Beirut raps Annan for taking sides
‘Attempts to portray Lebanon as an oppressor’…(1)

Top Lebanese officials remained insistent Wednesday that a report by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan did not contain any “direct reference” to a reduction of UN peacekeeping forces in the South.
President Emile Lahoud and Speaker Nabih Berri, who met at Baabda to discuss the report, said “there was no reference” to a reduction, nor was there mention of “any specific number” in terms of reduction.
“The report spoke of adopting the ‘stages’ policy and restoring the number of (UN) forces to 4,500 ­ the same as they were before additional troops were sent in last year,” the two leaders said in a statement issued by the presidential palace.
UNIFIL currently has 5,720 troops stationed in the South. Prior to the “Israeli” withdrawal, there were 4,500.
Lahoud and Berri expressed satisfaction with Annan’s declaration that the UN force would seek to maintain the cease-fire along the border until a comprehensive peace is achieved.
The two men decried, however, what they described as “attempts (by the media) to portray a crisis between Lebanon and UNIFIL whereas in fact, just the opposite is the case.”
Lahoud and Berri criticized the report’s descriptions of anti-”Israeli” demonstrations along the border as “reckless behavior.” They also complained that the UN failed to denounce the “continued “Israeli” breaches” of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Annan acknowledged that the general situation in the South remained “calm and orderly” since “Israel’s” withdrawal in May but criticized continuing demonstrations “on the Blue Line.”
He added that demonstrations led “to an overly harsh response from the “Israeli” soldiers on the other side, leading to casualties that could and should have been avoided.”
“The report made no mention of “Israeli” warplanes attacking Lebanese territory in the South and breaking the sound barrier over Beirut,” Lahoud and Berri said. “The bid to portray Lebanon as an oppressor is surprising at a time when the real oppressor is “Israel”, which continues its land, air and sea violations.”
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud also reiterated his rejection of suggestions that Annan proposed reducing the number of UNIFIL troops.
“Annan recommended an extension of UNIFIL’s mandate without altering their number,” Hammoud said. “The report also said the UN may consider in the future restoring the number of UNIFIL to 4,500, the same as it was before it was increased last year.”
Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN, Salim Tadmori, described Annan’s report as “balanced,” adding that “in view of the prevailing situation, the report came out better than expected.” Tadmori said any reduction in UNIFIL troops would take place gradually.
“There’s a conviction in the UN that the situation is stable in Lebanon and that there’s no need for the additional troops, who were brought into the South last year after “Israel’s” withdrawal,” he explained.
Tadmori said the five permanent members of the Security Council ­ the US, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and China ­ proposed cutting the number of UNIFIL troops.
Foreign diplomatic sources expressed surprise Wednesday at Lebanon’s official response to Annan’s report and pointed to two schools of thought among government officials.
“The first interpretation (of the report) is that Lebanon accomplished what it wanted because UNIFIL’s mandate was renewed without any modification to their mission or term,” one source said. “The second current criticized Annan’s failure to mention “Israel’s” violations and his use of the words ‘reckless behavior’ to describe demonstrations on the borders.”
The source argued that the officials attributed “excessive” blame for their misunderstanding of the report on “the Arabic translation” ran by a foreign news agency on Tuesday.
However, he added, any confusion about the report should have been cleared after the UN Information Office in Beirut circulated the original copy.
The source also said that government officials did not give their opinions on key proposals listed in the report.
“These proposals include reducing the number of UNIFIL troops to 4,500, turning their mission into an observation, and reviving the role of the Truce Supervision Organization by introducing two infantry battalions with group of UN Truce Supervision Organization observers,” the source said.
Annan said the UN would probably need to continue serving as an observer mission and suggested that UN observer teams replace the current peacekeeping troops in the future.
The sources said they were surprised that officials failed to respond to Annan’s comments that the “greatest concern” were in the attacks in the Shibaa Farms area “which were deliberate acts in direct of the decisions of the Security Council.”
Richard Erdman, who runs the Lebanon, Syria and Jordan Desk at the US State Department, said Wednesday that the US supported Annan’s report.
Erdman said the US welcomed “UNIFIL’s continuous presence” which must be supported by all.

