Beirut camps truce begins

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 10

Beirut camps truce begins

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Calm prevailed yesterday around two blockaded Palestinian refugee camps in southern Beirut as the deadline for a Syriansponsored ceasefire passed, witnesses said. The devastated camps have been the scene of battles for the last five months ranging from daily sniping to artillery duels in which nearly 900 people have died. Syria mediated the ceasefire between the Shi’ite Muslim Amal mili-

tla, which rings the camps, and a pro-Syrian Palestinian guerrilla front "We have big hopes of implementing the agreement because Syria is exerting pressure,” said a Palestine National Salvation Front (P.N.S.F.) source. On Sunday, cheering Palestinian children at Bourj el-Barajneh camp welcomed six truckloads of Kuwaiti-donated food, clothes and medical supplies that Syrian military observers watched enter-

ing the camp. More Kuwaiti supplies were due to be delivered last evening to the nearby Shatila camp despite an apparent difference between the P.N.S.F. and Amal over the interpretation of the ceasefire accord. Amal said: “Lifting the camps sieges must be accompanied by a Palestinian withdrawal from positions south-east of Sidon.” But a P.N.S.F. spokesman, Ahmed Zaatari, said no agreements about the

positions near Sidon had been reached. Mr Zaatari said food would be allowed into Shatila and women and children would be allowed to leave both camps to buy food. It was also unclear whether all Palestinian factions had agreed to the Syrian move, the first serious “camps war” ceasefire initiative since February. Guerrillas loyal to Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman, Yasser Arafat, who con-

trol most of the positions east of Sidon, were not reported present at the truce talks. Amal officials made the agreement with the P.N.S.F. leader, Abu Maher al-Yamani, at a west Beirut meeting chaired by Brigadier Ghazi Kanaan, Syria’s chief of military intelligence in Lebanon. Camps war fighting has flared intermittently since 1985 as Amal, with Syrian backing, has tried to control a resurgence in Palestine guerrilla power.