Kidnappings in Lebanon

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34072, 9 February 1976, Page 15

Kidnappings in Lebanon

GV. Z P. A. -Re uter —Copyriglit) BEIRUT, February 8.

Outbreaks of kidnapping and arson today threatened Lebanon’s fragile cease-fire between the Moslem and Christian communities. According to reliable sources, about 20 people were abducted yesterday — one of the highest figures since the latest cease-fire came into effect 17 days ago. Some were released later. In the Moslem village of Sibnay, south-east of Beirut, Christians avenging the death of a Christian set fire to a number of houses, the sources said. Lebanon's cease-fire committee comprising Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese representatives say explosions heard in Sibnay were due to the blowing up of barricades erected during the civil war. On the diplomatic front, the Lebanese President (Suleiman Franjieh) returned yesterday from Damascus with a Syrian pledge that the 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon would obey agreements regulating their activities.

The Syrian guarantee was seen by’ political observers as specifically aimed at reassuring the mainly Christian Right wing in Lebanon. The joint communique issued after the talks between President Franjieh and the Syrian President' (Hafez Al-Assad) made no mention of a withdraw! of! the Syrian-based Palestinian regular troops who entered Lebanon to ‘keep the peace in the Moslem areas.

Foreign diplomats in Damascus believe Syria, despite its enhanced role in Lebanon. does not want to end Lebanon’s formal neutrality in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Syria was well aware of the vital part Lebanon’s fuel and power resources played when Israel knocked out Syria’s own supplies in the 1973 October war, they said.