From Leb-Net@cumesa.mech.columbia.edu Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 01:05:21 -0400 From: Leb-Net@cumesa.mech.columbia.edu To: Leb-Net@cumesa.mech.columbia.edu Subject: "Leb-Net Daily Digest Volume 549" Leb-Net Daily Digest, Number 549 Thursday, June 29th 1995 Today's Topics: Lebanon excavations alarm intellectuals Archeology criticism angers Lebanon PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 27 More than 100 Lebanese flee Sierra Leone Lebanon MP says waste brought from Germany in 1993 Romanian Premier arrives in Beirut Lebanon appoints new environment minister PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 26 Israel says it may step up Lebanon fighting ``Why Geagea?'' Lebanese ask after warlord sentenced Calls for more trials in Lebanon after Geagea case Lebanese Christian Militia Commander Gets Life ... Lebanon-Trial Lebanon warlord gets life sentence Condemned warlord inspired devotion, loathing Lebanese won't fight if Syrians leave - cardinal Club Med on Israeli Coast Hit By Rockets Fired in ... PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 23 Assad's second son tiptoes into the limelight Lebanese Leasing Company gets $22.5 million loan PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 22 Lebanon's National Museum rises from civil war ashes PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 21 A News Blurb Letter To UNESCO: A first reaction Internet Service Looking for Old School Friends Lour Moghayzil Re: "Leb-Net Daily Digest Volume 548 academic opening in Lebanon travel agents in Canada Help needed. Merida'95 NEW ADRESS Subject: Lebanon excavations alarm intellectuals BEIRUT, June 23 (UPI) -- Dozens of archaeologists, engineers, university professors and others have published (Friday) a petition in Beirut newspapers that criticizes the "lamentable conditions" of archaeological excavation in Beirut. But Lebanon's minister of culture calls the accusations "baseless." --------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Archeology criticism angers Lebanon By Zeina Soufan BEIRUT, June 23 (Reuter) - Foreign archeologists have angered Lebanon by complaining to the United Nations about what they called "lamentable conditions" at important archeological sites in central Beirut, Lebanese newspapers said on Friday. A petition by 100 archeologists to Federico Mayor, Director General of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), expressed "disquiet about the fate of the archeological sites of Beirut." The petition, published in two Beirut dailies, gave no details of what was wrong with the sites or with the work and conditions at them. But it called them one of the largest archeological sites of the 20th century. "The historic and cultural patrimony, still to be discovered...does not belong to the Lebanese alone but to the entire world," the petition faxed to the newspapers from Oslo said. Lebanon's culture minister Michel Edde said the complaint was based on "false and distorted information." His ministry and Lebanon's directorate of antiquities are backing excavations in central Beirut by more than 150 archeologists in 14 missions from the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Britain and Lebanon. Digs have been underway since September 1993 in a large area where hundreds of buildings damaged in the 1975-90 civil war have been demolished to make way for a massive city centre reconstruction project. SOLIDERE, the company in charge of the redevelopment, and Lebanon's billionaire Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, are helping to finance the digs. They have already unearthed a wealth of stone age, Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Mameluke and Ottoman remains and provided much information about the ancient history of Beirut. Many of the sites will be built over after the finds have been photographed and recorded or removed, and authorities plan a special archeological park in the downtown development to display some of the finds. The archeologists's petition appealed to UNESCO to play a fundamental role in the digs. "During these days in which politics seem to hobble archeology in Lebanon...we hope that your administration will take the necessary action," the petition added without explanation. The criticism appeared to anger Edde, who urged the archeologists to come to Beirut and see for themselves what was going on. "We invite them publicly to come here. We have nothing to hide," he said. "This campaign is definitely based on false and distorted information." Edde said the criticisms appeared linked to the stalled peace process between Lebanon and Israel. "There is a campaign of denigration against Lebanon related directly to the peace process. Everybody knows who is behind these campaigns," Edde said. REUTER ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 27 BEIRUT, June 27 (Reuter) - These are the leading stories in the Beirut press on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. AN-NAHAR -Egyptian President Mubarak after surviving an attempt on his life pledges to crush fundamentalists and hints at a Sudanese responsibility for the attack. -34 items on the Wednesday cabinet session agenda. New teachers' pay scale to be approved soon. -Geagea told a group of lawyers visiting him that he entered jail by a political decision and only a similar decision would get him out. -Talks between Syrian General Shihabi and Israeli General Shahak open on Tuesday in Washington. Shahak to bring up issue of pro-Iranian Hizbollah (Party of God). -Romanian Prime Minister began talks with PM Hariri, visited Baalbek and will meet President Hrawi and House Speaker Berri today. AS-SAFIR -President Hrawi congratulated President Mubarak and said an end should be put to extremism. -Romanian Prime Minister expresses his country's will to stand by Lebanon for comprehensive peace and reconstruction. -Pierre Pharaon appointed Minister of Environment by a presidential decree. -Minister of Agriculture said the government will start work on the second phase of a $52 million rural development project in Bekaa valley. -Hizbollah Secretary General Nasrallah said only arrogant people would try to undermine the resistance's achievements during the past few days. AL-ANWAR -One of Beirut's Hotel Carlton owners found killed in his suite in the hotel on Tuesday. -Ministry of electricity denies that 10 shipments of watered down fuel oil imported by the ministry entered Lebanon in May and June and caused further cuts in electricity power supply. AD-DIYAR -First Annual General Meeting of SOLIDERE shareholders was held on Monday. Profit made during the first eight months of operations totalled $18 million. -Publications court sentenced responsible director of al-Diyar newspaper to three months in prison. -Minister of Interior arranging for by-elections to be held in Beirut to fill seat of late MP Joseph Moughaizel. NIDA'A AL-WATAN -MP Samir Aoun says industrial waste was let into the country in 1993 and demands that Samir Mokbel, minister of environment at the time, be questioned. -Shareholders in SOLIDERE voted on their first annual general meeting in favour of deferring distribution of 1994 profit until next year. REUTER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: More than 100 Lebanese flee Sierra Leone FREETOWN, June 26 (Reuter) - A group of 125 Lebanese who fled rebel attacks in Sierra Leone's interior flew out of Freetown over the weekend to return to Lebanon, a spokesman for the Lebanese community said on Monday. "Many of them have nothing because all they had with them was stolen by RUF rebels," he said. "The country's economy has been crippled completely, there is no business in the capital, so they have no alternative but to go back to Lebanon." The Lebanese, mainly businessmen and their families, left towns in the Kono district for Freetown after attacks earlier this year. Another 50 are due to fly out on Friday. The number of Lebanese in the West African country has fallen to about 8,000 from 35,000 before the start of the rebel war in March 1991. Many are diamond traders forced out when the mining areas were overrun by rebels. Six Lebanese have been killed since the war started and seven are believed to be held hostage by the rebels. Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front confined its attacks to the southeast until late last year. A big offensive brought it to the capital's heavily-defended approaches in April. The rebels hold no major towns but carry out frequent ambushes on main roads and have devastated the economy by attacking foreign-owned mines. About 200 truck drivers, members of the Sierra Leone Professional Drivers Association, said they would make no more trips to the interior until they were given adequate security. "We have lost about 150 trucks and trailers since last year and about 50 of the association's drivers have been killed in the last two years," the association's president Abubakarr Sillah told reporters. -------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Lebanon MP says waste brought from Germany in 1993 BEIRUT, June 26 (Reuter) - A Lebanese MP said on Monday dozens of barrels of industrial waste were brought to Lebanon from Germany in 1993 and demanded interrogation of the environment minister at the time. Deputy Samir Aoun said 70 barrels of paint waste were shipped from Berlin to Beirut by a Hamburg shipping company and demanded that then minister Samir Mokbel be questioned. Aoun showed a news conference copies of a document by Hamburg environmental authorities stating that the original bill of lading said the shipment comprised a container of old refrigerators. "We discovered later on that Mr. Abdallah (the owner of the container) added to that container 70 barrels of calcic material...which are industrial waste," the document said. "This document proves that Mokbel let the waste enter Lebanon," Aoun said. "The manager of the shipping company said he did not know about the subject but told us the paint was discovered at Beirut port," the document added. Lebanon is currently involved in a major scandal over the import of thousands of barrels of toxic waste from Italy in 1988. The environmental watchdog Greenpeace says 10,000 barrels out of a consignment of 15,800 barrels of poisonous waste were dumped in Lebanon or in the sea off the coast. Italy has said it took back all the waste but authorities have been carrying out a search since February to locate them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- UPn 06/26 1001 Lebanon newspaper chief gets jail term BEIRUT, June 26 (UPI) -- A Lebanese court Monday sentenced a newspaper director to three months in jail for slandering a member of the Parliament. The Court of Publications ordered Youssef Howayek, director of the daily Ad Diyar, to spend three months in prison for publishing an article on Nov. 27, 1994, which suggested that Deputy Saud Rouphael was involved in drug trafficking. Howayek was also ordered to pay Rouphael, a Christian parliamentarian from the eastern Bekaa valley, 50 million Lebanese pounds ($31,000). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Romanian Premier arrives in Beirut BEIRUT, June 26 (UPI) -- Romanian Prime Minister Nicolai Vacaroiu arrived Monday in Beirut for a two-day visit aimed at strengthening political, economic and financial ties between the two countries. Vacaroiu, heading an 80-member group including six ministers and a large business delegation, was welcomed on his arrival from Amman, Jordan, by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and other high-ranking ministers and officials. Vacariou said his talks in Lebanon will focus on ways to increase political, economic, financial and trading cooperation between the two countries. He said he would sign four protocol agreements covering financial and labor matters as well as maritime, land and rail transport. Hariri visited Romania in October during which he signed accords encouraging trade and investments between the two countries. Vacariou said Romania backed the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for Israel's unconditional pullout from southern Lebanon, and supported establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. He will also meet President Elias Hrawi and the Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri during his visit. Before leaving Amman, Vacaroiu said his talks with King Hussein, Prime Minister Sharif Zaid Ben Shaker and other senior officials focused on Middlr East peace and strengthening ties between Romania and Jordan. "Romania supports the Jordan-Israel peace treaty and supports all peace initiatives towards a durable and comprehensive peace in the region," he said. He said Romania and Jordan had agreed to expand the trade volume, but did not give details. "We are seeking to strengthen our ties with Jordan and the Arab world in general and expect trade with Arab countries to reach one billion dollars," he said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Lebanon appoints new environment minister Copyright, 1995 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd. BEIRUT, June 26 (Reuter) - Lebanon's President Elias Hrawi appointed on Monday a new minister to the vacant environment portfolio. A presidential decree appointed 70-year-old Pierre Pharaon, a Greek Catholic Christian, to replace Joseph Moughaizel who died on May 29, four days after his appointment in Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri's new cabinet. Engineer Pharaon, a former member of parliament is a businessman, an industrialist and member of Beirut municipal council since 1962. --------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 26 BEIRUT, June 26 (Reuter) - These are the leading stories in the Beirut press on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. AN-NAHAR -Rabin criticizes The South Lebanon Army for driving Israel into complications. -Berri warns against Israeli military operations saying they aim at disturbing economic development and reconstruction plans. -Law regulating Radio and Television broadcast will allow only five channels to operate for technical reasons - informed circles. -On its first year of operations, the Secondary Market traded worth $265 million SOLIDERE shares. AS-SAFIR -Maronite Patriarch Sfeir avoids direct comments on court decision to convict former Christian Warlord Gaegea and sentence him to life imprisonment. -Rabin holds General Lahd, commander of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army, responsible for shelling of North Israel. -Syrian Vice President Khaddam - No agreement with Israel without liberation of the Golan Heights and South Lebanon. -Prosecution begins procedures to bring back those convicted with Geagea and sentenced in absentia. -Hizbollah says Katyushas on northern Israel changed the equation. Civilians in south Lebanon villages will be secure. AL-ANWAR -A decree appointing new minister of environment to replace late Moughaizel might be issued today. -Berri- Peace and stability in Lebanon are Syrian and Arab needs. -The sea blockade of port of Tyre enters seventh month. AD-DIYAR -Christian sources consider the judicial issue closed and ask the political question: Why Geagea alone? -Maronite Patriarch Sfeir implicitly criticizes Geagea verdict, saying the conscience may do wrong. NIDA'A AL-WATAN -General Aoun in exile says he is returning to Lebanon after October 13th to lead a peaceful opposition. -After Geagea was sentenced to life imprisonment, emotional reactions of supporters were absorbed. No demonstrations or sit-ins in Bkerki nor Besharre, Geagea's home town. -Investment in the industrial sector during the first five months of 1995 reached 67 billion Lebanese pounds compared with 85 billion Lebanese pounds during the same period of last year. REUTER ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Israel says it may step up Lebanon fighting TEL AVIV, June 25 (Reuter) - Air Force Commander Herzl Budinger said on Sunday that Israel might step up its brushfire war with pro-Iranian Hizbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon if they kept on rocketing the Jewish state's northern border. "If we will not see a big change in the near future and civilians will still be attacked by the Hizbollah organisation, the government might decide to attack in stronger forces the Hizbollah organisation," he told a news conference. On Friday, Moslem guerrillas who had threatened to damage Israel's tourism industry if Israeli forces shelled Lebanese civilians fired rockets into a northern Israeli resort, killing a French chef at Club Med and injuring nine people, including four Europeans. The attack, in response to the killing of a Lebanese woman in an Israeli bombardment the night before, prompted Israeli aircraft to retaliate by bombing what Israel said were positions of Hizbollah (Party of God). The sides have largely abided by U.S.-brokered understandings to refrain from attacking civilians. The promise to avoid civilian casualties ended a week-long, July 1993 Israeli air-and-artillery onslaught against south Lebanon villages. Israel is set to resume long-stalled peace talks with Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, at the level of army chiefs this week in Washington. Israeli troops and their allies in the South Lebanon Army militia patrol a 15-km (nine-mile) wide occupation zone the Jewish state carved out of southern Lebanon in 1985 to guard against guerrilla attacks on its northern border. Hizbollah guerrillas are bent on driving the Israelis out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: ``Why Geagea?'' Lebanese ask after warlord sentenced By Andrew Tarnowski BEIRUT, June 25 (Reuter) - The murder conviction of once powerful Christian warlord Samir Geagea makes clear Christians face new realities in postwar Lebanon to which they must adapt, political analysts said on Sunday. "Why Geagea? What about the rest?" Lebanese asked a day after Geagea was sentenced to life for a 1990 political murder while none of his Moslem rivals have faced trial for civil war crimes as bad as any he committed. Many analysts said the sentence made clear that Christians are facing political discrimination in postwar Lebanon. They will have the right to complain if former Druze and Moslem warlords are not tried, said a Moslem political analyst who asked not to be identified. However, the Syrian-backed government has given no hint it will move against Moslem militia chiefs now in high office. Most Lebanese believe Geagea was involved in many bloodlettings and even many Christians dislike him. But they know other sectarian chiefs were also guilty of sectarian massacres, ethnic cleansings, car bombs, destruction of towns and villages and kidnap-murders of thousands of