Lebanese fight for position

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 6

Lebanese fight for position

NZPA-Reuter Beirut About 12 people were killed and many wounded in heavy fighting among rival Christian militiamen in east Beirut as President Amin Gemaye! began decisive peace talks in Damascus, Syria. Witnesses said they saw at least five people shot in street battles between the main Christian “Lebanese Forces” militia and fighters loyal to Mr Gemayel. The clashes, with rifles, anti-tank grenades and machine-guns, flared hours before Mr Gemayel left for talks with the Syrian President, Hafez al Assad. Political sources in Damascus said Mr Assad and Mr Gemayel had discussed a Syrian-brokered

peace pact and the position of some Christian leaders who oppose it The talks follow mounting pressure on Mr Gemayel to back the pact which seeks to end Lebanon’s 10-year-old war. Militia sources said the fighting was initiated by the commander of the “Lebanese Forces,” Elie Hobeika, to isolate Gemayel loyalists and consolidate his position as spokesman for the Christian community in the Damascus peace drive. The leader of the 'Christian Falange Party loyal to Mr Gemayel, Elie Karameh said that the Falangists’ battle “was not with the Lebanese Forces but with a faction that was threatening the Christian presence.” Hobeika, the Druse

leader, Walid Jumblatt, and the Muslim Shi’ite militia leader, Nabih Bern, signed the accord in Damascus on December 28 to end hostilities and change the political system that now favours Christians. A pall of black smoke hung over the Lebanese capital as fighting set the city’s main petrol depot ablaze. Fearing a fuel shortage, motorists in Muslim west Beirut formed long queues at petrol stations and residents said there was a bread shortage. Beirut’s main flour depots are in the east. ' The police said two crossings across the “green line” battle front between east and west Beirut were still open, but few people moved from one sector to another because of the battles. Witnesses said heavilyarmed Christian militiamen roamed, the streets in some

of the heaviest fighting to hit eastern Beirut for several years. The peace pact has divided the Christian leadership, splitting it between Mr Gemayel, Hobeika and Hobeika’s hardline chief of staff, Samir Geagea.