LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
APRIL 20/2006

Below news from miscellaneous sources for 20/04/06
UN details Syrian pressure on Lebanon election-Reuters
UN urges Lebanon to disband militia, set borders-Reuters
UN to see Syria's Assad over Hariri murder in days-Reuters.uk
Annan urges Syria to accept Lebanon's outstretched hand

UN urges Lebanon, Syria to set borders-Aljazeera.net
Siniora Says Iraq Resembles Lebanon Civil War, Urges Arab Role-Bloomberg

Hezbollah Links Plot to Clashes in Iraq-Herald News Daily
Iran's Hezbollah threatens Turkey if aided US attack online - Turkey
Lebanon central bank seeks to recover $163M frozen by US court-MarketWatch

Syria and CIA's little secret-Washington Times
Lebanon's Hizbollah dismisses UN demand to disarm-Scotsman
Foes of Syrian leaders no friends of the US-San Francisco Chronicle
Lebanon's Sri Lankan maids tell their story-Aljazeera.net - Qatar
Syria plans to double gas production-United Press International

UN tells Lebanon, Syria to set borders
Wednesday 19 April 2006
The UN has urged the Syrian and Lebanese governments to take urgent steps to delineate their border.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, said on Tuesday that Lebanon must set its borders with Syria and disband Hizbollah before it could be master of its own nation. In turn, Syria should take up Beirut's offer of establishing diplomatic relations as well as demarcating the entire 250km boundary between the two countries, Annan said in the report. "A united Lebanon has offered an out-stretched hand to Syria," Annan said. "I call on Syria to accept this offer and undertake measures, in particular, to establish embassies and delineate the border between Syria and Lebanon."The 23-page report, prepared by Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy, is a response to Security Council resolution 1559 of September 2004 that called for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and for Lebanon to disarm militia, so the Beirut government could control the entire country.
Syria and Lebanon have not had embassies on each other's territory since 1920.Damascus says its many bilateral ties rather than embassies suffice for the present.
National dialogue
In his third bi-annual report to the UN Security Council, Terje Roed-Larsen welcomed the recent agreements sealed as part of the inter-Lebanese National Dialogue. "With the agreements unanimously reached in the National Dialogue and their initiative to work pro-actively and constructively with the Syrian Arab Republic, a united Lebanon has offered an out-stretched hand to Syria," he noted. He urged them to agree on demarcating the border along the so-called Shebaa Farms, a small mountainous territory at the convergence of the Lebanese-Syrian-Israeli borders.Israel captured Shebaa Farms from Syria in 1967
Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and it is claimed by Lebanon with Damascus's consent. The UN regards the Shebaa Farms as Syrian territory. Roed-Larsen also made "an urgent call for the full implementation" of the Taif Agreement, named from the Saudi city of Taif where it was signed in 1989, which calls for the dismantling of all Lebanese and foreign militias operating in Lebanon and the delivery of their weapons to Lebanese authorities."I also urgently call on all parties who have the ability to influence [the Lebanese Shia group] Hezbollah and other militias to support the full implementation of resolution 1559," Roed-Larsen said. He also pointed to the concern expressed by the Security Council about "movements of arms and people into Lebanese territory" and pressed Damascus to take steps to halt such movements.
Agencies

Annan urges Syria to accept Lebanon's outstretched hand
19/04/2006 - 07:20:04 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Syria to accept the outstretched hand of a united Lebanon and move quickly to determine the border between the two countries and establish an embassy in Beirut to help promote Lebanon’s sovereignty and political independence. Lebanon’s journey into a new era of its history following last year’s departure of Syrian troops is still fragile, but the country has made “further significant progress” in the last six months, Annan said in a New York report yesterday.