civilians in a war that killed up to 150,000 people. The murders of a president, a prime minister, a president-elect and a socialist leader are also unresolved. "The way it has been handled so far, wittingly or unwittingly, is an unbalanced way of dealing with issues like this," said the analyst, commenting on the Geagea case. "Unless they begin to try a Druze, a Shi'ite or a Sunni Moslem it will remain unbalanced. Because people feel it's not right. Even non-Christians feel that, despite the fact that many Moslems feel Geagea is a bloody criminal," he added. "People are asking the question: What about the others? So unless the others are brought to trial the picture will remain unbalanced." The five-judge Judicial Council, Lebanon's highest court, acknowledged in its verdict the unfairness of trying only one sectarian chief. But this should not stop justice from taking its course until other suspects were sent for trial, the court said. "To establish equality between people does not mean justice should abstain from trying an accused simply because other crimes and other criminals have not been found yet," it said. Three well-known former militia chiefs now hold high office in the government and parliament. Billionaire Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri complained in December that some were obstructing his postwar reconstruction programme. "Don't tell me it's too difficult to find one of the other warlords to bring to trial," commented an analyst. "If they have the courage, let them do it. Why not?" That would require a political decision because most civil war crimes are covered by a 1991 amnesty. But some analysts speculated that it could happen if peace is signed with Israel and brings Lebanon an era of political stability. The message of the Geagea case appears only to remind the minority Christians their pre-war hegemony is gone forever and they had better adjust to new realities. Geagea's imprisonment removes from the scene the last Christian civil war leader in the country who refused to bow to the postwar Syrian-dominated reality. The others, including former army commander General Michel Aoun and ex-president Amin Gemayel, are in exile. The Beirut daily an-Nahar said the message of the case was that the generation of civil war Christian leaders is finished and their successors must follow the example of Christians now in parliament by accepting the new Syrian-dominated reality. "The (Christian) symbols of war will not have a place in the current era of peace and those that replace them must have the characteristics of those Christians in power today," an-Nahar said. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Calls for more trials in Lebanon after Geagea case By Andrew Tarnowski BEIRUT, June 25 (Reuter) - The murder conviction of former Christian militia chief Samir Geagea unleashed calls on Sunday for the trial of other Lebanese warlords with blood on their hands. "And now...what about the rest of the criminal warlords?" asked the conservative Beirut daily an-Nahar in a headline to its frontpage editorial. "If Geagea and his forces killed, what about the rest of the murderous criminals...those others who didn't even have his romantic dreams or crazy beliefs?" an-Nahar's publisher and former U.N. ambassador Ghassan Tueni, a Greek Orthodox Christian, asked in the editorial. Geagea, who led the biggest Christian militia in the 1975-90 civil war, was sentenced to death on Saturday with 11 of his men for the 1990 murder of Christian politician Dani Chamoun. The sentences, which cannot be appealed, were commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour. Geagea, a 43-year-old Maronite Christian who inspired devotion and loathing in equal measure among his followers and his Moslem foes, was the first of Lebanon's warlords to be tried. Amnesty International said in a statement from London that the seven-month trial was seriously flawed and "did not meet international standards for a fair trial." All other prominent Christian civil war leaders are in exile, while their Moslem and Druze rivals who also led militias that terrorised the country for more than a decade hold high state and government offices. "It is going to be very difficult to convince public opinion that justice has been done, that it was not above all a political trial," said Issa Goraieb, Christian editor of an-Nahar's sister French-Language newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour in a frontpage editorial. "Above all, how to explain that of all the warlords who long rivalled each other in ferocity, only the last Christian still present in Lebanon is in jail, while the others have taken the highest offices and aligned themselves in time under the right banner," Goraieb said. He did not name the other warlords nor explain how they could be tried under the terms of a 1991 civil war amnesty. Geagea was tried for the Chamoun killing, which took place eight days after the war officially ended, as it was one of a few political murders excluded from the terms of the amnesty. Former warlords now in high office in Lebanon include Shi'ite Moslem and Druze militia leaders and a Maronite Christian rival of Geagea who allied himself with Syria. Geagea, however, never reconciled himself to Syria's dominant position in postwar Lebanon. He was outspoken before his arrest last year in his criticism of the presence of 35,000 Syrian troops and of Syria's sway over the country. He twice refused offers of cabinet posts before his April 1994 arrest in a church bombing case which has since been suspended. Even the pro-Syrian as-Safir, Lebanon's leading leftwing Moslem daily, said the trial left a bad taste. "The Lebanese would have preferred a broader judgment, one against the whole war rather than the conviction of one of its heroes, whoever that may be, for any single crime, whatever that may be," As-Safir said. The rightwing Falange party, the mainstream Christian group long opposed to Geagea, also pointed out the contradiction of trying Geagea and ignoring the others. "Who among those in power is more chaste or more virtuous than Samir Geagea, or less responsible for the military jobs that were neither related to war nor to military requirements nor to security needs of any of the sects," asked Al-Amal, the Falange party newspaper. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Lebanese Christian Militia Commander Gets Life ... Lebanese Christian Militia Commander Gets Life Term for Killing Rival, Family in '90 By Nora Boustany Washington Post Foreign Service BEIRUT, June 24 -- One of Lebanon's Christian warlords, Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea, was condemned to death today, a verdict commuted to a life sentence at hard labor, in the only trial of a militia leader for crimes committed during this country's civil war. Geagea was charged with the killing of Christian politician Dany Chamoun, his wife and two sons in October 1990. The verdict is a reminder of how factional rivalries, which peaked with a bloody showdown between Lebanon's Christian-led Army and Geagea's Lebanese Forces militia five years ago, reduced the Christian community's power in the Arab world's only Christian-led nation. Geagea, who is viewed as responsible for inner city battles and the Christian-Druze mountain war that displaced hundreds of thousands of Christian villagers, has little support except among immediate followers. He is also a vocal opponent of Syria's tutelage over Lebanon and refused to join a Syrian-backed government after the civil war ended. After the verdict, Geagea's wife, Sitrida, was defiant. "I was not surprised and will just repeat my husband's first words in his own defense: `I was arrested because of a political decision, and I will be released with a political decision.' " "I know my son is innocent. The enslaved will do as they please and God will judge us all," said Farid Geagea, the defendant's father. "He should have pleaded insanity as a serial killer," a veteran Christian deputy quipped about Samir Geagea. Lebanon's civil war began in April 1975 over dissatisfaction among the Christian leadership with the presence of armed Palestinian guerrillas, who in turn reinforced Muslim frustrations with an inequitable power-sharing formula that favored Christians. It ended late in 1990, leaving 150,000 dead and at least three times as many wounded or maimed, and a reconstruction costs estimated at $15 billion. A team of five judges, representing Lebanon's five main religious sects -- Christian Maronite, Sunni Muslim, Greek Catholic, Druze and Shiite Muslim -- announced the unanimous verdict at the close of Geagea's seven-month trial, in which about 90 witnesses were interrogated. The lead judge, Chief Justice Philip Khairallah, gave no reason for reducing the death sentence when he read out the verdict. The judges said Geagea ordered his security forces to carry out the Chamoun killings. Christian Maronite Patriarch Boutros Nasrallah Sfeir, installed as a cardinal last year, has spoken out against Geagea's arrest, declaring in a Sunday sermon a month ago: "His imprisonment is the outcome of tyranny and injustice." Despite the end of the fighting, U.S. demands to arrest or hand over 12 suspects wanted in connection with two U.S. Embassy bombings since 1983, the 1985 hijacking of a Trans World Airways flight, the 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks and the kidnapping of several American hostages in and around Beirut have not yet been addressed by Syria and its client Lebanese government. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Lebanon-Trial By RODEINA KENAAN Associated Press Writer BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Lebanon's most feared Christian warlord was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for murdering a political rival and his family in 1990, ending an eight-month trial that stirred Christian-Muslim tensions. Samir Geagea, 43, became the only militia chief convicted of crimes committed during the 1975-1990 civil war that killed 150,000 people. Other warlords were effectively pardoned, and some have assumed senior government positions. Troops were on alert throughout Beirut and its suburbs when the verdict was read. Outside the courthouse, they scuffled with reporters and about 200 Geagea supporters who chanted his nickname, "Hakim." The Judicial Council, Lebanon's highest court, convicted Geagea of murdering Dany Chamoun, his wife and two young children. Geagea was then head of the Lebanese Forces, which disbanded after the war ended. Geagea's supporters, as well as some Christians who oppose him, considered the trial politically motivated. They felt it was aimed at undercutting their shrinking clout in Lebanon's half-Christian, half-Muslim government. Chief Justice Philip Khairallah, chairing the five-judge court, pronounced the unanimous guilty verdict after alternating with the other judges in reading for more than three hours an 80-page summation of the trial. "Samir Geagea had decided to liquidate his rival so he ordered his security apparatus to carry out the murder," Khairallah said. The judge announced a death sentence, but then commuted it to life in prison at hard labor. He did not give a reason. The sentence cannot be appealed. Only the president can alter the ruling. President Elias Hrawi, a Christian, has not said what he will do. Geagea, who has been held in a Defense Ministry jail since April 21, 1994, was not present to hear the verdict and Khairallah refused a defense request to bring him in. Geagea's wife, Strida, wearing a large gold cross, stared at the judges as Khairallah read the ruling. "This is a second assassination of Dany Chamoun," she later told reporters. Tracy Chamoun, Dany Chamoun's 33-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, hailed the verdict as "the beginning of the end to the era of militias." "I thank the (Lebanese) justice, the public prosecutor, the lawyers and the army for reaching the truth," she told Lebanon's state-run television by telephone from Washington. "Reaching the truth was our goal." In anticipation of possible trouble, troops fanned out in Christian east Beirut and the Christian heartland to the north. Geagea continues to have support among the Christian right-wing, but its ranks are too small to launch an uprising. Geagea also faces murder charges in a Feb. 27, 1994, church bombing that killed 11 worshipers and injured 60. The government has accused him of trying to capitalize on the church bombing to whip up sectarian passions, reignite the civil war and declare a Christian mini-state. Geagea, who was widely feared in Lebanon's Christian heartland during the civil war, has repeatedly declared his innocence in both the Chamoun murders and church bombing. In all, 13 defendants in the Chamoun case were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life. Only Geagea and two others stood trial. The rest, who fled the country, were tried and sentenced in absentia. Rafik Saade, one of three men who stood trial, was acquitted. The council ordered those convicted to pay Chamoun's two surviving daughters, 5-year-old Tamara Jeane and 33-year-old Tracy, about $270,000. The court also awarded one Lebanese pound, worth less than half a cent, to Chamoun's right-wing National Liberal Party as compensation. Christians account for a little less than half of Lebanon's 4 million people. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Lebanon warlord gets life sentence By DALAL SAOUD BEIRUT, June 24 (UPI) -- Former Lebanese warlord Samir Geagea and five followers were convicted Saturday and given death sentences, which were reduced to life in prison, for the 1990 assassination of a rival Christian leader and his family. Geagea, former commander of the disbanded Lebanese Forces militia and the first militia leader from the 1975-90 civil war to face trial, was convicted of ordering the killings. Convicted in absentia were Geagea's top aides, Ghassan Touma and Tony Obeid, and militia members Atef Habr, Naja Qaddoum and Elias Awwad, who remain at large. Touma and Obeid are fugitives in Australia. All the sentences were reduced to life with hard labor. Six other militia members were sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was then reduced to 10 years of hard labor. Rafik Saadeh was acquitted even though he supplied the hit squad with pistols, because he satisfied the court that he did not know the nature of their mission. Geagea and two other defendants were not brought into the courtroom and remained in a hallway, despite protests by their attorneys. Lebanese judges frequently order defendants to be excluded to minimize sensational courtroom displays in reaction to verdicts. Judge Phillipe Khairallah, president of the five-member Judicial Council, pronounced the unanimous verdict after spending three hours reading a 100-page summary of the proceedings. The council, Lebanon's highest court for state security crimes, tried the militia leaders for the Oct. 21, 1990, slayings of Dany Chamoun, leader of the Christian National Liberal Party, his wife Ingrid, and sons Tarek and Julian. Khairallah found that Geagea ordered Chamoun's death to tighten control over Christian areas and become the paramount Christian leader in war-torn Lebanon. Habr, Qaddoum and Awwad were found to be the hit men who entered the Chamouns' house and killed them. Khairallah also ordered financial indemnities of up to 500 million Lebanese pounds ($308,166) for Chamoun's two daughters and for his wife's family. In addition, he ordered the confiscation of properties owned by 10 convicted but fugitive militia members until they are arrested. The convictions carry no right of appeal, but sentences may be rescinded or changed by presidential decree. Geagea's attorneys reacted only by saying that "the Judicial Council did its job and we did ours." But Geagea's wife, Sitrida, said: "My husband said before that he was arrested because of a political decision and will be released by a political decision." She left the courtroom surrounded by attorneys and 100 sympathizers who shouted slogans supporting Geagea and denouncing the government. "This is a mascarade," one of the supporters said. "Even after 100 years, justice will take place and Geagea will prove his innocence." As about 750 of Geagea's angry supporters reached the heavily guarded gate of the Justice Palace, a fracas broke out between them and army troops. The troops beat the supporters with the butts of their machine guns and arrested several. Journalists and photographers fled after some of their tapes were confiscated by troops. TV crews, which usually are admitted into courtrooms but were excluded Saturday, provided live coverage from outside the Justice Palace. Geagea's conviction could further frustrate Lebanon's Christians, many of whom believe a 1989 accord to end the civil war came at their expense, favored Muslims and consolidated the control of Syria in Lebanon. Syria, the Muslims' ally, stations 35,000 troops in Lebanon. The Judicial Council is also trying Geagea in the Feb. 27, 1994, bombing of a church near Beirut that killed 11 worshipers. That trial was suspended after one of the judges retired. Neither the Chamoun killings nor the church blast were covered by a general amnesty approved in 1991 for civil war crimes. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Condemned warlord inspired devotion, loathing BEIRUT, June 24 (Reuter) - Samir Geagea, the former Christian warlord sentenced to life imprisonment for murder on Saturday, inspired devotion among his followers during Lebanon's civil war and loathing among his enemies. His followers in the embattled Christian community saw the Maronite Catholic militia leader as the only man strong and clever enough to guarantee their security amid what they saw as a sea of Moslems. But many Moslems and some Christians saw him as an Israeli-backed bandit and killer who stopped at nothing to keep the Lebanese government weak and the Maronites dominant. The tall, thin and bold militia leader with dark, cavernous eyes was found guilty on Saturday of the 1990 murder of Christian rival Dani Chamoun and condemned to death but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment with hard labour. Geagea led the Lebanese Forces (LF), the most powerful Christian militia in the 1975-90 civil war. Many of its men trained in Israel and his name was linked to many disastrous Christian military defeats and atrocities during war. He became notorious in 1978 when he led an attack on the village home of Toni Franjieh a Christian chieftain in north Lebanon and son of former President Suleiman Franjieh. Toni, his daughter and wife and a number of bodyguards and supporters were killed and Geagea suffered a serious