Beirut P.M. accuses Israel of stirring

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 10

Beirut P.M. accuses Israel of stirring

NZPA-Reuter Beirut The Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr Rashid Karami, has accused Israel of inciting south Lebanese sects to violence after the withdrawal of the Israeli Army., He said yesterday that Israeli agents had approached mayors and residents in the south.

“They scare Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims and Christians about each other and offer them arms to defend themselves,” he said. Mr Karami linked the approaches with warnings by Israeli leaders of sectarian massacres in the volatile Sidon region, which Israeli soldiers are preparing to leave by February 18. He said that repeated massacre warnings by the Israeli Government “show clearly their deliberate in-

tentions in this respect. They are holding Lebanon and the U.N. responsible.” Lebanon has refused an Israeli demand that United Nations troops deploy in the Sidon area after the pullout, seeing it as an Israeli attempt to turn the area into a buffer zone before possibly going back on a commitment to leave the rest of the south by the summer.

In mid-January the headman of the Shi’ite village of Arabselim, in a mixed area of south Lebanon, told Reuters that two Israeli officers had offered him arms, which he refused. Three nearby villages also had been offered arms, residents said.

On the outskirts of Sidon, Palestinians and Christian villagers said yesterday that

Israel had tried to turn traditional tensions between them into open warfare.

Christians told Reuters that 15 unopposed Israeli soldiers had taken up positions in their village on Sunday and fired automatic weapons for 90 minutes into the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh. Such incidents had happened every two days, both groups said. “We are proud of the consciousness of our people who have confronted these campaigns, rejected such propaganda and not accepted the arms offered,” Mr Karami said.

In Beirut the, Lebanese pound recovered in light trading from a record twoweek plunge to ’close at > 13.70 to the United States dollar.