UN to see Syria's Assad over Hariri murder in days
Wed Apr 19, 2006 -DAMASCUS (Reuters) - U.N. investigators are expected to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as early as Friday to discuss Syria's alleged role in the killing of a Lebanese former prime minister, Western diplomats and a Baath Party official said. The team, led by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, will also interview Vice President Farouq al-Shara, who was foreign minister when Rafik al-Hariri and 22 others were killed in a lorry bomb in Beirut on Feb 14, 2005, they said on Wednesday. "We are hearing that the meeting will finally take place in the next few days," one diplomat said. It would be the first time U.N. investigators are known to have met Assad since the Hariri inquiry began. Syrian government officials refused to comment, saying they were bound by a deal with Brammertz not to leak information. A U.N. spokeswoman in Beirut said: "Mr Brammertz said... that the Syrians had agreed to meet with the commission during the month of April ... but we do not comment on his movements." Assad, who has repeatedly denied Syrian involvement in the killing, said last month he had agreed to meet Brammertz in April and that the investigators were free to ask anything. A U.N. report issued by Brammertz's predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, last year implicated senior Syrian security officials in the killing of Hariri and said Syria was impeding the inquiry. But a follow-up report by Brammertz in March said groundwork had been laid for better cooperation with Damascus, though it did not clear the Syrian authorities. "The meetings will be separate; Brammertz took his time because he knows this is his major chance to meet with the president," an official in the ruling Baath party told Reuters, referring to the planned talks with Assad and Shara. Assad has said any Syrian official found involved in the plot to kill Hariri will be punished for treason. The Hariri assassination raised international pressure on Syria, forcing it to withdraw its forces from Lebanon after a 29-year presence, amid mass street protests in Beirut. It also worsened Syria's relationship with the United States, which imposed sanctions on Damascus in 2004 for what it said was Syrian support for terrorism. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is seeking to establish an international tribunal that would probably be located outside Lebanon to try suspects in the assassination, among whom are four Lebanese security officials arrested in Lebanon last year.(Additional reporting by Lin Noueihed in Beirut)

UN details Syrian pressure on Lebanon election
19 Apr 2006 20 Reuters:
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, April 19 (Reuters) - Syria threatened Lebanese parliamentarians and gave them "direct instructions" to ensure President Emile Lahoud a third term in office, according to a report by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Lahoud, a staunch ally of Syria, has clung to power despite calls for his resignation. Annan's report, circulated late on Tuesday, gives further details on the pressure Damascus allegedly put on Lebanese legislators two years ago.
Syria has strongly denied all the allegations, the report said. A change in Lebanon's constitution in September 2004 enabled Lahoud to assume a second three-year term and prompted Security Council Resolution 1559, which demanded that Syrian troops leave Lebanon and not interfere in its internal affairs. But Annan noted little progress on calls for new elections, with several sessions of Lebanon's Council of Ministers canceled or postponed due to controversies over Lahoud's presence. In a footnote, U.N. special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, who prepared the U.N. Security Council report as a follow-up to resolution 1559, said he spoke to 11 Lebanese parliamentarians. Most said they had been subjected to "pressures and threats" from Syrian and Lebanese security to ratify the law extending Lahoud's term. "The vast majority of the MPs asserted that they had received direct instructions from Syria's military intelligence in Lebanon," and were told that failure to comply "might jeopardize Lebanon's security and stability, and that they might put their personal security at risk," the report said. "A number of parliamentarians further recounted conversations with former Prime Minister Hariri, who had confirmed the instructions and, when doing so, had referred to endangerment of his own life if the extension did not pass successfully in parliament," it added. Syria, which entered Lebanon in 1976 to quell a civil war, pulled its troops out a year ago after the killing of Hariri and 22 others, which many blamed on Damascus but which it denies. The murders resulted in mass anti-Syrian demonstrations and led to a U.N. investigation into the death of Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005. The parliamentarians contended the voting instructions were conveyed by Syria's military intelligence chief in Lebanon, or by the chief of Syrian intelligence's Beirut branch, the report