shoulder injury. His right arm still suffers. Geagea is under investigation for murder in the Franjieh case. He is also on trial for a February 1994 church bombing that killed 11 worshippers. A Maronite from the northern mountain town of Besharre where the first Maronite monks took refuge nearly 1,000 years ago, Geagea portrays himself as a man of faith with a mission to preserve the Christian community. He denied and ridiculed all the charges and said he was being targetted because he opposed Syrian influence in Lebanon. "The Lebanese Forces gave 10,000 martyrs to defend the church, now they accuse it of bombing a church. It is not possible," Geagea said in March 1994 before the LF was outlawed. "What else is there? Soon they will accuse me of crucifying Christ," he said before his detention in April that year. Geagea seized control of the LF in 1986 from then leader Elie Hobeika. He led a bloody rebellion when Hobeika signed a Syrian-backed peace pact with Moslem warlords and cancelled the agreement after his victory. Adamantly opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon, Geagea only agreed to the 1989 Taif accord which ended the civil war after rebel Christian General Michel Aoun launched a war to crush the LF in 1990. Aoun's offensive failed and Geagea stood by as Syrian troops ousted him from Lebanon's presidential palace on October 13, 1990, the day officially accepted as the end of the war. In last months of the war and first weeks of peace, Geagea suggested a federal system for Lebanon that would give Christians their own self-governing region. Critics said he wanted to split Lebanon into religious cantons. A former medical student called "Hakim" (doctor) by his followers, he is a keen reader of political books and a cigar smoker. He is married with no children. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Lebanese won't fight if Syrians leave - cardinal BEIRUT, June 24 (Reuter) - Lebanon will not relapse into civil war if Syria withdraws its 35,000 troops, the country's top churchman was quoted on Saturday as saying. "There is no reason to believe the Lebanese would fight each other after the Syrians leave," Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, patriarch of the Maronite church, told visiting Arab journalists. "I can affirm that the Lebanese can live in peace and security despite the occasional strains which could happen anywhere else in the world," the conservative Beirut daily an-Nahar quoted Sfeir as telling the journalists. Lebanon has had four major outbreaks of sectarian conflict in the past 150 years -- in 1848, 1860, 1958 and 1975-90 -- and many Lebanese wonder whether the series is finally over. They are also anxious to know if Syrian troops will withdraw after peace with Israel is signed and Israel's 1,000 soldiers withdraw from a south Lebanon border strip they occupy. Sfeir said he wanted the Syrian army to leave with "all other (foreign) armed forces, the Palestinians and the Israelis." The Syrians, stationed in two-thirds of the country including Beirut and the eastern Bekaa valley, have been in Lebanon since 1976 after entering at the request of Christian leaders. The Israelis have been in the south since invading in 1978. The Beirut government says the Syrians help maintain security and has not asked them to leave despite their failure to pull back from Beirut under the terms of the 1989 Taif accord which ended the civil war. Many Lebanese Christians and Moslems want the Syrians to leave but Moslems rarely speak out publicly. Christians staged a massive boycott of 1992 parliamentary elections in protest at Syria's military presence and its political dominance over Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war. ----------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Club Med on Israeli Coast Hit By Rockets Fired in ... Club Med on Israeli Coast Hit By Rockets Fired in Lebanon By Barton Gellman Washington Post Foreign Service JERUSALEM, June 23 -- A double salvo of rockets fired from southern Lebanon slammed into Israel's northwest resort coast this morning, killing one of Club Med's French chefs and prompting the Paris-based chain to evacuate its 500-bed facility near the peak of the summer season. Shrapnel ripped through wood-and-bamboo bungalows along one of Israel's most pleasant stretches of beach in the 6:15 a.m. attack, which came as bathers prepared for a day of lounge chairs and umbrella-shaded sands. Nine tourists -- four from France, one from Spain and four from Israel -- were wounded, most of them lightly. Traffic streamed southward all day from the Galilee coastal resorts between Rosh Hanikra and Nahariya, a reversal of the usual weekend pattern, as vacationers in swimsuits and shorts abandoned the beach. Hotels reported many cancellations, and Tourism Minister Uzi Baram said the government would have to find some way to compensate for the loss. "All the tourists have left the area," said Yehuda Shavit, head of the western Galilee regional council. It was the first attack in memory to bring Israel's long war of attrition in southern Lebanon to sun-seeking vacationers from abroad, officials said. Israel is promoting 1995 as the Year of Tourism and Peace, but today's explosions were a reminder that Israel's northern border remains a battle front and its historic trend toward accommodation with its neighbors is not complete. The Shiite Muslim Party of God, or Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for the attack and described it as revenge for the death of a young woman Thursday in Israeli bombardment of the Lebanese village of Shaqra. Foreign military observers said that bombardment, in turn, was preceded by a Hezbollah attack from Shaqra's outskirts against an outpost of Israel's client militia, the South Lebanon Army. Israeli heavy guns and aircraft pounded southeastern Lebanon after this morning's rocket attack. Israel blames Iran for arming and funding Hezbollah and blames Syria, the dominant power in Lebanon, for permitting the fundamentalist militia to operate freely there. Maj. Gen. Amiram Levine, chief of Israel's northern command, accused Hezbollah today of using villages as cover and said he would not hold back from striking at the villages in return. "If the Hezbollah think they will bring about a disaster for our citizens, I am convinced that in the end it will bring about a disaster on those very citizens whose welfare they seek," Levine told Israel Radio. But Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin hinted otherwise, saying he would do all in his power to remove "excuses" by Hezbollah for attacks on Israel's civilian populace. Hezbollah has intensified its attacks on Israel and its client militia in anticipation of a peace deal between Israel and Syria and the expected fallout in Lebanese internal politics. Hardly a day passes without an attack, most of them in Israel's self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon. Five so far this year, including today's, have fallen on Israel's northern towns. Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said today's attack was reason enough to cancel talks between the Israeli and Syrian chiefs of staff, set to resume next week in Washington after a seven-month gap. "We cannot and must not accept a situation in which a proxy war is being waged against us by Syria and at the same time we are being asked to make far-reaching concessions to Syria on other fronts," Netanyahu told Israel Radio. Rabin, who asserts that only a political deal with Syria will quiet the northern border, said the talks will go on. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel will demand that Syria "take stronger steps and a greater involvement to pacify the area." Foreign military observers said the range and payload of the rockets used today suggested that they were Russian-built BM21 Grads, a variant of the World War II-era Katyushas that Hezbollah gunmen carry around, one official said, "in the backs of Volvo station wagons." At least 10 rockets were fired in two salvos. Because the rockets are not very accurate, it is unlikely that Hezbollah was aiming for Club Med in particular. But the fundamentalist group threatened early this year to disrupt the Israeli tourist trade, and it appeared to be targeting the broad resort coast today. Israel's military censor attempted to ban identification of the damaged resort to deprive Hezbollah of information that might be useful in aiming future rocket barrages. But Club Med officials in Paris told the Associated Press that it was their facility, and that information was verified here. "Our first priority is to ensure people's safety," said Antoine Cachin, Club Med's secretary general. Tourist Eli Mizrahi, who witnessed the attack on the holiday resort, described what he saw on Army Radio. "One of the Katyushas fell between two structures not made of cement," he said. "The dead man took shrapnel in the face. The structures were completely wiped away. It was a commotion seen only in movies." Noah Rosolio, a Nahariya Hospital employee interviewed by telephone, said she hoped tourists would not draw the wrong conclusion from the attack. "I live in this area, and most of the time it's so nice here and so lovely to be here," she said. "So it's okay to come and to live and to make a vacation here. It's a very, very nice area. No problem." ---------------------------------------------------------- Subject: PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 23 BEIRUT, June 23 (Reuter) - These are the leading stories in the Beirut press on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. AN-NAHAR -Israel demands Syria through unofficial channels to stop pro-Iranian Hizbollah attacks. -An exceptional cabinet session next Tuesday will discuss the new teachers' payroll prepared by a special ministerial committee. -Romania's prime minister in Beirut on Monday to discuss with Lebanese officials latest developments of the Arab-Israeli peace process and bilateral relations. -Foreign Minister Faris Bouez met with an Italian economic parliamentary delegation which arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday. -A joint statement issued in Beirut and Sarajevo declares the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bosnia and Lebanon. -A civilian was killed and three were wounded when 45 Israeli shells hit the village of Shaqra in south Lebanon. AS-SAFIR -A higher Syrian-Lebanese council meeting is expected to be held during the first week of July to discuss results of Israeli-Syrian negotiations in Washington. -President Hrawi said after receiving a delegation from the Arab Capital Markets Conference in Beirut that the big challenge to Lebanon "is the Israeli challenge." -The Lebanese Leasing Company received loans worth $22.5 million from its shareholders to boost its financing capacity. -Lebanese and Palestinians take part in a sit-in at the International Red Cross office in Beirut, organized by the coalition of Palestinian forces. They expressed solidarity with thousands of Palestinian prisoners who went on hunger strike in Israeli jails. AL-ANWAR -A dispute between Premier Hariri and House Speaker Berri over the appointment of members to the board of directors of ELISSAR, a multi-million dollar public company to develop Si'ite-populated Beirut southern suburbs. -Chinese vice resident at the head of a Chinese delegation in Beirut on the 26th of June to discuss bilateral relations. -First phase of works on the rehabilitation of the national museum to be completed by the end of the year - REUTER AD-DIYAR -Teachers threaten to boycott official final examinations if their demands are not approved by the end of June. -A diplomatic source said Israeli-Lebanese military talks are expected to be held no earlier than the end of July if the Syrian-Israeli military negotiations currently held in Washington succeed. NIDA'A AL-WATAN -Sources expect Lebanon's highest court to sentence Samir Geagea, a former Christian civil war militia chief, to life imprisonment or to death for murdering a political rival. REUTER ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Assad's second son tiptoes into the limelight By Jonathan Wright DAMASCUS, June 23 (Reuter) - Bashar al-Assad, second son of the Syrian president, is tiptoeing into the limelight to fill the space left empty when his idolised elder brother Bassel died in a car crash 18 months ago. But Bassel's act is a difficult one to follow and at least in public no one is saying how high Bashar's star might rise. Bassel's spirit lives on, commemorated in thousands of portraits and photographs plastered on everything from calendars to office windows to the perimeter walls of army encampments. Bassel, 32 when he crashed his car on the road to Damascus airport, remains "the Golden Knight" for his equestrian exploits, "the paratrooper major" for his dashing military career and, in death, the martyr. Some pictures show him ascending into heaven on his gallant steed. The only perceptible change is that many private citizens no longer feel an urgent need to prove their devotion to his cult. "As a street phenomenon, Bassel has definitely faded. What is persistent is the way the military and the security apparatus have adopted him as a hero," one diplomat said. "The worship of Bassel has been institutionalised," said another. "Hardly a public meeting takes place without the de rigueur moment of silence to his memory." But, in a country where slogans and symbols dominate the political landscape, a new image is attracting attention. It is the triptych or the trinity, the photograph of President Hafez al-Assad in the centre, flanked by those of his two sons, usually both in military uniform. Bassel's death immediately dragged Bashar out of obscurity as a student of ophthalmology in Britain and pushed him gently into the macho world of Syrian politics. As early as last March, Syrian officials had started to hint that he was destined for higher things. Defence Minister Mustafa Tlas said then that he saw in Bashar's eyes the determination to carry Bassel's banner. Last November the younger son acquired some solid military credentials, deemed essential in Syria, by graduating from a tank commanders' course in the central city of Homs. He bears the army rank of captain. This year he visited Lebanon as a member of an official delegation, meeting local politicians alongside security chief Ghazi Kanaan, Syria's top representative in that country. At least one Lebanese member of parliament took offence at the trip, seeing it as a symbol of Lebanon's subjugation. Bashar, now 30, has also taken over several of his brother's functions, as a patron of equestrian events and of the Syrian Computer Society for example, and press reports say he shares his brother's interest in fighting corruption. But whereas the living Bassel was sometimes seen as a possible successor to Assad, in power since 1970 and now aged 65, some say they doubt Bashar can go so far. "He's not cast in the same mould as his brother. One has the impression that he's not so much of a man's man. It's not a role he has slid into easily -- to be the elder son and an army officer," said a Syrian businessman who asked not to be named. "But we can safely say that Bashar al-Assad will occupy a prominent position. What that position will be it is too early to say," he added. One diplomat dismissed all the speculation as premature, saying President Assad remained in good health, despite the heart problems he had in the early 1980s. "Anyway," he added, "for the majority of Syrians, especially against the background of the internal conflicts of the past, the Assad family is a guarantee of stability." Syria was chronically unstable from the time of independence in the 1940s until President Assad took power. Assad himself was not fully in control until he crushed the rebellious Moslem Brotherhood in 1982 in a battle which destroyed the heart of the central city of Hama. REUTER ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Lebanese Leasing Company gets $22.5 million loan BEIRUT, June 22 (Reuter) - Lebanon's first leasing company received loans totalling $22.5 million from its shareholders on Thursday to boost its financing capacity after making a rapid start to its leasing operations. The Lebanese Leasing Company signed agreements for loans of $7.5 million from each of its three shareholders -- the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Ucabail, the leasing arm of France's Credit Agricole bank, and Fransabank, a Lebanese bank part-owned by Credit Agricole. The company, formed last September to provide medium- and long-term finance to the private sector, has disbursed $4.9 million of its $5 million share capital in 11 leasing agreements since starting operations in February. Company officials say it already has a rush of applications for a further $32 million-$35 million in leasing finance. "This project comes at a time when Lebanon has tremendous financial needs and where long-term financing is dear," Iyad Malas, IFC regional capit markets manger for central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, said at a lunch to celebrate the finalisation of the loans. "The company will assist small- and medium-sized enterprises that need to de-bottleneck, replace or modernise equipment in sectors such as industry, construction and medical services," Malas said. IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank, holds 15 percent of the Lebanese Leasing Company's shares. Ucabail holds 25 percent, and Fransabank has 60 percent. The average length of leasing agreements signed by the company is 4 1/2 years. Some 57 percent have been for construction equipment, 16 percent for industrial equipment, 19 percent for transport trucks and eight percent for heavy machinery-carrying trucks, acccording to company officials. Subject: PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 22 BEIRUT, June 22 (Reuter) - These are the leading stories in the Beirut press on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. AN-NAHAR -Prime Minister Hariri opens the Arab Capital Markets Conference, tells delegates: "You can depend on Lebanon that beat the war." -Defence Minister Dalloul says Lebanese army is ready for any development in south Lebanon. -House Speaker Berri gives government 15 days to study the proposal for administrative decentralisation. -Wife of former Christian warlord Samir Geagea says she expects court to declare him innocent on Saturday of the 1990 murder of Christian rival Dani Chamoun and members of his family. -One Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militiaman killed and three others wounded in guerrilla attacks. AS-SAFIR -Information Minister Makari says after visiting President Hrawi that press freedoms