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LEBANON: Qana massacre provokes crowd attack on UN building
BEIRUT, 30 July (IRIN) - Lebanese citizens responded with fury at the news that more than 50 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern town of Qana on Sunday.Across the nation, Lebanese woke up to graphic pictures of at least 37 dead children being removed from the rubble of a destroyed house.Days and weeks of frustration at the slow progress being made to resolve this conflict at the higher political level culminated in an impromptu mass convergence at the UN building in Beirut. As far as many ordinary Lebanese are concerned, Qana is the last straw.
"We are used to Zionist massacres," says Hani Mansour, a protester outside the UN building. "It's not the first time they have done it and I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again."
The centre of the capital was brought to a standstill as more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside UN House to protest against the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.
Some demonstrators protested peacefully while others stormed the building by force after breaking through an entrance. Offices and equipment were smashed on two floors and a fire was started. There were more than 80 Lebanese and foreign UN staff members in the building at the time of the incident, though none was reported to be hurt.
"This is an empty building and the UN are not doing anything," says Ali Salah, another demonstrator. "They don't care about Lebanon. They have done nothing."
With emotions running high, Lebanese security forces attempted to intervene and stop the angry protest from spinning out of control. Witnesses at the scene say, however, that members of political parties Hizbullah and Amal had more influence in calming matters.
The UN, on its part, condemned the Qana attacks and empathized with the anger of the Lebanese people, though denounced the 'destructive acts' of a 'core group' of violent protestors.
"We utterly condemn what happened in Qana," says Khaled Mansour, spokesman for the UN in Lebanon. "The Secretary-General has called for am emergency session of the Security Council with the hope of bringing an immediate cessation of violence."
Mansour adds that the UN and its various humanitarian agencies will continue to operate in Lebanon to help the government and Lebanese civil society assist the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians affected by the war. It also called for an investigation into the Qana incident.
For many Lebanese, Qana became a tragic symbol of their country's conflict with Israel following the death of more than 100 people there in an Israeli strike in 1996.
"It's horrible," says protestor Karim Harmoushe. "I don't know why they hit the town again. The image that is being shown in the West is so biased. Now there are 50 dead Israeli civilians and 600 here. Does each Lebanese civilian count for one tenth of each Israeli civilian?"
The Qana incident has led Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora to demand "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire" before any negotiations, sending a message to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice that she would not be welcome in Beirut.
Seniora's position was supported by many Lebanese politicians who expressed their anger at the incident
"All efforts should be deployed for a ceasefire," MP Boutrous Harb says. "This should be the start of a comprehensive settlement. We cannot let people die this way."
But although there are increasing calls for diplomacy in Lebanon, many fear that the conflict will escalate, with Israel seeking to continue its offensive for 10 to 14 days and Hizbullah vowing to respond to "the horrific massacre".
"Israel will feel what our response will be," says Salah from the midst of the demonstration. "We've got used to their aggression, but we can make them suffer."
Lebanon : Holed up in southern mountains
ARNOUN, 4 August (IRIN) - The road inland from the port city of Tyre, 60km south of Beirut, is riddled with craters filled with mangled cars. A cattle pen is jammed with dead and dying cows left to starve after their terrified owner fled. The road then forks east into the Aamel Mountains where entire towns are deserted, shops boarded up, bridges collapsed, and broken power lines flail in the wind.
The once-bustling market town of Nabatiyeh, 30km east of Tyre, is a Hezbollah stronghold, with the faces of those killed fighting Israel emblazoned on flags. Now, just a few grocers and roaming cats are left.
These mountaintop communities of Nabatiyeh province have been decimated by the Israeli bombardment, which began on 12 July in response to Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers.
"Every rocket that lands here is like a sugar-coated almond to us," said 74-year-old grocer Hani Hamadi, referring to the strengthening of the resistance. "As long as we have the resistance, the Israelis will not be able to take one inch of our land," he said, sitting beside untouched piles of fruit and vegetables in the central square of Nabatiyeh, with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Nour radio station blaring out military marching music.
Though Hamadi said his customers had dropped from thousands to hundreds - most of whom had taken advantage of the relative safety of a two-day ceasefire this week to do their shopping - the old man remained confident that Hezbollah would prevail in this conflict.
But across town, sheltering in the basement of one of the few houses left undamaged, an elderly caretaker, Sheikh Muslim, said it was time for both sides to end the conflict.