UN urges Lebanon to disband militia, set borders
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, April 19 (Reuters) - Lebanon must set its borders with Syria and disband the Hizbollah militia before it can be master of its own nation, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
In turn, Syria should take up Beirut's offer of establishing diplomatic relations as well as demarcating the entire 160-mile (250-km) boundary between the two countries, Annan said in the report obtained by Reuters late on Tuesday.
"A united Lebanon has offered an out-stretched hand to Syria," Annan said. "I call on Syria to accept this offer and undertake measures, in particular, to establish embassies and delineate the border between Syria and Lebanon."
The 23-page report, prepared by U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, is a response to Security Council resolution 1559 of September 2004 that called for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and for Lebanon to disarm militia so the Beirut government could control the entire country. Syria and Lebanon have not had embassies on each other's territory since Western powers carved the two states out of the remnants of the Ottoman empire in 1920. Damascus says its many bilateral ties rather than embassies suffice for the present. Damascus, which entered Lebanon in 1976 to quell a civil war, pulled its troops out a year ago after the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 22 others, which many blamed on Syria but which it denies. The murders resulted in mass anti-Syrian demonstrations.
Since Roed-Larsen's last report six months ago, Lebanese political leaders have initiated a national dialogue to resolve long-simmering disputes, which the report called "a truly historic and unprecedented event."
RESISTANCE AND BORDERS
The Iran-supported Hizbollah, whose attacks helped end Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, has made no move to disband and join the Lebanese army. Hizbollah's existence is linked directly to the border controversy, with the militia maintaining it provides resistance against a strip of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, known as the Shebaa farms.
The United Nations, using dozens of maps, say Shebaa is part of Syria but the two nations were free to change the border, which they have not. "Its current status as Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, does, however, remain valid unless and until the Governments of Lebanon and Syria take steps under international law to alter that status," Annan said. Syria has proposed delineating the joint border in five stages, but has said that boundaries in occupied areas could not be set until a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement. In February, 12 trucks of ammunition and Katyusha rockets crossed the border from Syria, with the Lebanese army saying they were necessary for Hizbollah resistance forces. But Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, a member of the country's anti-Syrian coalition, who is now visiting Washington before meeting Annan, told Roed-Larsen he would control further arms transfers and none "have occurred since," the report said. The national dialogue sessions are also to decide what to do about President Emile Lahoud, a staunch ally of Syria, who has clung to office despite pressure to resign. A change in the constitution to enable him to assume a third term prompted the Security Council's resolution 1559.
The report noted little progress on new elections, with several meetings of Lebanon's Council of Ministers canceled or postponed due to controversies over Lahoud.

Hezbollah Links Plot to Clashes in Iraq
Staff and agencies 15 April, 2006
By HAMZA HENDAWI, BEIRUT, Lebanon - A senior Hezbollah official said nine men charged with plotting to assassinate the Shiite Muslim group‘s leader wanted to avenge killings of fellow Sunnis in Iraq , an ominous sign that the sectarian bloodshed may be spilling over into the region.  Government officials declined Saturday to confirm the report, but such a spillover would be particularly worrisome in Lebanon, where a fragile balance among Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and other sects is already under strain from tensions over relations with neighboring Syria . "We don‘t seek a vendetta and we don‘t seek revenge," he told thousands of supporters in a suburb south of Beirut while urging all Lebanese to work together on "civil peace, coexistence and state-building." "Salafists" is the term used for radical Sunni Muslims who follow a strict interpretation of Islam and view Shiites as heretics. They are blamed for most of the bombings, kidnappings and killings targeted at Iraq‘s Shiites. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq‘s most wanted terrorist, are considered Salafists. Nasrallah has had little direct connection to the conflict in Iraq, which has been strained by a cycle of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis in recent weeks. Shiites are a minority in most Arab states, but they are a majority in Iraq, and the defeat of Saddam Hussein ‘s Sunni-led regime has intensified tensions over the religious rift as Shiites there have gained power. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak angered Shiites across the region recently by saying they are more loyal to Shiite-dominated Iran than their own Arab nations. Tensions already are at levels not seen since the end of the war because of last year‘s assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, a Sunni. Many Sunnis and Christians blame neighboring Syria, while Hezbollah and other Shiite groups are Syria‘s closest allies here.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the country‘s top Shiite cleric, insisted in an AP interview this week that Shiite-Sunni violence in Iraq would not shake "the realities on the ground between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon."
"A main challenge for Hezbollah is to win over the Sunnis," he said. "Hezbollah believes that winning over everyone in Lebanon and not the Sunnis would amount to nothing."
**Zeina Karam contributed to this report.