in Lebanon will not be touched. -Foreign Minister Bouez says French President Chirac urged his U.S. counterpart Clinton to release Arab captives in Israeli jails. -PM Hariri tells Arab and foreign financiers at the Arab Capital Markets Conference: "The time is suitable to attract Arab capital to Arab markets." AL-ANWAR -Premier Hariri says at the opening of conference: "We take into consideration all the developments in the outside world." -The government goes around the demands of teachers and workers for higher pay. -Damascus: "The Israeli aggressions on south Lebanon may reflect negatively on the (Israeli-Syrian) Washington meeting." -Foreign Minister Bouez informed that Lebanese captives in Israeli jails joined hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners. -Israeli shelling wounds three people in southeastern Lebanon. AD-DIYAR -The government gives itself additional time to discuss the teachers' demands for higher pay. -Israeli shelling on Nabatiyeh, Iqlim al-Toufah and other southern Lebanese areas. One Israeli-backed militiaman killed and three colleagues wounded in retaliatory attacks by the Islamic Resistance. NIDA'A AL-WATAN -Defence Minister Dalloul says Lebanon will not sign any peace agreement with Israel before Syria does. REUTER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Lebanon's National Museum rises from civil war ashes By Andrew Tarnowski BEIRUT, June 21 (Reuter) - Amid the bustle of reconstruction in Beirut, workers are repairing Lebanon's war-battered National Museum that was among the most important archaeological museums in the Middle East. Workmen are fitting new stone blocks to repair shell holes in the honey-coloured facade, filling in thousands of bullet holes and securing doors and windows that have been open to the elements for years. The museum has not exhibited its treasures since closing at the outbreak of the 1975-90 civil war. For 15 years it was a frontline firing post for rival militias and gave its name to the most famous Green Line crossing point between Beirut's warring Christian east and mainly Moslem western sectors. Camille Asmar, the director, hopes to open the first temporary exhibition by the end of the year, once the one billion Lebanese pounds ($616,000) task of repairing and securing the exterior is completed. He has decided not to wait until the interior is restored, a job that will cost another $3-4 million. "We have to open at least something for the public, to show the public, especially the young generation, what a museum is, what objects we have inside the museum," Asmar said. He plans to exhibit only the biggest treasures which were never removed for safekeeping during the war, unlike the museum's ancient jewellery -- the biggest collection in the Middle East -- which is still in the vaults of the central bank. But before he can exhibit the treasures, Asmar must break open the massive concrete encasements that protected them during the war. The tomb-like blocks enclose statues, sphinxes and sarcophagi from Egypt, Rome and Phoenicia -- the Lebanon of antiquity. They include the Colossus of Byblos and the sarcophagus of Ahiram, an eighth century BC king of Byblos, north of Beirut, inscribed with the first known traces of the Phoenician alphabet -- the origin of western alphabets. "When we finish restoring the facade we will open the cement blocks and do the first restoration of the objects and the inventory, and we are preparing an exhibition to show the public all the large objects we have in the museum," Asmar said. "There is a new chemical we can use that helps break down the cement. We drill a hole in the casing, insert the chemical and in 24 hours the cement begins to crumble," he added. He also plans to exhibit for the first time 13th century mummies found during the civil war in caves in north Lebanon, showing the clothes people wore 700 years ago. Other treasures awaiting exhibition for the first time in Lebanon are 575 gold, ivory and ceramic Phoenician artefacts found by German archaeologists at Kamid el-Loz in the eastern Bekaa valley between 1963 and the early 1980s. Asmar brought back the treasures this year from Germany's Saarbruecken University where they were restored and kept safe since 1978. The artefacts, dating back to 1,500 BC, are so important that they were exhibited in eight cities in Germany, 15 books were written about them and five are in preparation. In the museum's laboratory Asmar shows suitcases of Roman and Byzantine artefacts recently seized by customs officers at Beirut airport from people trying to smuggle them abroad. They, too, will one day be among the museum's exhibits. Some treasures looted from Lebanon during the war are also being retrieved, thanks to Interpol, watchful Lebanese diplomats and friends of Lebanon in the art world. Last year Asmar went to Brussels to recover two objects from a Phoenician tomb in Byblos. Now he is about to bring from Switzerland four fifth century BC marble statues of children from the temple of the Phoenician god Eshmun near Sidon. Another marble statue was recently spotted at Sotheby's auction house in London and will be retrieved, Asmar said. Even some of the 42 cases of exhibits damaged by fire when a shell hit a museum store room in 1982 may be restored in the new laboratory where restoration expert Isabelle Skaff is working to save them. "It's very difficult work. It's not like ordinary art restoration work," said Skaff, who trained at London University and is the only restorer the museum can afford to employ. "I need four or five more trained workers," said Skaff, who wants to bring former colleagues from London. "The trouble is we need $20,000 to bring them over for four months' work, to show we are achieving something, but there is no money available." REUTER ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: PRESS DIGEST - Lebanon - June 21 BEIRUT, June 21 (Reuter) - These are the leading stories in the Beirut press on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. AN-NAHAR -Lebanon begins studying the preparation of its peace talks files. -Washington demanded handover of "terrorists" in exchange for easing the travel ban on Lebanon. -Prime Minister Hariri says replacement for late Environment Minister Moughaizel will be named within two days. -The pro-Iranian Hizbollah (Party of God) says the state will not put shackles on the resistance. -Two heroin smugglers arrested in eastern Lebanon. -A new $300-million issue of Eurobonds by Lebanon in July to be lead-managed by Paribas. AS-SAFIR -Romania's prime minister arrives in Beirut on Monday at the head of a 70-member delegation. -Israeli planes stage mock raids over the southern port of Sidon. Tension in the south and the western Bekaa Valley. -President Hrawi tells delegation of Arab bankers: "We are depending on ourselves for (postwar) rebuilding." -Lebanon to issue $300 million 5-year Eurobond for displaced people and electricity, at interest ranging between 8.92 percent and 9.17 percent. AL-ANWAR -Dispute between "ruling troika" of presidents over splitting new appointments to top public jobs. -President Hrawi says: "We are working hard to liberate south Lebanon and the western Bekaa." -The Japanese delegation continues its talks with Lebanese officials. Talk of soft loans for the sectors of administration, water and garbage disposal. -The head of the Union of Arab Banks says: "Lebanon will continue its special role." AD-DIYAR -Israeli threats preceed the Israeli-Syrian meeting in Washington. -Interrogation of the wife of former Christian warlord Geagea postponed to October 9. -Mock Israeli air raids over Iqlim al-Toufah and Nabatiyeh. NIDA'A AL-WATAN -An opposition front to be formed before July 15 and former MP Moukhaiber may be appointed at its heads. REUTER ================================ END OF NEWS SECTION ========================== Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 15:15:45 +0200 From: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no (Elie Wardini) Subject: A News Blurb >From al-Nahar 23rd. June 1995 page 6: (a quick translation) A Press Confenrence to Defend The Archeological Sites of the City: The Intellectuals of Baalbak want to Stop the Plans for New Roads At 12 o'clock noon time today [23rd. June 1995] the Union of Intellectuals in Baalbak will hold a press conference in the offices of the Journalists Union in order to protect their city and save its historical sites. The intellectuals of Baalbak are demanding that the state ignore the road plans that pass through the archeological sites since these roads will be the cause of their destrcution and will open them for stealing and disappearence. The Union (of intellectuals) are appealing to the president of the Republic and all the authorities to give orders to stop to occurence of one of the many massacres against history and the future due to the dangers that threaten the city. The Union (of intellectuals) are appealing to the UNESCO and the United Nations to interfere to protect the archeological sites of Baalbalk which archeological and historical importance goe beyong Lebanon especially if the state does not respond to their cries of grief asking to stop the new raod plans. The intellectuals of the region are expressing their fear that there be constructed an electrical transformer infront of "Jupiter" and infront of "Baccus" a grocery store. THis especially