"I hope both sides can agree on a deal to end the fighting," said the elderly man, from Syria's northern city of Aleppo, who has lived in Nabatiyeh for two decades. "Every day is a day full of danger now. The aircraft are the most difficult to deal with. If it is just [artillery] shelling, then I can sleep, but not when the planes are dropping bombs."
The caretaker said the last of the Lebanese families, who had been sheltering in the nextdoor basement, had fled Nabatiyeh after hearing of the deaths of civilians sheltering in a similar way in Qana. His only company were cats and canaries, two of which had died recently, he said, from the shock of Israeli air strikes.
His support for Hezbollah, however, remained unwavering. "Of course I support them. Does it require two people to sit down and discuss it?" he asked rhetorically, using a familiar Arabic expression. "As long as the people inside the country are united, nobody can come in."
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said that so far in this conflict 900 people in Lebanon have died and 3,000 been wounded, with the majority civilians and a third of casualties children younger than 12. Sixty-eight Israelis have been killed by Hezbollah, including 27 civilians, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
On the frontline
Arnoun is another mountaintop village in south Lebanon, just 5km from Israel's border. Munir Tawbe's family is the last one remaining in the upper part of Arnoun. Of the estimated 1,500 people who used to live there, only three households remain.
The village has been in the frontline of the conflict since the Israeli military launched its largest ground offensive into Lebanon since 1982. Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000, but the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have insisted since that Israel must also leave what they claim is the Lebanese territory of the Shebaa farms, on the borders between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
"This time there will be no occupation, we will die before that happens," Tawbe said.
The family's house is set against the dramatic ruins of Beaufort Castle, the mountain fortress just above Arnoun that has been a strategic stronghold since the Crusades.
Tawbe, his mother, three sisters and younger brother listen all day to the near-constant sounds of Israeli artillery pounding suspected Hezbollah positions in the valley below. "We cannot leave because we cannot rent a house and we do not have family elsewhere, so we have been living in the basement," explained the young man, whose father died when he was a child.
The family is living off fried potatoes and food contributed by the few Lebanese soldiers remaining to man a checkpoint on the road leading up to the village.
"When the shelling is going on we just sit in the basement and think about our lives," Tawbe said, looking over the scorched earth less than 10 metres from his house. "Or I try to analyse the sounds of the shells to work out where they are going to land."
LEBANON: Oil-spill clean-up delayed by conflict
BEIRUT, 4 August (IRIN) - European and Arab governments are ready to step in with aid and equipment to help Lebanon tackle a 10,000-tonne oil spill that was the result of Israeli air strikes on the fuel tanks of Jiyeh power station, 20km south of Beirut, on 13 and 15 July.However, the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in the south of the country is stopping them from doing so, according to a member of the Lebanese environment ministry, who did not want to be named.
"They cannot mobilise their forces until a ceasefire is called," said the ministry official. "We are operating in a state of war so normal procedure cannot be followed in this situation ... a lot of countries are on standby trying to get the aid to us," she said.
Although emergency services have succeeded in putting out a fire, which threatened a tank containing 15,000 tonnes of oil, there has been a further spill of as much as 2,000 tonnes.
The oil spill into the Mediterranean Sea has affected about a third of the country's 200km coastline and has reached as far north as Syria.
Beaches across Lebanon have been covered with a thick layer of sludge, a further blow to coastal communities already badly hit by the exodus of tourists and locals when the conflict first began.
Local ecologists say the oil spill also threatens fish spawning grounds and sea turtles, including the endangered green turtle.
At the Sporting Beach club in west Beirut a thick layer of oil covers the concrete sundeck and the club's management says business has almost disappeared. "Even if there was no oil in the sea, there is no season because no one is here. It's war," said Toni Morrino, manager of the club.
Summer is the peak time for the Lebanese fishing industry and as well as being hit by the oil spill, fishermen have been prevented from taking their boats out to sea by the Israeli blockade.
Wafic al-Jizi, the head of the fishermen's union in Beirut, said many in the industry were suffering. "There is no money now. The Israeli navy and this oil have stopped everything," he said, looking at the empty fishing harbour in the Rawche area.
"If the government doesn't do anything then we don't know what will happen," he said.
So far the Lebanese government has received 800 booms, floating barriers used for oil spill recovery, and 40 barrels of detergent. This is only a small part of the equipment needed for a clean-up operation that will cost more than US $130 million and take a year to complete.
The conflict between Israel and Lebanon-based Hizbollah flared after militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 raid.
