Promising start to truce

Press, 27 September 1983, Page 10

Promising start to truce

NZPA-Reuter Beirut A ceasefire called to end weeks of bitter fighting in Lebanon went into effect at 4 p.m. (N.Z. time) yesterday with only minor violations, according to residents and radio stations. State-run Beirut radio reported an uneasy calm throughout the country from when the truce was due to start.

When the Lebanese Government announced the ceasefire earlier yesterday fierce fighting flared along the mountain battlefronts .overlooking the capital with some of the fiercest rocket and artillery duels of the war.

But these subsided around dawn. Residents in the south-eastern Beirut suburb of Hadath, which has been

pounded daily, said that it was quiet 90 minutes after the truce started.

“There were a couple of artillery rounds at 6.15 a.m. (local time) and some smallarms fire,” said one resident. “But it really seems as if people are taking the cease-fire seriously for the moment.”

The Right-wing Falangist radio reported: “The ceasefire agreement is holding 90 per cent.” For most of yesterday shells shook the hills around Beirut and the hilltop town of Souk el-Gharb where the Lebanese Army has been battling Syrian-backed insurgents — Druse and Leftist militias aided by Palestinian guerrillas. The cease-fire accord, reached after two weeks of tortuous negotiations was

announced by the Lebanese Government in Beirut and also in Damascus by the Syrian Foreign Minister Mr Abdel-Halim Khaddim, and the Saudi mediator, Prince Bandor bin Sultan.

The Prince, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador-desig-nate to Washington, flew to Damascus from Jeddah for the announcement in a surprise move after Saudi sources in Damascus said that negotiations on the cease-fire agreement had appeared to be deadlocked. Mr Khaddam said: “Agreement has been reached to stop the war and fighting and to start a national dialogue between the conflicting parties.” Prince Bandar said: “We hope this will be the beginning of a dialogue to solve all Lebanese problems in all

aspects and to maintain Lebanon’s sovereignty and unity.” Although Mr Khaddam and Prince Bandar refused to give details of the agreement, the official Saudi press agency said that it had the following main points: an immediate ceasefire supervised by neutral observers, a committee to work out cease-fire details and ways of enforcing it, and an urgent meeting to start a national dialogue which would include representatives of Syria and Saudi Arabia, as well as the conflicting Lebanese parties.

Minutes after the truce announcement the Druse leader, Walid Jumblatt, called on his men to observe the cease-fire and “help in the political battle.”