after installing electrical transformers at the spot where the statue of Khalil Mutran stood! These (Intellectuals) raise their voices loud against everything that may hurt Baalbak, the city that stands elevated in history loaded with history. ************ Elie Wardini Department for East-European and Oriental Studies Semitic languages P.O. Box 1030 Blindern N-0315 Oslo Norway tel. off.: +47 - 22 85 71 21 home: +47 - 22 19 03 49 fax: +47 - 22 85 41 40 e-mail: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 22:17:02 +0200 From: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no (Elie Wardini) Subject: Letter To UNESCO: A first reaction Let me thank every one who has contributed with their signature or those who decided to send a letter individually. In the letter that I sent there were 107 signatures representing many countries and people from many fields and occupations. Congratualtions! In addition to sending the letter to the Director General of UNESCO, the letter was sent (including the signatures) to two Lebanese dailies: L'Orient Le Jour and al-Nahar. It was also sent to Le Monde. Both Al-Nahar and L'Orient Le Jour have published an article each (June 23rd.) about the letter. Al-Nahar published the whole letter and extracts of the introduction telling the editors what the letter was about. L'Orient le Jour quoted extensively from the letter and introduction. Both articles reported the response from Mr. Michel Edde, Minister of Culture and Higher education. The following are extracts from the response of Mr. Edde to L'Orient Le Jour: ********quote********** quoting L'Orient Le Jour, Juin 23rd.: "... Michel Edde devait d=E9noncer =ABla campagne de d=E9nigrement contre le Liban=BB, affirmant =E0 ce sujet qu'une telle campagne est =ABen rapport dir= ect avec les n=E9gociations de paix=BB avec Isra=EBl. "... Mr. Edde a vivement stigmatis=E9 cette attitude declarant notament a ce suject: =ABIl s'agit la d'une campagne de d=E9nigrement contre le Liban en rapport direct avec les pourparles de paix (avec Isra=EBl). Tout le monde sait qui est derri=E8re ces campagnes. Ils d=E9sirent emp=EAcher la reconstruction du Liban..." translation: Michel Edde is quoted as having denounced "the campaign of denigration against Lebanon" affirming in this connection that such a campaign is in direct relation to the negotiations of peace (with Israel). Mr. Edde has vividly stigmatised this attitude against Lebanon namely declaring: "This is actually a campaign of denigration against Lebanon in direct relation to the dicussions of peace (with Israel). Everybody knows who is behind these campaigns. They want to hinder the reconstruction of Lebanon..." *********end of quote******* =46or those of you who might be interested, no names were quoted in the papers. But I assume that Mr. Edde got a copy of the letter with the signatures. Elie Wardini e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no (Elie Wardini) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: CCHEVALI@van.bdo.ca Subject: Internet Service Date: 19 Jun 95 14:13:00 PDT Are you aware of any Internet Service Company that installs Internet on E-Mail in Lebanon? I have asked a company in the Vancouver area and they have advised me that they don't know any. If you have referrals with respect to Internet service, either a public company or private company. There is someone in Vancouver who wishes to purchase E-Mail program and wishes to set up "internet" in Lebanon. Please advise as soon as possible, if you have any referrals. Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 95 11:35:12 CDT From: melki@texas.hous.inmet.com (Melki Moussa) Subject: Looking for Old School Friends I am looking for school friends that attended the Secondary School of Jdeidet El-Maten in JDEIDE (SID AL-BOUCHRIEH). I attended that school in the years 1981-1982-1983, graduated and came to the US. If anybody attended this school during that time, and knows me, I would like to hear from him via email (or phone at 713-996-5088, Houston, Texas). Melki Moussa ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Jun 95 16:13:34 ECT From: Rula Subject: Lour Moghayzil To whom it may concern, I am interested in knowing more about the election of L our Moghayzil to the environment department and who were nominated aside from h er and some details about her and her election. Thank You. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 11:21:33 -0500 (CDT) From: zainab makiya Subject: Re: "Leb-Net Daily Digest Volume 548 The following are answers for Mr. Hakim's questions. Dear Sam It will cost less than $75 to get a new passport from Lebanon. However, it could cost more or less depending on how much of the required paper work she has got ready. The aiport Tax is not $100 like you heard. You can bring with you an electrical device like a computer note book. In case you have two or more identical electrical device than you might be questioned or perhaps asked to pay a fee. My dear Sam you have got to understand that the Government is not our enemy and we are not its enemy. For seventeen years thousands of people got richer and richer by smuggling goods through the customs while others were checking theirs and paying all the dues. It is not the President's fault neither Hariri's. These two gentlemen are making history, but the people who are bad mouthing them to you are ignorant. No offense to any one! Jamil Adel Sibai ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Jun 95 8:50:48 EDT From: Marc Manganaro Subject: academic opening in Lebanon On June 11 I sent a message concerning the opening of an assistant professor position in Business Admin./Management at the Univ. of Balamand (in the Koura in the North of Lebanon). I would like to correct the phone fax to which interested parties should send materials. Please send inquiries, resumes, etc., up until July 1, to Paul Salem, Brookings Institute, phone 202-797-6022, fax 202-797-6003. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 Jun 1995 16:38:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Rani Azar Subject: travel agents in Canada Was wondering if any of you guys can recommend a travel agent here in canada for purposes of travel to Lebanon. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 23:28:52 -0400 From: "Bernard M. HAYEK" Subject: Help needed. Dear LebNeters, I will be moving soon to the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD (Maryland). I am supposed to be there at the end of the month of July. If anyone of you is living there and can provide me with some information on Living, Housing, living expenses, Lebanese activities etc ... (ps: for the housing, I would like it to be as close to the univ.""engineering school"" as possible since I won't have a car and I will be walking to school). Also, if anyone is attending the John Hopkins univ. or is in the Baltimore area, I will glad to meet with him/her. The duration of my stay there is going to be until November or December. Any information will be very much appreciatted. My e-mail address is: elhayek@eng.buffalo.edu or elhayek@acsu.buffalo.edu Thank you in advance, regards, Bernard. PS: Sorry I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Bernard M. HAYEK. I am Lebanese and I live in Buffalo NY. Currently, I am attending the Univ. at Buffalo where I am pursuing a Masters Degree in Civil Eng. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 22:37:05 -0600 (CST) From: "JOMALI A.C." Subject: Merida'95 Hello This is the most important information about the convention: PLACE: Merida, Yucatan MEXICO (2 hour drive from Cancun) DATE: 1st to 5th of November, 1995 HOTEL: Fiesta Americana Merida (the best hotel in Yucatan) COST PER PERSON: SINGLE: $415 DOUBLE: $310 TRIPLE: $270 WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE PRICE: * All the transportation needed during the convention * All the activities * All the meals * Four nights of Hotel * Visit to the Mayan Ruins * CD, T-shirt * Membership Card Sincerely, Alfredo Alam JOMALI, A.C. e-mail: jomali@udlapvms.pue.udlap.mx phone: (52-22) 35-31-18 35-30-41 fax: 34-25-78 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 21:29:57 -0600 (CST) From: "JOMALI A.C." Subject: NEW ADRESS Our adress has change. Old adress: JOMALI@udlapvms.pue.udlap.mx New adress: jomali@udlapvms.pue.udlap.mx Please change our adress on your mailing list, so we can continue to receive information. Thank you Sincerely Alfredo Alam ******************************************************************************* ***************************** END OF LEBNET DIGEST **************************** ******************************************************************************* LebNet is an anonymous mailing list that provides LebNeters with daily news and discussions on Lebanon. It is free of charge. In the spirit of dialogue and mutual respect, injurious terms are not to be posted. Censorship can only apply to the injurious form of an article. Opinions expressed in the postings are those of their authors alone. LebNet's spirit is that of equal rights and oportunities and anti-discrimination. It is more than 3 years old, and services more than 1000 LebNeters across north-america, europe and australia. It is the number one network among Lebanese students away from Lebanon. It is not affiliated to any political movement, party or government. 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