Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 20)
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- Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 20)
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the males to the SLA’s jail in Jezzine.
Khiam, the main prison, holds hun-
dreds of patriots, and reports continued
to leak out of the terrible conditions
and torture there. The January 12th
edition of the Lebanese daily Al Safir
contained the following facts: SLA
guards put detainees outside for hours
with scanty clothing in cold and rain.
The detainees are then beaten before
being returned to overcrowded cells.
Before releasing persons who have been
accused of involvement in resistance
operations, Israeli intelligence officers
give them drugs which cause paralysis
and amnesia. A case in point is the
citizen Labib Abu Raida from
Hasbaya, who suffered from amnesia
so badly that he had to go abroad for
treatment. Fayez Abu Rafa from Ain
Khunai suffered a fractured spine as a
result of severe beating. A citizen from
Kfar Kala lost an eye from being hit by
a rifle butt. In early January, the de-
tainees in Khiam staged a hunger strike,
but. the SLA and Israeli occupiers per-
sisted in their refusal to give the Inter-
national Red Cross access to the deten-
tion center.
Expressing the population’s deep
hatred of the detention center,
Lebanese patriots attempted to
assassinate Ghazi Adouwi, the SLA
security officer at Khiam, on January
28th. An SLA patrol, of which he was a
member, was ambushed. One SLA man
was killed and two others wounded,
though Adouwi escaped. A 200-man
force of Israelis and SLA besieged the
town of Khiam and imposed a curfew.
They raided 75 homes and detained 25
young men, some of whom _ had
previously worked’ with the Israeli-
established National Guard, showing
that the Israelis no longer know who
they can rely on.
Some of the Israeli/SLA harassment
of the southern population can only be
termed thuggery. A case in point was
the double murder of Qassam Mustafa
Naibeh, 35, and his wife, Naja Hussein
Khalil, 25, while they were tending their
sheep in mid-January. Their seven year
old son escaped from the criminals to
tell the story. According to the
Lebanese police, SLA thugs had first
robbed the couple. Equally heinous was
the SLA’s assault on four people ten-
ding their sheep near Barashit later in
20
the month. The thugs killed one of
them, a forty year old woman, and
took the three males to an SLA post for
detention. In the Hasbaya area, Israeli
intelligence men and SLA thugs blew
up the house of a sergeant in the
Lebanese police force, who now resides
in Sidon. The explosion damaged no
less than 15 nearby homes.
UNIFIL THREATENED
With all the aggression dirécted
against the southern Lebanese popula-
tion, it is not surprising that UNIFIL
also took a blow or two. On December
6th, an Irish soldier was killed by mor-
tar bombs from an Israeli/SLA post,
while on duty in Majdel Selim. Another
Irish soldier died on January 11th,
when an Israeli tank fired on the
UNIFIL position near Barachit. The
killings, in addition to a number of in-
juries to UN soldiers, seemed in fact
quite deliberate. UNIFIL commander
Haegglund commented, «Since early
December, firing at or close to UNIFIL
by the Israeli forces or the SLA has in-
creased dramatically.» UNIFIL had
several times asked the Israelis to
withdraw from the post near Barachit,
for it had fired on UNIFIL positions 60
times. The Irish Defense Minister re-
jected as ‘ludicrous’ the Israeli claim
that the soldier was killed by accident.
It seems that besides wanting to expell
the southerners, the Zionists also want.
to eliminate any neutral force that
might serve as an international witness
to their atrocities in the South. The acts
and attitude of the Zionists can only
lead one to anticipate even greater ag-
gression in the future.
THE PARTITIONISTS
No account of the Zionists’ policy in
Lebanon is complete without a look at
their fascist counterparts in the North -
the Lebanese Forces. The Lebanese
fascists have still not recovered from
the crushing defeat of their strategic
project for controlling all Lebanon.
Nor have they totally overcome the in-
ternal divisions plaguing their ranks. In
an attempt to remedy this situation, the
Lebanese Forces recently took several
steps towards partitioning Lebanon,
coinciding with the Zionist plan to
keep the country weak and divided as
long as it cannot be controlled.
In December, the Lebanese Forces
replaced their executive committee with
a new Command Council, packed with
all the familiar fascist faces of the
former body. The Phalangists have the
most seats(13), followed by ‘in-
dependents’(7) and the smaller fascist
organizations: the Organization(4), the
National Liberal Party(2), and the
Guardians of the Cedars(2). The only
thing new about this body is that it is to
function as a shadow cabinet, divided
into ‘ministries’ to adminster the
fascist-controlled areas, in an open
challenge to the Karami government.
The Lebanese Forces have also
renewed their demand for opening a
new airport in Halat, as part of their
striving to create a parallel infrastruc-
ture. Under the pretext of serving the
population in their areas, the Lebanese
Forces have made this their battlecry.
In late January, Lebanese Forces chief
Samir Geagea expressed willingness to
take the country to the brink of civil
war again over the question of Halat.
What is really involved is the threat of
partition in Lebanon, in addition to
mainfold, vested business interests of
prominent fascists such as Dany Cha-
moun, leader of the National Liberal
Party, who has already established his
own air company, along with other
rightist financiers. Clearly the fascists
aim to undermine the Beirut Interna-
tional Airport and Middle East Airlines
which, despite all, have remained func-
tioning institutions and symbols of
Lebanon’s unity.
The convergence of the Lebanese
Forces’ acts with the plans of im-
perialism and Zionism was obvious in
early February. With the hostage
‘crisis’ and threats of US and Zionist
intervention hanging over Lebanon, the
Lebanese Forces enacted a general
strike in East Beirut to demand the
opening of Halat. The next day, Middle
East Airlines, already plagued by the
refusal of foreign companies to insure
its flights, suspended operations after
receiving a threat implying that the
Lebanese Forces would shell the air-
port, as they had done several times in
the recent past. The Lebanese Forces’
blackmail and their coordination with
the Zionist-imperialist threats, could
hardly be more obvious. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 22
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