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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Southern strings
By Zeina KhodrThe cash-strapped government in Beirut has been hard at work trying to gather the necessary funds to reconstruct and develop south Lebanon, ever since Israeli forces withdrew from the area over a month ago. Invitations were sent out this week for a preliminary meeting in Beirut on 27 July, to discuss putting together a donors' conference. But the US Administration put a damper on plans when it warned Lebanon that the money will not be forthcoming so long as government authority remains absent in the recently liberated areas.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said her government fully backed international efforts to acquire financial assistance for south Lebanon's reconstruction, but obstacles must first be removed. "One of the reasons is that the Beirut government remains reluctant to send its army to the liberated zone and to re-establish its authority on the entire territory," Albright recently told Lebanese and Arab groups in Washington. "This Lebanese stance makes it difficult to encourage donor nations to extend aid. The Europeans will not share in this aid unless Lebanon deploys its army in the whole of south Lebanon."
Lebanon, however, is sticking to its guns. Last month, the Lebanese cabinet decided to send 1,000 soldiers and policemen to the south but did not set a date for the move. It has not been satisfied with the Israeli withdrawal, nor with the so-called Blue Line drawn by the world body.
President Emile Lahoud's office issued a statement last week saying that Lebanon continues to object to three points along the Blue Line, which "are inconsistent with the internationally recognised border." The statement demanded that the line be amended but added that "Beirut's list of Israeli violations conformed with that of the UN."
Enter UN special Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen who has been holding talks in Lebanon and Israel over the past 10 days in a bid to resolve the border dispute. After two trips backs and forth between Tel Aviv and Beirut, Larsen said on Sunday that he was confident that the crisis is almost over. He added that the Israeli government has committed itself formally to "help rapidly rectify all violations." Larsen also expressed hope that the violations would be removed before opening the donors' conference on 27 July, saying that this would create a positive atmosphere ahead of the meeting. He added that it was the responsibility of the Israeli government to put a stop to these violations. Concerning the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south, Larsen told reporters in Beirut that his understanding after meeting Lahoud and other top officials was that the army will be deployed as soon as the Israeli violations were dealt with.
The UN peace-keeping force in the south has listed nine places where Israel had a presence on Lebanese territory, saying most were patrol tracks sometimes used by Israeli forces to cross the border. Lebanon has identified 12 Israeli violations of the UN-demarcated Blue Line.
Terminating those violations would pave the way for deployment of UN peace-keepers in the liberated areas in south Lebanon, which the international community hopes will be followed by the fanning out of Lebanese armed forces in the region.
"The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon [UNIFIL] will only deploy with the full cooperation of the Lebanese government and the decision of Lebanon is that there will be no deployment before the violations are resolved," Larsen said.
The United Nations had hoped to deploy along the frontier by July, when UNIFIL's 4,600-strong force was to be increased by 1,000 soldiers. The troops are expected to fill the security vacuum left by Israel's hasty withdrawal after 22 years of occupation.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Selim Al-Hoss has made clear that "the deployment depends on the termination of the border transgressions. The operation can be done in a few hours if there is a determination by the UN and Israel to allow it. The UNIFIL deployment is a Lebanese demand."
Time, however, is running out. The UNIFIL mandate comes up for renewal every six months. The next Security Council vote on the extension of that mandate is at the end of July. "Israel will have to end those violations fast while Lebanon is called upon to take a final decision on the UN deployment," sources close to the UN peace-keeping command in the south said.
Observers believe the Israeli government may resolve the border encroachments because it is in its interest that some kind of authority takes over security along the frontier. Over recent weeks, Lebanese civilians and Israeli soldiers were reportedly hurt during stone-throwing incidents across the border area. Israel has complained to the UN headquarters in New York that the Lebanese authorities were tolerating stone attacks. Beirut responded to that complaint by saying "as long as one inch of Lebanese soil is occupied, the stone throwing attacks will remain classified by the government as a sort of resistance to occupation at a minimal degree, which will only stop when these encroachments are terminated."
But the authorities here have so far remained tight-lipped over when its armed forces will take control of the liberated zone. Observers believe that may be a condition for much-needed international aid. Larsen refused to confirm this saying only that "as far as I know, no government has taken a final position on conditionalities related to donor approaches. I have learned through my contacts with the international community that there is broad support for a three stage process discussed by the UN and Lebanon to drum up funding for south Lebanon's development. Hopefully by the fall, a conference on a ministerial level will be held and financial commitments [will be] made."
Beirut has long maintained that it would not be a border guard for Israel if it unilaterally withdrew from the south without an agreement. But it has been criticised for its position mainly by opposition, right-wing Christian politicians. "State presence in the area is necessary to encourage residents to stay in their hometowns and allow normal life to return," Deputy Nassib Lahoud said.
Deputy Fares Bouez, a former foreign minister, went further and said: "I cannot understand the government's argument. The south should not remain outside the mandate of the army."