Ex-detainees want guidelines for sentencing of collaborators…(2)

Former detainees in “Israeli” and “Israeli”-controlled prisons said Wednesday that prosecutors are letting some collaborators off too easily, demanding better guidelines for sentencing.
Mohammed Obeid, who heads the National Committee for Detainees in “Israeli” Prisons, met with Justice Minister Samir Jisr on Wednesday to convey the detainees’ dismay.
Obeid said that the detainees, who had been held by “Israel” and “Israel’s” militia during “Israel’s” 22-year occupation of the South, had “many objections regarding the severity of sentences being handed down to “Israeli” agents.”
He argued that the judiciary was “confused,” saying it failed to differentiate between the lesser charge of “collaboration with “Israel”” and the more violent crimes “committed by the collaborators who tortured and killed detainees.”
He maintained that sentences should reflect the fundamental difference between the two types of crimes and urged prosecutors to seek harsher penalties for those who engaged in acts of “premeditated torture and killing,” especially those committed against inmates at the Khiam detention center.
“Young collaborators who were born during the occupation” only participated under “certain social and humanitarian circumstances,” he said. As such, he asked that they not be penalized to “the same extent.”
Instead, Obeid proposed that former militia members should be divided into more than one group before they stand trial. Each group would then be based on crimes the accused’s alleged crime.
Obeid also said several former detainees who were held and tortured by “Israeli” allied members were planning to file “personal lawsuits” through the committee against these members.
“The committee has also prepared a legal study,” he said, “and it will submit it to Minister Jisr so that he can review the matter with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
He added that the committee had already completed the first part of another study which was prepared jointly with the Ministry of Social Affairs. The study lists former detainees in “Israeli” jails and indicates the inmates’ current physical, social and living conditions.
“We started this study with former (Labor and Social Affairs) Minister Michel Musa, based on a request from President Emile Lahoud,” Obeid said. “We will continue it with the current minister.”

Sharon: Lebanon pullout led to intifada…(3)

” Likud prime ministerial candidate Ariel Sharon yesterday accused Prime Minister Ehud Barak of indirectly causing the recent wave of violence by showing weakness in the manner in which he withdrew the “Israeli” Army from Lebanon last May.
"I have tough things to say about the way we left, which influenced, in my opinion, what happened later on, and the feelings of the Palestinians, our neighbors," Sharon told a Federation of Chambers of Commerce forum. "We did not act the way an independent country is supposed to act."
Sharon maintained that “Israel” showed weakness to the Palestinians in the pullback, which invited them to fight back and feel confident against a weakened “Israeli” Army.
He made the comments at a time in which his campaign has begun to break with its hesitant strategy and strike back at Barak's negative commercials.
Sharon campaign sources said that new commercials tonight will slam Barak for continuing the Taba negotiations and accuse him of "not learning the lesson that a nation with dignity does not negotiate under fire."
The commercials will run under the new slogan: "Barak promised peace; Barak brought war."
The increasing negativity of the Sharon campaign is a response to a particularly sharp Barak ad that premiered Tuesday, describing step by step what would happen between the election of Sharon and an all-out regional war. The ad angered Sharon aides.
"Barak has killed all the sacred cows," Lior Horev, Sharon's information and strategy team manager, said. "We could have used the Kfar Darom children in our advertising, but we did not because there is a line that people do not cross, even during a campaign."
Responding to the Barak campaign's repeated use of the Lebanon War in its ads, Sharon addressed the Sabra and Shatilla killings for the first time since the race began.
"What happened in Lebanon, which we didn't have any connection to or anything, was that Christian Arabs killed Moslem Arabs," Sharon said.
Sharon said that by October 1982, “Israeli” forces had already withdrawn from major Christian locations in southern Lebanon. At that point he recommended leaving Lebanon and continued to advocate a negotiated withdrawal for years, but that various prime ministers and “Israeli” Army chiefs of General Staff disagreed.
Sharon was held indirectly responsible for the 1982 massacre in the Beirut Palestinian refugee camps by the government-appointed Kahan Commission. He was subsequently forced to step down as defense minister.
The Barak campaign responded by saying, "The overwhelming consensus says that getting our children out of Lebanon after 18 years of being there for no reason and more than 1,000 casualties is one of the greatest achievements in the history of “Israel” and one of the most courageous acts that Barak did in his long career."
In an address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and Washington via satellite video conference yesterday, Sharon offered a slightly contradictory view of the current wave of violence.
In the beginning of his remarks Sharon said: "A war is going on here, Barak promised peace." During the question-and-answer period, Sharon said: "It's not going to be war. We don't see a war."

Footnotes:

1-       The Daily Star, 25-1-2001.

2-       Same source.

3-       Jerusalem Post, 25-1-2001.