June Friday 23-2000:

Introduction

Hizbullah’s Deputy Secretary General H.E. Sheikh Nahim Qassem stressed that the “Israeli” violations need not to be justified or clarified and that Hizbullah shall face the occupoation, adding that the party will do its utmost to free the Lebanese hostages.

In the meantime, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan sought Lieutenant Bashar Assad’s help in maintaining calm in South Lebanon, although “Israel’s” violations of Lebanese sovereignty continued with warplanes criss-crossing the skies and breacking the sound barrier over the South.

However, Human Rights Watch condemned Thursday as a war crime the “Israeli” parliament’s introduction of a bill that it said would permit the state holding of hostages in an effort to maintain “Israel’s” detention of Sheikh Abdel-Karim Obeid and Hajj Mustafa Dirani.

Hizbullah: the occupation's violation need not to be justified and we shall face it…(1)

In response to Annan's trying to justify the “Israeli” violations at the Lebanese border during his visit in the region. Hizbullah's secretary-general deputy Sheikh Naem Qassem said that the “Israeli” violations need not to be justified or clarified and that Hizbullah shall face the occupation.

Sheikh Qassem who was speaking during a commemorative ceremony, furthermore stressed that the legal game played by "“Israel”" to continue the detention of the Lebanese hostage is of no matter to Hizbullah. This is a condemnation for "Israel" and to the silent international observer.

Sheikh Qassem confirmed the party will do its utmost to free the Lebanese detainees. He reminded that "Israel" is an aggressive state and that it shall always occupy Arab lands and disrespect international resolution or other agreement not in line with its will to expand. The most clear prove to that, affirmed sheikh Qassem, is what happened to resolution 425 is happening to the Palestinian authority.

Annan seeks Bashar’s help to maintain calm in South…(2)

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought Bashar Assad’s help on Thursday in maintaining calm on the “Israeli”-Lebanese border, conferring international recognition on the late President Hafez Assad’s son before he ascends to the leadership post.
The UN chief met Lieutenant General Bashar Assad in his capacity “as the future leader of the country,” UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters.
Damascus was the final leg of Annan’s Middle East tour. In addition to Bashar, he also conferred with Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa, seeking support for his plans to maintain peace in south Lebanon, including the deployment of an enlarged UNIFIL contingent to the border.
Annan’s trip to Syria occurred as the UN border verification team officially wrapped up the process of confirming “Israel’s” withdrawal. Both the Lebanese and “Israeli” delegations which accompanied the UN teams on either side of the border are to submit reports to their respective governments.
Despite the progress in the team’s work on the ground, “Israel’s” violations of Lebanese sovereignty continued with warplanes criss-crossing the skies and breaking the sound barrier over the South.
Police at Tyre said aircraft broke the sound barrier over the town of Naqoura and flew over the South for an hour, in particular over Nabatieh and Iqlim
al-Touffah.
It was the second time that “Israeli” warplanes have violated Lebanese airspace since the May 24 withdrawal of the occupation forces. “Israel” had pledged that the end of the 22-year occupation also signaled an end to military maneuvers in Lebanese territorial waters and airspace.
“Bashar Assad, commander in chief of the armed forces, assured the UN secretary-general that Syria will continue its cooperation with the United Nations, the official SANA news agency said.
Assad “also renewed Syria’s support for Lebanese demands that “Israel” withdraw completely from all Lebanese territory,” SANA said after Bashar and Annan met at the People’s Palace in Damascus.
Sharaa and UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen also attended the meeting.
Although the verification process along the border with “Israel” is over, Lebanon has listed 17 violations where “Israeli” forces remain on Lebanese soil.
Brigadier Maher Toufeili, the army’s liaison with UNIFIL, said the UN had been presented with a list of the violations “which occur all along the border.”
Lebanon has told the UN that it will not authorize the deployment of an expanded UNIFIL until the outstanding violations are cleared up.
Hizbullah, meanwhile, warned “Israel” against more violations.
“There’s no justification for “Israel’s” continued breaching of the border. We consider this an occupation and we’ll confront it,” Naim Qassem, the party’s deputy secretary-general, said.
“Israeli” Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Annan on Wednesday that those problems would be sorted out in 24-36 hours.

“Israeli” air force overflies south Lebanon: Lebanese police, TV…(3)

“ The “Israeli” air force overflew southern Lebanon at high altitude Thursday for the second time since “Israel” withdrew its forces from the region, Lebanese police and state television said.

Police at Tyre, 83 kilometers (51 miles) south of Beirut, said the aircraft broke the sound barrier during two passes over the town of Naqoura, which lies on the coast near the “Israeli” border, and over Lebanese coastal waters.

Separately, state television said the “Israeli” aircraft flew over southern Lebanon for an hour, in particular over the town of Nabatieh and the Iqlim al-Tuffah hills, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Beirut.

On May 28, Lebanese aviation authorities said, “Israeli” aircraft violated the country's airspace for the first time since “Israel’s” withdrawal from southern Lebanon four days earlier after a 22-year occupation.

In that instance, the planes were said to have flown over territorial waters off the coast of Beirut, breaking the sound barrier in two passes.

