DATE=5/27/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SOUTH LEBANON (L/O)
NUMBER=2-262891
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=KFAR KILA, LEBANON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Israeli border guards fired into the air to
disperse stone-throwing youths who were among
thousands of people who flocked to southern Lebanon
(eds: Saturday) to celebrate the end of a two-decades
of Israeli occupation. Middle East Correspondent
Scott Bobb reports from the border town of Kfar Kila
that the incident came as U-N peacekeepers moved to
demarcate the border between the two countries and
establish a new monitoring post.
TEXT: // SOUND OF STONES HITTING BUILDING, TALKING,
HORNS //
Young Lebanese hurled stones across the tall fence at
Kfar Kila, striking the tin Israeli post a few meters
away, on the other side of the border. Others chanted
anti-Israeli slogans while hundreds of motorists drove
by honking their horns and waving flags of the
Hezbollah resistance movement.
The Israeli guards for the most part remained out of
sight but on several occasions fired into the air when
the youths came to close.
// ACT OF ELDER MAN IN ARABIC //
An elderly man tried to stop the stone throwers
telling them that the troops across the fence were not
the guilty ones, but rather their leaders who had
ordered the 22-year occupation in which several
thousand people are believed to have been killed.
// ACT. OF ELDERLY WOMAN IN ARABIC //
An elderly lady, unable to contain her emotion, railed
against the leader of the South Lebanon militia that
was allied with the Israeli forces. The militia
collapsed a few days ago, precipitating the
withdrawal.
A few dozen kilometers away on a hill looking towards
Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights, hundreds of
Lebanese visited the prison of Khiam, which was
abandoned by the southern militia a few days ago. The
grim prison yard at times seemed like a park, as
entire families strolled its hard scrabble grounds on
their weekend outing.
Children cavorted in abandoned trucks while their
mothers covered their noses and went to peer into
dank cellblocks where many relatives and acquaintances
had been jailed.
A former prisoner, Salah Mohamed Haidar, described the
year he spent in Khiam prison in 1986.
// ACT. OF HAIDAR IN ARABIC WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION
//
The tortures they use here, nobody uses them.
Electricity. They tortured us a lot here. See on
my hands, here, where they tortured me with
electricity.
// END ACT. //
Many visitors were overcome with emotion as they
looked at a list of prison guards and torturers. Most
of the guards are among the estimated six thousand
militia members who have fled to Israel. Nearly one
thousand others have surrendered to Lebanese
authorities, hoping for leniency.
Members of the Lebanese police are now on duty in the
larger towns and cities, but the Lebanese military is
rarely seen. It awaits a certification by U-N
peacekeepers that Israel has indeed withdrawn from all
Lebanese territory before it is to begin deploying in
the south. (Signed)
NEB/SB/PT
27-May-2000 19:11 PM EDT (27-May-2000 2311 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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