with us. Our peace is very simple. We have always asked for it. We do not want to rule Jordan. We want freedom of access and movement, in Jordan, to our liberated areas in Palestine."




Initials JON/BHH/ES.1711 JON/BHH/ES.1643



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Beirut yesterday (Wednesday a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Dr. Rashid, told newsmen that Arab guerrillas were still holding out against the Jordanian Army in Amman.

Dr. Rashid described the fighting in Amman as real butchery. There were 30,000 killed and wounded, he said. But the guerrillas and militia, he insisted, were still holding out in down-town Amman and in the camps of Djebel Hussein. The PLO, he said, was not willing to compromise with the King, whom he referred to as a true modern Nero. But he added that the guerrillas did not want to rule Jordan, they wanted freedom of access to what he called the liberated areas in Palestine.