Paul Mifsud, the Coordinator of the United Nations Environmental Programme - Mediterranean Action Plan said that immediate action was vital but that this called for a halt to hostilities.
"In addition to the humanitarian circumstances, an environmental catastrophe is threatening the Mediterranean region", he said. "Hostilities must cease to guarantee immediate safe access to the affected area".
Syria has also requested UNEP to send help to control the spilled oil on its shoreline and territorial waters and to assess environmental degradation costs.
BAGHDAD, 3 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - Hanan Muhammad is from a very conservative Sunni family, and she and her four children live in a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad. But as sectarian violence rages across Iraq, Muhammad is sheltering her Shi?ite neighbours in her home.
?We have lived beside each other for years, and now because of this ridiculous sectarian violence, other people want them to leave our Sunni neighbourhood,? Muhammad said. ?But they do not have anywhere to go. So I?ll help them, giving them my home, food and friendship as much as necessary.?
Hundreds of Iraqis who oppose the ongoing sectarian violence have found ways to help each other, according to a spokesman for the Baghdad-based Iraq Aid Association (IAA).
?Some families shelter their neighbours, others give aid assistance like food supplies for those displaced, and even doctors offer their services for free as a way to help those innocent victims of the ongoing violence,? said Fatah Ahmed, spokesman for IAA.
Hanan Muhammad has harboured her neighbours for nearly two months. Their children do not go to school and the parents quit their jobs because threats at their workplaces and in the neighbourhood have become so frequent they cannot leave Muhammad?s residence. Muhammad, a widow, is their sole means of support.
?When my husband died three years ago, these neighbours gave me complete support,? Muhammad said. ?I cannot leave them now in this very difficult time.?
She has a government job, and her salary is stretched to cover the needs of both families. ?We had to decrease the quality of our food to make it cheaper,? Muhammad said, ?but I am sure that God will recompense me in the future.?
Sectarian attacks in Iraq have spread across the country. According to the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, an estimated 160,000 Iraqis have become internally displaced since an attack on a Shi?ite shrine in February led to this current cycle of violence.
Even with the month-old Reconciliation Plan in place, the situation has worsened with at least 70 people being killed every day in Iraq. Most of these deaths are sectarian, according to statistics from the public information office of the Ministry of Interior.
Iraqis know they risk their own safety when they take action to help fellow citizens.
?My father was hiding a Sunni family in our home because they were old friends, and they did not have anywhere to go after their neighbours forced them out of their home,? said Youssera Ali, 23, a Shi?ite resident of Baghdad.
?When an armed militia discovered what my father was doing, they killed him. And when those friends tried to run away, they killed all four members of their family,? Ali said.
Despite the danger, Iraqis continue to shelter their friends and neighbours.
?We know the risks we run by keeping such families with us, but we have to think it through. If we turn our back on them, for sure if one day we need help, we are going to receive the same treatment,? said Khalid Hassan, 34, a Shi?ite originally from Basra.
He has hosted four Sunni friends in his house in a Shi?ite neighbourhood of Baghdad for nearly two months, ever since they began getting anonymous threats accusing them of terrorism.
?We cannot forget those who were our friends during good times,? Hassan said. ?They are good people and are not involved with terrorism. But in my neighbourhood, just being Sunni is enough for you to be accused of insurgency. And I cannot leave them without protection in this sensitive time.?
Those sheltered by their neighbours or relatives are glad to have the protection, but they worry about how long the situation will last.
?We are very thankful for the help that our friend is giving to us,? said Adnan Abdul-Zahra, 39, who is being sheltered by his neighbour. ?They try to do everything possible to make us feel comfortable and secure in this house.?
But, he added: ?It is hard when you feel you have become a prisoner inside a house and you cannot do anything to help, even concerning money, because we lost everything when we were forced to leave our home.?
As often happens in conflicts, children bear the brunt of the suffering. Nearly half of Iraq?s displaced people are children, who suffer from lack of health care and education. Many live in improvised camps, mosques, abandoned schools and government buildings.
?I miss my school,? said Ahmed al-Huri, 12, whose family is being sheltered by a neighbour. ?Since my father received a threat, my brothers and I had to stop going to our lessons. The doctor said that my health is not good, but even going to have medical treatment is complicated. My family is scared to leave our friend?s house for any reason.?
Although tensions are high outside the walls, within these homes religious differences don?t matter.
