June Friday 09-2000:

"Israeli" beer confiscated and crushed in south Lebanon…(1)
Lebanese State Security agents Wednesday seized and destroyed a container of "Israeli"-made beer in the former "Israeli"-occupied border zone in south Lebanon.

The "Maccabi" beer was confiscated in the village of Ibl as-Saqi and was then transported to a field in nearby Borkhosh where a tractor crushed it.

State Security agents, who have the task of checking the payment of customs duty, have in the past several days swooped on a number of shops in the border zone, which was freed from 22 years of "Israeli" occupation on May 24, and confiscated "Israeli" products.

The occupation used to bar the Lebanese in the occupied zone from buying Lebanese products from the liberated areas through imposing taxes at the crossings to finance the Lahdi militia and to harass the Lebanese traders at these checkpoints.

Lebanon insists on recovering every "inch", resistance arms create no problem…(2)

Prime Minister Dr Salim al-Hoss on Wednesday received Melhem Karam, president of the Journalists' Union, heading a delegation from the union.

Asked about the fate of the Resistance's arms, the premier said, "This question must not be asked. The resistance group is a party led by responsible leaders. We don't have a problem with the resistance movement's arms."

We have buried unrest forever, al-Hoss was quoted as saying.

He would not comment on the threats made by the "Israeli" enemy's prime minister Ehud Barak "for Israel is an aggressor state whose future acts cannot be predicted."

Karam quoted the prime minister as saying that "we'll call for the retrieval of every inch of our land. We aren't concerned with the size of the disputed area. We want it back, even if it's the size of a foot.

According to Karam, Hoss said that the government was "preparing for an official complaint to the United Nations against Israel's aggression against Lebanon during the occupation years."

"The complaint will ask the international organization to pressure Israel to pay compensation for the damage caused by its occupation," he added.

President Emile Lahoud, in turn, said: "We'll call for the retrieval of every inch of our land. We want every piece of land back because we paid a dear price for our rights and made precious sacrifices to achieve liberation."

Speaking to more than 500 emigrant businessmen at a conference on investment prospects in Lebanon, the president said that the withdrawal was "a step forward on the road to peace."

"However, just and comprehensive peace cannot be achieved without Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights, to the line of June 4, 1967, and giving Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes," Lahoud said.

For his part, Speaker Nabih Berri insisted on Lebanon's right to use all "diplomatic and non-diplomatic means" to regain its entire territory if "Israel" refused to relinquish the three locations facing the settlements of Misgav Am and Metulla. But he asserted that there would be no conflict between Lebanon and the UN.

Twenty seized by unidentified armed men in Lebanon: residents…(3)

"Some 20 Lebanese were arrested in an overnight raid by unidentified armed men on a village in the border zone formerly occupied by "Israel" in southern Lebanon, residents said Thursday.

Carrying lists of names but no arrest warrants, the men took the 20 from their homes in the village of Aitaroun, near the border with Israel, and drove them off to an unknown destination.

The residents said those seized were accused of collaboration with the Jewish state.

An official at the Lebanese army intelligence services told AFP that "we have nothing on this subject for the time being."

A spokesman of Hizbullah, which spearheaded the guerrilla war against the "Israeli" 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended on May 24, also declined to comment.

About 1,700 militiamen or persons accused of collaboration with "Israel" have been arrested or have surrendered to Lebanese authorities or to armed parties such as Hizbullah, Amal movement or the National Syrian Socialist Party since the "Israeli" withdrawal.

The paramilitary groups have handed over the suspects in their custody to the Lebanese authorities.

UN starts field verification of "Israeli" pullout from Lebanon after budging to occupation…(4)
UN peacekeepers began their verification of "Israel's" withdrawal from south Lebanon at about 16:00 (1300 GMT) on Thursday, a UN spokesman said in New York.

"They began their verification activities at the border about an hour ago with the "Israelis" and the Lebanese," spokesman Farhan Haq said.