Iran’s Hezbollah threatens Turkey if aided US attack
18/04/2006 15:11:04 Geri dön gönder yazıcı
Iran’s Hezbollah leader Seyyed Mohammad Bager Kharrazi yesterday said, "If the US strikes Iran, we will stage suicide attacks on US targets throughout the world and if Turkey cooperates with the US, we will also take Turkey as a target."
Speaking to news channel NTV, Kharrazi said, "If the US uses bases in Turkey and gets help from Turkey, we also attack Turkey. We’ll fight back no matter who helps Iran’s attacker."

Lebanon central bank seeks to recover $163M frozen by US court
Apr 18, 2006 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Lebanon's central bank, the Banque du Liban or BDL, is seeking to recover $162.91 million of its assets frozen by a U.S. federal court, according to court documents. The BDL's director of the foreign exchange and intrernational operations, Naaman Nadour, claimed its assets have been "improvidently restrained," according to the documents. The BDL said the funds are in "legal limbo" and contended that they should be "absolutely immune" from proceedings in New York's Southern District Federal Court. BDL deposited $81 million under a three-month dollar deposit made Jan. 12 with French bank IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank, which in turn uses Deutsche Bank (DB) as its correspondent bank in New York. BDL made a further one-week deposit of $81 million with IXIS on April 12.
The cash was frozen by the court at the request of Lebanon mobile telephone operator Libancell, which wants the Lebanese government to pay $265 million awarded to the firm by an arbitration panel in July 2005.
The arbitration panel awarded Libancell the amount to settle a dispute over a contract to build, operate and transfer a mobile telecommunications network. BDL is demanding the assets be excluded from the court order and that it be compensated for lost interest, according to the documents. Judge Harold Baer was scheduled to hear arguments later Tuesday.
The case has also disrupted Lebanon's plans to exchange outstanding bonds due later this year with new bonds priced April 6.
On Tuesday, Lebanon said it now plans to issue up to EUR800 million of Eurobonds via Bank Audi, Byblos bank, Fransabank and Bank Med, according to a term sheet provided by a fund manager Tuesday. Bank Med was also a lead manager for the April 6 bond issue. The Eurobonds will be fungible with the bonds priced April 6, and the new issue carries identical maturities and coupons, according to the term sheet. -Contact: 201-938-5400

Syria and CIA's little secret
By F. Michael Maloof -April 19, 2006
The Central Intelligence Agency and Syria share a dirty little secret. It flows from a special relationship that has masked knowledge and possible involvement with individuals directly associated with the hijackers who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. Those individuals were members of al Qaeda, living in Hamburg, Germany. The startling thing is that these al Qaeda members also belonged to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members escaped to Hamburg, Germany, and other destinations throughout Europe after the late Syrian President Hafez Assad murdered some 20,000 of them in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982.
After September 11, the CIA had praised Syria for its help in the war on terror. There is some indication, however, that Syria conned CIA into thinking it was sincere on the war on terror by purposely training al Qaeda members only to turn them over to the United States. Nevertheless, the CIA jealously covets its direct ties through the Syrian intelligence service that may reach to Bashar Assad's brother Maher who regards Bashar as weak. Maher was closely allied with other Syrian elements who opposed Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon. Through Maher, who represents the Old Guard opposed to any reforms in Syria, the CIA maintains ties with Syrian intelligence elements still in Lebanon. This helps maintain CIA influence on events in Lebanon and keeps open its links into Syria itself. After ouster of Iraq's Saddam Hussein in March 2003, the CIA and Syrian relationship had begun to sour following charges Syria harbored Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and fleeing Iraqi officials. This prompted former CIA Director George Tenet in October 2003 to pay a secret visit to Syria in an effort to mend fences.
Despite Bush administration pressure on Syria to stop insurgents from heading to Iraq to battle U.S. forces, a quiet relationship between Syria and the CIA continues. This also is manifested through the U.S. Embassy in Jordan and known contract workers and consultants who have since retired from the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. They not only travel frequently to Syria and Lebanon. They also maintain contacts with individuals associated with the Lebanese Embassy in Washington. In Hamburg, Germany, where the September 11 hijackers planned their attack on the United States, the CIA had a history of contacts with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, which opposed the Syrian regime. Such ties began as early as 1986. Former CIA operative Bob Baer refers to this initiative in his book "Sleeping With the Devil."
However, German investigators believe Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members in Hamburg actually may have acted as double-agents for the Syrian intelligence service.
At least one Hamburg area company is believed to have been a front for the Syrian intelligence service, notwithstanding its Syrian Muslim Brotherhood connection. This concern is strengthened by the fact a former director of the Syrian intelligence service is a shareholder of the Hamburg company owned by a Syrian Muslim Brotherhood member.
German officials also believe Syrian intelligence tried to control the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members in Hamburg, including those who would become the September 11 hijackers. Prior to September 11, a known CIA operative obtained information from federal German counterterrorism officials monitoring the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members. Such information had been coming into CIA since before 1999. The information collected also involved activities at the Hamburg apartment where At the same time, the CIA operative was in contact with Hamburg's counterintelligence officials who also were observing the same individuals. Without the knowledge of German counterintelligence officials, the CIA tried to recruit some of these Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members who also belonged to al Qaeda. This development created a strain between German officials and the CIA. From 1999 to 2001, the CIA operative's reports based on interviews with German counterterrorism and counterintelligence officials were relayed to CIA headquarters. Defense Department policymakers never were made aware of these reports' contents prior to or after September 11. It is apparent the CIA and the Syrians know more than what has been revealed to date. It will be imperative to learn what they knew and when they knew it, including possible attack plans.
**F. Michael Maloof is a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Defense Secretary.

