The Palestinian Authority urged "collaborators" suspected...

The Palestinian Authority urged "collaborators" suspected of betraying Palestinians fighting Israeli occupation to give up within a month to win better legal treatment.Palestinian courts have sentenced some convicted collaborators to death - at least two have been executed - and militant groups have gunned down others since an uprising for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank began in 2000.Palestinian security services have stepped up action against those accused of helping the Israeli army and Israel's Shin Bet secret service trace and kill Palestinian militants.Colonel Samir al-Mashharawi, a senior Palestinian security official in Gaza, said the Palestinian Authority wanted both minor and major collaborators with Israeli secret services to know they could obtain leniency if they turned themselves in."Whoever comes over and turns himself in will have special treatment, and will get a fair trial in which his surrender will be taken into consideration by the court," Mashharawi said.Special treatment included better jail conditions and a shorter sentence, he said."Those whose involvement did not lead to severe harm to our people and our fighters could be exempted from trial and might even be released," said Mashharawi, general supervisor of the Palestinian Preventive Security service in Gaza.But informers whose work had led to Israeli killings of activists in the uprising would still be dealt with harshly.Mashharawi said targeting collaborators was a priority given Israel's military campaign against the uprising, which broke out in September 2000 after talks on a Palestinian state stalled, but he condemned vigilantism against collaborators.