N. Lebanon on brink of battle

Press, 16 June 1978, Page 6

N. Lebanon on brink of battle

NZPA-Reuter Beirut; As fears of renewed fight-, ing between rival right-wing: groups gripped northern! Lebanon Rightist militiamen! in the southern border region! have maintained their controversial control of key) points. Grief-stricken people in the! town cf Zgharta have vowed i to avenge the deaths of 33 j relatives and friends, killed in a battle nearby on Tues-! day. A former President, Mr Suleiman Franjieh, whose son, Tony, was on' of the! victims, led mourners at an! emotional funeral Mass out-! side an eighteenth century! churcl in the town. Local men said the 600 attackers were members of the powerful Falange Party, and they swore to retaliate. The fighting in th' nearby summer mountain resort of Ihden followed a series of minor clashes between Falangists and supporters of Mr Franjieh. As grim-faced men? mourned their dead, Tony I Franjieh’s younger brother, Robert, told Reuters: “Their; anger could explode at anv) time.” He said the Falangists had attacked because his family had left an alliance of mainly? Christian Rightist parties: and had been improving re-!! lations with Muslim groups, i In the south, irregular Rightist forces took over i

their border positions from Israeli troops who completed . their withdrawal from southern Lebanon on Tuesday after a three month occupation aimed at ending the ! Palestinian guerrilla activity there. ; But Lieutenant-General' iEnsio Siilasvuo, c > inlander of United Nations peace-' 'keeping troops in the Middle I East, said the United Nations! Interim Force in Lebanon] 'must control all areas up to| 'the border. “1 wish to clarify that! U.N.I.F.LL. has not yet accomplished that objective,! !but the interim force will! ! strive to achieve it,”! General Siilasvuo told re-; ; porters after talks with' Government leaders. Major Saad Haddad, the commander of Christian, i militia units in southern; .Lebanon, has been provision-! all” recognised by the Leban-: ]ese Government as de facto: commander of the Lebanese! ! forces in his area, the! i United Nations Secretary-! General (Dr Kurt Waldheim) ihas said. This was to facilitate the; ; mission of U.N.1.F.1.L., Dr Waldheim said in his latest; progress report on the peace-! keeping force. Israeli troops on Tuesday! completed their withdrawal, from southern Lebanon, handing over control of much 1 of the border area to Major! Haddad’s forces instead of to U.N.1.F.1.L.