[News] Lebanon - End military siege of our camp

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10246.shtml

Refugees to prime minister: End military siege of our camp

Open letter, Residents of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, 27 January 2009

[]

A Lebanese soldier stands near destroyed homes and shops in the Nahr 
al-Bared refugee camp. (Hugh Macleod/IRIN)

While Lebanese officials were publicly denouncing Israel's war on the 
Palestinians of Gaza, the Lebanese cabinet was busy making sure the 
Palestinians of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon never recover 
from the war waged on their community more than a year ago. For more 
than three months, the Lebanese army fought the Fatah al-Islam group 
that had infiltrated the camp. On 16 January 2009, the cabinet 
approved a decision to build a naval base in the area. The decision 
was met with stern opposition by the people of Nahr al-Bared who 
wrote a letter of protest addressed to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora 
and his ministers. The letter was published in two major Lebanese 
newspapers, As-Safir and Al-Akhbar, but has triggered little 
follow-up reaction in the press so far.

Al-Akhbar's Ghassan Saoud says the people in the camp these days are 
weary of criticizing the Lebanese army out loud but more convinced 
than ever that there is no will to rebuild the camp and properly 
resettle its inhabitants. According to Saoud, people point to four 
developments that seem to dim any chances of full reconstruction and 
rehabilitation of the camp: the continued lack of adequate financial 
funds for reconstruction; the call by most officials with the United 
Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) for people to "get used 
to" the contemporary homes currently set up in the camp; the 
distribution of returned refugees into isolated spots in the camp 
that prevents the revival of a closely-knit community; and the 
continued siege of the camp by the Lebanese army that suffocates the 
prospects of economic revival. The decision to build a base can only 
exacerbate the last condition. The letter is clear about the 
detrimental effect of such a siege. The following is a translation of 
the Arabic-language letter published by Al-Akhbar on Saturday, 24 
January 2009:

Mr. Prime Minister the Honorable Fouad Siniora,
Honorable Ministers,

We, the residents of Nahr al-Bared, are addressing this letter to you 
to vehemently protest the Lebanese cabinet's latest decision on 16 
January 2009 to build a naval base on the shores of the Nahr al-Bared 
refugee camp. We also wish to protest earlier decisions to establish 
a land military base in the area of Nahr al-Bared.

Are you not aware that the land that you earlier agreed to build a 
military base on is situated near the UNRWA's elementary and 
intermediate schools? And that the same piece of land is in a 
residential area and used to be a soccer field, the only sports venue 
in the camp and its surroundings?

And do you know that prior to the battle with Fatah al-Islam, one of 
the tracts of land slated for the naval base used to house two 
wedding halls? These wedding halls were an important outlet that 
hosted celebrations symbolizing coexistence between us and our sister 
communities and neighbors in the [areas of] Mahmara and Haneen and 
al-Abdeh and the Akkar plain.

Can you explain to us why, after our homes were destroyed and we lost 
our belongings in a battle we had no hand in, we are being rewarded 
with military bases?

Is the aim of reconstruction to replace a site of celebration and fun 
and a dignified existence with that of military and naval bases?

How do you expect us after returning to our destroyed camp following 
a three month battle to make sense of the looting and burning that 
our houses were subjected to?

For despite the slogans heralding the return of the rule of law, we 
do not see any legal actions or retribution initiated against the 
perpetrators of these crimes that took place on the army's watch. 
Security is not achieved through setting up military and naval and 
land bases and army and internal security offices in the absence of 
transparency and the respect of law and people's rights.

You asked us -- during the war and after -- to share the 
responsibility and we evacuated our homes to facilitate the army's 
execution of its duty. Why is our camp under siege with the erection 
of cement walls and barbed wire and where we are barred from entry or 
exit except though military checkpoints and using permits issued 
exclusively by the army's intelligence services? And why is the media 
barred from entering the camp?

Are you aware, Mr. Prime Minister and ministers, that due to this 
cordoning imposed on the camp, trade has come to a standstill and our 
links to the Lebanese surroundings that reflected exemplary relations 
of coexistence have been severed? Today, Lebanese sellers and buyers 
avoid the camp due to the humiliation of waiting and wasting time at 
army checkpoints at the gates of the camp or due to having to obtain 
an entry permit from the army's intelligence office. Under these 
terms, the meager economic aid of donor nations is useless because 
economic activity is paralyzed due to the complicated security 
measures in place.

Do you realize, Mr. Prime Minister, that until now and 17 months 
after the end of the battle, reconstruction efforts of the three 
hundred buildings in the new [area of the] camp has gone nowhere as a 
result of the unjust law prohibiting Palestinians from owning land or 
real estate? And do you know that until today, we are not allowed to 
return to our homes situated near the old [area of the] camp?

We also object to your request to finance a project for a "societal 
police" of internal security worth 5 million dollars as part of 
rebuilding the camp, a request you made without our knowledge or consent.

Mr. Prime Minister and Ministers,

You, who are opposed to the siege of Gaza and the crazy war launched 
on it, why don't you support this same people [the Palestinian] in 
Lebanon by granting it a dignified existence without military 
constraints and laws prohibiting the right to work or own or even 
bequeath property to one's descendants.

We thought we were partners and refused to believe in a conspiracy 
theory that claimed the destruction of the camp was intended to allow 
for the building of naval and land military bases. However, we have 
no choice but offer a negative reading of the situation of inhumanity 
and humiliation we live in.

Having expressed our opinion and spoken of our reality and the 
unbearable conditions being forced upon us, we shall assume that you 
are now aware of it.
And so we kindly urge you to review the condition of this camp and to 
remove all military manifestations on its ground. We also urge you to 
remove the barbed wire and barriers and to facilitate the movement of 
people and the return of normal civilian life to its former state.

We also hope that you revisit the decisions issued in relation to 
Nahr al-Bared camp after its destruction in light of the difficult 
times that all Palestinians are going through, and we beseech you to 
place military and naval bases far from Palestinian and Lebanese 
schools and neighborhoods.

Translation and introduction by Hicham Safieddine, a Lebanese 
Canadian journalist who contributes the regular Electronic Lebanon 
feature Meet the Lebanese Press.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20090127/dce6d5f4/attachment.htm>