DATE=8/9/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=LEBANON / DEPLOYMENT (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-265283
BYLINE=LISA BRYANT
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A Lebanese security force of one-thousand
soldiers and police are in position alongside U-N
peacekeepers in south Lebanon. Their presence marks
the first time Lebanese troops have entered the area
in two decades. Lisa Bryant reports Lebanese
residents gave them a joyous welcome.
TEXT: Women, children, and old men gathered to greet
the Lebanese security force as it arrived in southern
Lebanon. Residents hung out Lebanese flags, and
showered the troops with flowers and rice, a
traditional sign of welcome in the country.
Women and children clapped and cheered the arriving
troops, shouting, Ahlan wa Sahlan, which means welcome
in Arabic.
Some tearful residents told local news agencies they
had stayed up all night to greet the Lebanese force.
They said they were proud and happy that Lebanese
troops had finally returned to south Lebanon, after
22-years of Israeli occupation.
Lebanese troops and police left Beirut at dawn,
heading south in tanks and jeeps. Many took over
barracks abandoned by Israel's South Lebanon Army
militia.
Although Israeli troops withdrew from the region in
May, deployment of both the Lebanese troops and U-N
peacekeepers was delayed by Lebanese complaints of
Israeli border violations. The security void has been
filled by members of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance
movement.
But last week, hundreds of U-N peacekeepers were
dispatched along Lebanon's southern border with
Israel. About five-thousand U-N troops are patrolling
southern Lebanon.
Israel says it will hold Lebanon directly responsible
for any clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Lebanese and other Arabs hurl stones, and the
occasional gasoline bomb almost daily across the
border at Israeli troops. Israeli soldiers respond by
shooting rubber - and sometimes real - bullets.
But the Lebanese government says it is the
responsibility of the United Nations - not Lebanon -
to patrol the border. At the moment, U-N troops are
posted about a kilometer from the Israeli-Lebanese
border. The United Nations says it needs Beirut's
agreement to patrol the border zone. (SIGNED)
NEB/LB/GE/RAE
09-Aug-2000 10:06 AM EDT (09-Aug-2000 1406 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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