Human Rights Watch criticizes “Israeli” bill to authorize hostage-taking…(4)

“ Human Rights Watch condemned Thursday as a war crime the “Israeli” parliament's introduction of a bill that it said would permit the state holding of hostages.

The US-based human rights group said the measure would violate international law and could lead to the indefinite detention of some hostages.

It said the bill, which passed its first parliamentary reading Wednesday, seemed to be an effort to maintain “Israel’s” detention of two Lebanese militants, Mustafa Dirani and Sheikh Abd al-Karim Obeid.

In the past, “Israel” has held such detainees as bargaining chips against the return of “Israelis” missing in action in Lebanon or news of their fate, a practice the country's Supreme Court ruled illegal in April.

"“Israel’s” highest courts have acknowledged that the Lebanese hostages are held illegally," said Hanny Megally, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division.

"The Knesset (parliament) should not attempt to sidestep the courts."

Human Rights Watch called on “Israel” to release Dirani and Obeid, who were kidnapped in Lebanon in 1989 and 1994, and are the only hostages who have not been released since the April court ruling.

"The draft legislation not only fails to end Obeid and Dirani's detention, it opens the way to sweeping human rights violations against them and others by appearing to legitimize prolonged, arbitrary detention," the organization said.

The group condemned the proposal's "sweeping language," which would authorize the imprisonment of members of any "force combating “Israel”" or participation in the "hostile activities" of such a force.

The proposal does not allow for sufficient judicial review of detentions and fails to give the defense ministry guidelines to determine which groups fall under the act, Human Rights Watch said.

"This raises serious concerns that the legislation could be used to detain individuals based on their political beliefs, and not for any actual acts they have committed."

Human Rights Watch said the parliamentary proposal was at odds with the Fourth Geneva Convention on the rules of war.

"Hostage-taking, unlawful transfer, and unlawful confinement are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, that is to say, war crimes," Human Rights Watch said.

Lebanese collaborators with “Israel” get up to 15 years…(5)

“ A Beirut military court sentenced another 72 people accused of collaborating with “Israel” to sentences ranging from several months to 15 years in prison, a judicial source said Thursday.

The sentences were handed down overnight after another in a string of marathon court sessions to try the more than 2,200 Lebanese accused of collaborating during “Israel’s” 22-year occupation of south Lebanon.

The heaviest sentence Wednesday was 15 years in prison, handed down in absentia to a member of “Israel’s” proxy militia.

The court did not punish some Lebanese who were accused of traveling to “Israel” to work or receive medical treatment. Others traveled to “Israel” more than three years ago, crimes too old to be prosecuted.

The tribunal, which has met three times a week since June 5, has so far sentenced 322 Lebanese. The harshest sentence was 22.5 years in prison given in absentia to a former militiaman. All sentences can be appealed.

Lebanese who enrolled in the militia and held low positions without evidence that they committed exactions have generally been sentenced to one year in prison and those who entered "enemy territory" to one or two months in jail.

Aggressive pleas from the lawyers, nearly non-existent when the trials started, have remained rare. Wednesday morning, only five lawyers pleaded the cases of their clients while the 30 others laconically asked the tribunal to lower penalties or recognize their clients' innocence.

The militia had about 2,500 members in its last months, while thousands of Lebanese worked in “Israel” during the country's 22-year occupation of Lebanon, which ended May 24.

Close to 6,000 militiamen or their relatives fled to “Israel” at the end of the occupation.

Remains of LAA men found in mass grave…(6)

Families flocked to an army barracks in Sidon on Thursday to try to identify their loved ones from the remains found in a mass grave in Marjeyoun-Khiam on Thursday.
However, soldiers turned most of the crowd away, maintaining that the army needed more time to investigate.
On Wednesday, the army announced that it had discovered a mass grave containing the remains of several soldiers of the Lebanese Arab Army, one of several breakaway military factions formed in the early years of the civil war. Many of the LAA officers were killed in 1976 in Marjeyoun barracks, shot in their beds at dawn in an attack by the “Israeli” agent Saad Haddad’s Army of Free Lebanon troops. The AFL later became the militia South Lebanon Army.
According to a security source in Sidon, a confession by “Israeli”-proxy militiamen who had participated in the incident led to the army’s discovery.
“I ask the Army commander and the government to explain to the world and public opinion how these martyrs died and who had killed them,” demanded Jawaher Tabaja, whose husband Mohammed Noura was among those killed in 1976. “My husband died in Marjeyoun and was buried between the villages of Khirbe and Qleiaa but was never found,” she added.
Ghaleb Dakrouni, who believes his cousin Zahran Dakrouni is among the buried, said that his family had asked him to investigate.
“The whole neighborhood where my family lived in Marjeyoun was destroyed twice by the occupation forces and the collaborators,” he said.
“My husband had been missing but was later pronounced dead by the army which has been giving me a monthly allowance,” said Nabiha Khobeiz, another woman looking for her husband’s body.

Footnotes:

1-        Manar TV, 22-6-2000.

2-        The Daily Star, 23-6-2000.

3-        AFP, 22-6-2000.

4-        Same source.

5-        Same source.

6-        The Daily Star, 23-6-2000.