"We have received an OK from the "Israelis" and we will start the verification," said a spokesman of the UN Interim Forces in southern Lebanon.

The United Nations had been waiting since early Wednesday for Israel's response to continuing border violation which had delayed UN certification that "Israel" had ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

A spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said earlier that four companies of UN troops would patrol the frontier with experts from both sides until sunset Thursday and resume their work on Friday.

The bone of contention is near the Misgav Am Zionist colony, about five kilometers (three miles) south of Metulla, in the Galilee panhandle.

U.N. forces are still waiting for "Israel" to shift its border with Lebanon before they can verify the "Jewish state" has ended its 22-year occupation of the south, a U.N. diplomat said on Thursday.

The diplomat told Reuters that U.N. cartographers found "Israel" had violated the line defining its pullout from south Lebanon at its northern settlement of Misgav Am.

"We told them to change the border and we have had no response so far," he said. "We're still waiting for them."

The United Nations on Tuesday finished drafting the line defining "Israel's" troop pullout from south Lebanon and special envoy Terje Roed Larsen said U.N. peacekeepers (UNIFIL) would patrol the area on Wednesday to ensure the "Israeli" border was behind that line.

But on Wednesday, UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel said "Israel" had "misinterpreted" the line and his force would not send troops on the ground until the border was moved.

"We are still awaiting an "Israeli" answer concerning Misgav Am, but for the time being we cannot say that there is a disagreement," the spokesman of the UNIFIL, Timor Goksel, told AFP.

The "Israelis" did not reject the UN claim that the area in question is on Lebanese territory, Goksel said. "They asked for more time and we are still awaiting their answer."

Up to some 20 years ago the Lebanese border marked the western edge of Misgav Am, but the "Israeli" occupation army erected a new fence 300 meters (yards) inside Lebanon.

Goksel told AFP Wednesday, "Of course if we don't solve that problem, we can't start verification."

Speaking on Israel radio earlier, Goksel said "most of the other points of contention or debate have been removed."

"Once this particular one is done UNIFIL will send its team on the ground to verify it," he said.

"UN cartographers and "Israelis" met from midnight to three in the morning in Nahariya (in Israel). The United Nations thinks there is a violation by Israel," Goksel, told AFP. He said the "Israelis" did not agree about the point in question, which lies not in the colony itself, but to the south of it. He said the "Israeli" experts had agreed to take the matter to their government.

More Lebanese sentenced to jail for "collaboration" with Israel…(5)

" Lebanon's military court has ordered jail sentences of between one year and three years for 24 Lebanese accused of collaboration with "Israel", judicial sources said Thursday.

Some of the sentences handed down late Wednesday banned the accused from returning to the formerly "Israeli"-occupied border zone in south Lebanon for between two years and five years after their jail terms expire, they said.

It was the first time that such prohibitions had been ordered since the trials of Lebanese accused of collaboration with "Israel" began on Monday.

Sixteen of the accused were sentenced to one year in jail, three of them to 18 months, three of them to two years and two of them to three years, they said.

They were accused of joining the now-disbanded militia or "Israel's" Civil Administration, as well as providing information to "Israel" or entering the Jewish state.

The Civil Administration was set up by "Israel" in the border zone in southern Lebanon it occupied for 22 years until May 24.

Military General Prosecutor Nasri Lahoud, brother of the country's president, has decided to prosecute 39 of 48 collaborators who had been freed for humanitarian reasons on condition they abide by residential restrictions.

The 39 are to appear before the military court which will decide whether it will try them or drop the charges.

On Monday, the military court ordered jail sentences of between six months and five years on 100 detainees. Most received lesser terms of between 12 and 18 months.

The accused are among 1,700 people, many of them collaborators, who were arrested or handed themselves over to Lebanese authorities after the "Israeli" pullout.

The military court is holding group trials three times a week.