?Before, we never discussed religious differences, and we never killed someone because his beliefs were different from ours,? said Ali Jaffer, 53, a father of five who is accomodating his Sunni neighbour?s family. ?What is happening in Iraq now is unacceptable. Our country is for Iraqis, no matter what their ethnicity or religion.?
Jaffer has been sheltering six people in addition to his own family for more than three months. ?It is hard to have all those people depending on me,? he said. ?But I am happy to do that. Sectarian violence will not take us to peace - but friendship will.?
LEBANON: Israeli commandos attack militants in hospital
BAALBEK, 2 August (IRIN) - The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) confirmed it attacked Hizbollah militants based in a hospital in Baalbek, east Lebanon yesterday. General Dan Halutz, the Israeli Chief-of-staff, said that after a series of aerial bombardments, commandos landed by helicopter and engaged with militants at the Al Hekme Hospital in the north of the city.The hospital was being used as a Hizbullah base and the raid was part of an intensified ground offensive launched in south Lebanon by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) on Tuesday, said Halutz.
He claimed that 10 Hizbullah fighters were killed and five captured in the battle, including a senior member who was under treatment at the hospital.
Hizbullah has denied this claim and said the captured men were all civilians. Local officials reported that the hospital had been cleared of patients a few days earlier and only guards and Hizbullah personnel had remained.
A local policeman told IRIN that during the hospital raid, 11 civilians were killed, although other sources claimed a higher toll, including some children.
This is the first time IDF commandos have ventured so deep into Lebanon since recent hostilities began.
Baalbek is a renowned Hizbollah stronghold located 100 kilometres north of the Israeli border in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. It is famous for the Roman temples of Jupiter and Bacchus, which have so far not been hit.
The city's 120,000 inhabitants are predominantly Shiite, yet there are significant minorities of Christians and Sunnis. According to a local Hizbullah member, most civilians fled the ancient city following Israeli bombardments in the first week of the military campaign, which started on 12 July in response to Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers.
LEBANON: Air strikes cause post-traumatic stress
TYRE, 1 August (IRIN) - Many Lebanese civilians from areas exposed to Israeli air strikes are developing a health condition known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to local psychiatrists."Trouble in sleeping, and eating disorders are some of the factors which are common for those who live through catastrophes and bombardment," Dr. Sami Richa, a Lebanese psychiatrist, told IRIN.
The ongoing Israeli air strikes against targets in Lebanon began on 12 July, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah militants.
Since Hizbullah began shelling the north of Israel two weeks ago, more than 50 Israelis have been killed and an estimated 500 injured, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). During the same period, more than 600 Lebanese have been killed and more than 3,200 injured, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Thirteen-year-old Hassan Hamade recently fled Israeli bombing in the city of Nabatiyeh, 60 kilometres south of Beirut. "I cannot sleep at night," he said. "I still hear the sound of the Israeli warplanes and the explosion of bombs."
Hassan is now at his grandmother's house in Beirut with the rest of his family. Hassan's mother, Nibal, said that her two sons and daughter still wake up at night and at times scream in their sleep.
"It is not only the children," Nibal said. "My husband is also finding it hard to sleep at night, and he is always stressed out and edgy."
Richa said the psychiatric disorder can affect anyone who has lived through a conflict situation. Some of the children who have lived through aerial bombardments still hear the sound of explosions in their heads, are restless during the night and forgetful.
"Many children and adults do not show the symptoms of PTSD right away, but rather after some time, maybe a year or more later," Richa said.
"If their cases are not treated, then it might affect their lives. In the future, children who have anxiety disorder will show moodiness, become jumpy and will fight over any little word said to them. Adults express their anxiety through words."
Israelis living near the Lebanon border have also suffered from mental health problems after repeated cross-border rocket attacks, health professionals there said.
PTSD is a complex health condition that can develop in response to a traumatic experience, such as a life-threatening or extremely distressing situation. People suffering from the disorder can persistently re-experience or recall the traumatic event, according to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV).
Symptoms may include difficulty falling or staying asleep; irritability or outbursts of anger; difficulty concentrating; hyper vigilance; and exaggerated response when startled.
"Some families have a larger possibility of being affected by the bombings and the fear associated with them because they are more prone to the anxiety disorder," Richa said.
Dr. Elie Mikhael, a member of the Higher Council for Children, said that the council, in collaboration with the Social Affairs Ministry, will be holding special activities for affected children. Doctors would diagnose the children's problems by watching their behaviour as they play.
