Lebanon peace hopes suffer

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 8

Lebanon peace hopes suffer

NZPA-Reuter Beirut The closing of Lebanon’s only international airport amid a new wave of violence has again shattered hopes of any early return' to normal life in the warweary country. Shelling from unidentified sources on Thursday wrecked a Boeing 707 airliner. The attack was followed by an indiscriminate bombardment of Beirut’s Christian eastern and Muslim western suburbs. While the Shi’ite Amal movement accused Christian militiamen of being behind the shelling, the latter blamed Palestinian gunners deployed on mountains nearby. The Palestinians categorically denied this. Only one worker was

wounded at the airport, but ten people died in the ensuing artillery bombardment — six in east Beirut and four in the western sector, radio stations reported. An airport spokesman said traffic would remain suspended until further notice. He demanded assurances that no more violent attacks were planned. The destruction of the Middle East Airlines (M.E.A.) plane led to the diversion of all incoming flights to neighbouring countries. It is the first time that the airport, located in west Beirut, has been closed since August, 1985, when shelling wrecked another M.E.A. plane.

The Interior Minister, Abdullah Rassi, strongly condemned the attack,

describing it as “a new chapter in the conspiracy that is activated whenever there is a glimpse of hope.” A diplomat said: “Whenever peace moves are under, way, trouble makers resume their destructive activities to undermine any prospects of restoring normal life to the country.” Mr Rassi was probably referring to intensive efforts launched recently at inter-Arab and local levels to bring about a rapprochement between the Lebanese President,. Amin Gemayel, and the Syrian President, Hafez AI-Assad.

Mr Gemayel has sent envoys to Damascus in the hope of reaching agreement on an agenda for proposed talks between the two leaders.

Official sources said positive results had been expected from such a meeting. The airport attack came a day after a car bomb went off in an east Beirut suburb in an unsuccessful attempt on the life of a former President, Camille Chamoun, in which three of his bodyguards and four passers-by were killed and 41 people wounded.

Another car bomb went off in the Christian town of Zahle yesterday in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley, killing the driver and injuring 14 people. . More than 199,990 people, mostly unconnected with armed rivalries in' Lebanon, have died since civil strife erupted about 12 years ago.