Thousands of Lebanese also used to cross into "Israel" -- mostly to work on a daily basis in hotels, factories and farms there -- throughout more than two decades of occupation, and could face charges.

More than 6,000 Lebanese, mostly collaborators and their families, fled to "Israel" before the pullout fearing trials or revenge attacks.

The United Nations Interim Force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said many of them wanted to return to Lebanon.

The trials have aroused controversy in Lebanon, with opinions divided between those like the Hizbullah movement which spearheaded the anti-"Israeli" resistance, who are demanding stiffer penalties, and others, like the Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the spiritual head of the largest Christian community in Lebanon, who are calling for mercy.

The leader of the National Liberal Party, Dory Chamoun, has even called for a general amnesty for the collaborators, under threat of demanding that the files of all those amnestied at the end of Lebanon's 1975-80 civil war be reopened.

Egyptian journalists tour liberated area…(6)
Hizbullah's Central Press Office (CPO) organized a tour in the liberated areas in South Lebanon to a delegation from the Egyptian Journalists' Union.

The delegation which was chaired by the union's chief Abdel-Al al-Baqouri included Rifaat Saed Ahmed, Mustafa Bakri, and Hassan Abu Taleb besides editors of Egyptian newspapers and magazines.

The CPO official Muafaq al-Jammal and Hizbullah press people accompanied the delegation in the tour which took them to the towns of Bint Jbeil and Marjeyoun besides al-Khiam detention center and most of the liberated villages.

A lunch was organized in al-Khiam town in the journalists' honor. Following the meal, the participants took part in a discussion over the horizons of the coming era and the meaning and marks of the victory in the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Al-Jammal who welcomed the delegation talked about the reasons behind Hizbullah's victory which included reliance on Allah, the integration between the leadership, the base, and the driving Jihad thought.

collaborators trials continue despite suspension…(7)
Military Examining Magistrates continued on Thursday to interrogate 89 collaborators of the South Lebanon Army despite suspension of all court activity due to the one-year anniversary of the bloody assassination of a four-man sitting tribunal in Sidon’s Justice Palace.
Chief Military Examining Magistrate Maher Safieddine is due to hand down sentences on Friday against the third batch of collaborators to stand trial this week.
On Monday and Wednesday, 108 collaborators detainees were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to five years.

PA minister defends armed camps…(8)
Assad Abdel-Rahman, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Refugee Affairs, on Thursday defended refugees’ right to bear arms in the Lebanese camps.
“Palestinian arms are for self-defense, and to be raised against "Israel",” he announced at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon. “These are Lebanese, Syrian and Arab arms. Weapons will only be raised against "Israel" or those who describe our camps as hideouts for robbers and murderers.”
Abdul Rahman saluted Lebanon’s victory over "Israel", extending special praise to Hizbullah for its leading role in the resistance effort.
The Palestinian minister also congratulated Lebanon’s people and the government that provided support to the resistance.
He thanked President Emile Lahoud for allowing Palestinian refugees freedom of movement inside Lebanon and for treating them as welcome guests.
He also praised Beirut and Damascus on their stance regarding the Palestinian right to return to their homeland.
“The right of return is sacred,” he said. “It’s a position we will not budge from.”
He said that "Israeli" Prime Minister Ehud Barak was no different from his predecessors, including former "Israeli" Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of the 1982 invasion.
“Barak has continuously threatened to strike Lebanon and Syria, or to invade south Lebanon again,” said Abdul Rahman. “It’s imperative that we prepare for future battles.
“Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, should act as one until all Arab lands including the Golan Heights and Jerusalem are liberated.”

Footnotes:

1-          Manar TV, 8-6-2000.

2-          Same source.

3-          AFP, 8-6-2000.

4-          Manar TV, 8-6-2000.

5-          AFP, 8-6-2000.

6-          Manar TV, 8-6-2000.

7-          The Daily Star, 9-6-2000.

8-          Same source.