March 31, 2002.
Turkish Captain Huseyin Ozaslah, a member of the Temporary
International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) who was attacked by a Palestinian
terrorist on Tuesday night, was phone-interviewed in English on Israel Radio on
his way to the hospital.
Maj. Cengiz Soytunc of Turkey and Catherine Berruex of Switzerland
were murdered in the ambush shooting. The following is a transcript of an
interview with Capt. Ozaslah, the sole survivor.
Capt. Ozaslah: There were three people and we were driving in an Opel Corsa. I
was sitting in the back seat and one colleague was driving and one female
colleague was sitting in the front seat and we were just getting out of Hebron.
Then we heard some shooting towards our car. We were very fast – 90
kilometers per hour – and this Palestinian was just standing in the middle of this
road.
Reporter: Could you see him?
Ozaslah: Yes. Yes. The lights were on and we saw him. He was in a PPF
uniform, a Palestinian Police Force uniform. He was carrying a Kalashnikov and
we shouted towards him that “we are from the TIPH – don’t shoot at us”. We
could hardly stop the car. There were only 5 or 6 meters from the man and our
car. And he didn’t stop.
Reporter: You told him that you were from TIPH and he continued to shoot?
Ozaslah: Yes. We told him that we were from TIPH and he didn’t care.
He kept shooting towards us. My colleagues sitting in the front seat were shot
dead. The driver’s blood splashed on my face and I was also injured. He
finished his magazine and he didn’t check if all of us were dead or not and he
escaped.
But I saw him. That he had a Palestinian police force uniform and was
carrying a Kalashnikov and he finished his whole magazine – thirty bullets at
least. He was about 30 years old.
