Libanon: Fatah-al-Islam eindelijk verslagen - Palestijns kamp in puin

Na bijna vier maanden heeft het Libanese leger dan eindelijk het radikale Fatah-al-Islam verslagen. Duizenden Libanezen gingen zondag avond de straat op om deze overwinning te vieren. Syrië feliciteerde Libanon met deze overwinning. De gevechten hebben het Palestijnse vluchtelingenkamp waar Fatah-al-Islam zich schuilhield grotendeels verwoest, en de 40.000 inwoners waren gevlucht naar andere, ook reeds overvolle kampen - waar zij maar moesten zien te overleven.

 

Het kwam in niemands hoofd op om dit Libanon aan te rekenen, om te eisen dat het met Fatah-al-Islam praat en een diplomatieke oplossing zoekt waarbij het kamp bespaard had kunnen blijven (Er zijn overigens wel dergelijke pogingen ondernomen). Er is evenmin met grote verontwaardiging gereageerd op de beroerde en rechteloze positie van de Palestijnen in de vluchtelingenkampen. Waarom leven die mensen überhaupt in kampen? Dat is toch je reinste Apartheid? Het zijn voor het overgrote merendeel mensen die zijn geboren en getogen in Libanon, maar niemand windt zich erover op dat ze geen Libanees staatsburgerschap hebben, er geen fatsoenlijke huizen voor ze beschikbaar zijn en ze in een soort ghetto's zitten opgesloten. 

 

Voor de duidelijkheid: ik sta geheel achter de operaties van het Libanese leger tegen Fatah-al-Islam, maar heb sterk de indruk dat het lot van de Palestijnen veel mensen vooral kwaad maakt als een zeker land ze onderdrukt. 

 

Ratna
 

 

NEWS MIDDLE EAST

Fighting 'over' at Lebanon camp http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F41BDCF3-71E9-4396-84B7-93D058CAE6CC.htm

Lebanese army forces had surrounded the Nahr al-Bared camp for over three months [AFP] The Lebanese army has taken full control of a Palestinian refugee camp where it has been battling Fatah al-Islam fighters for more than three months, the army said.   Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Lebanon, said: "It seems the battles are now over. It seems the Fatah al-Islam officials remaining inside the camp have surrendered." Crowds gathered on the streets on Sunday afternoon with the news that more than three months of fighting had ended, while troops around Nahr al-Bared camp fired celebratory shots into the air. A senior security source told Reuters news agency: "The Lebanese army has seized the last positions of Fatah al-Islam in the camp.   "Most of the terrorists were killed today, the others have been captured. A few might have escaped but the army is hunting them down." More deaths According to the army, Fatah al-Islam fighters attacked their positions while trying to escape the camp in northern Lebanon early on Sunday. Lebanese troops killed at least 31 fighters. Twenty-three more fighters from the Fatah al-Islam group, 12 of them wounded, were captured when they attempted to break out of Nahr al-Bared. The refugee camp was all but destroyed in the fighting [AFP] The army had estimated that 35 active fighters remained in the camp before Sunday, but it was unclear whether all had tried to flee, the security source said. The fighting has been Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war, killing more than 300 people. Five soldiers were also killed on Sunday, raising the army death toll to 157. At least 131 Fatah al-Islam fighters and 42 civilians have been killed. Khodr said some army sources had told her that Shaker al-Abssi, Fatah al-Islam's leader, may have escaped during the fighting. "Army sources say that Shaker al-Abssi has managed to escape and that eight other Fatah al-Islam fighters are on the run," she said.   "Some sources say the fighters wore army uniform, launched an attack and maybe diverted the army [during which time] the leadership managed to escape." However, Khodr also said that other sources from the Lebanese army told her al-Abssi had been killed during the battles. Outside attack Sunday's clashes were sparked when fighters from outside the camp drove up to an army checkpoint on the eastern edge of the camp and fired at soldiers, along with fighters inside, an army source said. Fighters also attacked another checkpoint at the southern edge of the camp. Security forces launched a search operation and the area around the camp was cordoned off. The road that links Tripoli to Syria was closed to traffic and army checkpoints were set up on other roads throughout the region, including the main highway to Beirut, Lebanon's capital. Khodr, said that the checkpoints were stationed every 10 to 12 kilometres along the Beirut-Tripoli highway.  A security source said the army was concentrating its search in Ayun al-Samak, a village about 5km east of Nahr al-Bared.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

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