A senior United Nations official today discussed with Lebanese officials full implementation of the Security Council resolution that ended last summer’s war between Israel and Hizbollah, following similar talks earlier this week with Israeli authorities. “We discussed many issues from the question of prisoners, Israeli prisoners in Lebanon, Lebanese prisoners in Israel — we would like to see more progress on that,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Advisor on the situation in the Middle East Michael Williams told reporters after meeting with officials in Beirut. Read more about UN official discusses latest situation in southern Lebanon with officials in Beirut
OSLO, Norway, Feb 22 (IPS) - As Branislav Kapetanovic brushes aside some grass to get a better view, his arms and legs are ripped off by a cluster bomb dropped by NATO. His eardrums burst. On the way to hospital his heart stops, but he survives to tell the tale. Four years and more than 20 surgical operations later, he recounted the fateful day to delegates at a large non-governmental organisation and civil society forum in Oslo Wednesday. In his wheelchair, gesticulating with stumps where hands and arms once were, Kapetanovic laid out the case against cluster bombs. Read more about Cluster Bomb Victims Push for Ban
BEIRUT, 20 February 2007 (IRIN) - “Please, no discussion of politics,” reads a sign that has appeared in shop windows in the Mazraa district of western Beirut. On a work-day afternoon, it is the only hint that the area’s bustling main streets — lined with snack-bars and grocers, clothes shops and jewellery markets — has witnessed a sharp rise in Sunni-Shia Muslim tensions over the past few months. “People would strike up conversations in here about politics and they’d turn into arguments. Now I can just point at the sign and say ‘come on, that’s enough’,” said the owner of a cubby-hole bookshop, who preferred not to give his name. Read more about "No politics please -- we're Lebanese," say traders
At a time when “politics” is reduced to little more than a clash of wills, sectarianism and tribalism, a measure of social security should go some way in decreasing religious and sectarian divisions and tensions. This is not to say, however, that the social and economic situation, on its own, is not deserving of a remedy. With politics having prevailed in the ongoing and escalating conflict between the two parties, the government published the paper submitted to the Paris III conference. It will be said that the timing and purpose of the paper’s publication are political since the standing rule is that everything is political in Lebanon. However, there is a need to discuss the paper and its vision and methods for addressing the socio-economic crisis with all its political ramifications. Read more about The Crisis: Between Politics and the Economy
Amnesty International condemns in the strongest terms yesterday’s bomb attacks on two buses near the town of Bikfaya, a Christian area of Lebanon, north east of Beirut. At least three civilians are reported to have been killed and some 20 injured. Deliberate attacks on civilians can never be justified and those responsible show complete disregard for the most fundamental principles of humanity. These deadly attacks on civilians represent a further deterioration of the security situation in Lebanon, which has become increasingly polarised, prompting fears of a possible slide towards a new conflict following the civil war which wracked the country from 1975 to 1990. Read more about Amnesty condemns Bikfaya bus bombing
BEIRUT, 13 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - Leaders of the Lebanese pro-government ‘March 14’ group warned that the country was sliding towards Iraq-style sectarian violence after at least three people were killed in explosions that hit two buses travelling through a Christian-majority mountain town outside Beirut. “This was a new form of terrorism for Lebanon. We are all afraid that it will push Lebanon towards the kind of violence that we see in Iraq,” Michel Khoury, a member of the Christian Phalangist Party and of the March 14 committee, told IRIN. Read more about Pro-government group urges peace after deadly bombing
BEIRUT, 14 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - The girl was a veiled Sunni Muslim but waved the flag of the Lebanese Forces, once one of the country’s most powerful Christian militias. She was marking the second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination with a call for the downfall of the Shia-led opposition, camping out less than 100 metres away. “We are not afraid of Hassan Nasrallah,” said Elena Karaman, referring to the leader of the Islamist movement Hezbollah, which fought Israel in a month-long war last summer and has been demanding the resignation of the Western-backed Lebanese government. Read more about Razor wire and soldiers keep factions apart
At the height of the Israeli war against Hezbollah last summer, in which hundreds of civilians living in southern Lebanon were killed, the U.S. rushed a request from Israel for more than 1,300 American-made M26 cluster bombs. The request prompted an outcry in Congress and elsewhere that the artillery rockets, which disperse 644 submunitions each, might be used in civilian areas, contrary to the terms of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act. Last week, the Department of State delivered a preliminary report to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and to Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that is said by the news media to accuse Israel of exactly these charges. Read more about Israel Misused Cluster Bombs U.S. Delivered last August
Seven months after Israel bombed the coastal Jiyyeh power plant in the south of Beirut, the Mediterranean Sea still spews oil onto Lebanon’s shores, and beach sand shifts to reveal oil slicks that could not be detected before, fishermen say. With sparkling waves licking the golden sands, Jiyyeh beach looks pristine at first glance. But fisherman Ahmad Kojok stoops and pulls up the corner of a black slab in the sea. It is solid oil.
“We found another huge patch of oil over there,” said Kojok, waving towards a patch of sea by a rocky shelf that juts out into the bay. “It’s all oil just there.” Read more about Long-term environmental challenges ahead
Israel may have violated agreements regarding the use of American-made cluster bombs during its war in Lebanon in July 2006, the US State Department said on Monday. Spokesman Sean McCormack did not give details about the possible violations but said the results of a preliminary investigation were being forwarded to Congress. During the war, Israel used cluster munitions, possibly dropping one million such bombs, including in civilian areas. Many of the munitions - according to the United Nations, up to 40 percent - did not explode and now pose a hazard to residents of south Lebanon. Unexploded ordnance has killed at least 27 people and injured more than 143 since the war ended. Read more about US inquiry into use of cluster bombs