Lebanon's Hizbollah dismisses UN demand to disarm
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hizbollah dismissed on Wednesday a new United Nations report asking Lebanon to disarm the guerrilla group and set its borders with Syria as pandering to Israeli demands. The report, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday and prepared by U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, was in response to Security Council resolution 1559, which demands foreign troops leave Lebanon and all militias in the country disband. "Terje Roed-Larsen ... tries to meet the demands of the Israeli agenda through the Lebanese gate," Ali Ammar, one of pro-Syrian Hizbollah's 14 parliament members, told LBC Television.
Hizbollah and Israel have clashed sporadically in the Israeli-occupied border territory of Shebaa Farms, which Israel considers Syrian land. Hizbollah considers it Lebanese. The Jewish state believes Hizbollah is a terrorist organisation and wants it disarmed.In Tuesday's report U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Lebanon must set its borders with Syria and disband Hizbollah before it could be master of its own nation. In turn, he said, Syria should take up Lebanon's offer of establishing diplomatic relations as well as demarcating the entire 160-mile (250-km) boundary between the two countries. Syria said in April it was still premature to establish diplomatic ties with Beirut. It has also refused to demarcate the border.
"From our point of view, resolution 1559 has been implemented and there is nothing left of it. If it is about elections, the elections took place and produced constitutional institutions," Ammar said. "If it is about the Syrian forces, they have left Lebanon. The remaining files, well all the Lebanese are agreed that they are domestic Lebanese files."
Damascus, which entered Lebanon in 1976 to quell the war, pulled its troops out a year ago after the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Many Lebanese blamed the murder on Syria, but Damascus has denied any role.
Since Roed-Larsen's last report six months ago, Lebanese political leaders have initiated national talks to resolve long-simmering disputes including what to do about Hizbollah's arms, and the latest report praised the talks as "historic".
But while top Lebanese politicians have already asked Syria to set up diplomatic ties and agreed that the Shebaa Farms border area is Lebanese, the dialogue, due to resume on April 28, has yet to make progress on Hizbollah. The issue of Hizbollah's arms is linked to the border controversy, with the group vowing to liberate the Shebaa Farms, which the United Nations considers Israeli-occupied Syrian land. The group, whose attacks were vital to end Israel's occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, says it is willing to discuss its weapons domestically but will not disarm under international pressure.

Foes of Syrian leaders no friends of the U.S.
Activists regard both governments as enemies of freedom
Phil Sands, Chronicle Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 19, 2006: Damascus, Syria -- For the last 40 years, Haitham Maleh has fought for democracy, freedom and human rights in Syria, openly defying a government he describes as a fascist dictatorship. Such views landed the 74-year-old former judge in prison for seven years in the 1980s. Still closely monitored by the state's security services, he has been forbidden since 2003 to leave the country. Maleh, who now works as an attorney, might seem a logical ally of the United States, which since the invasion of neighboring Iraq has put heavy pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to reform his authoritarian government. But in an interview at his Damascus office, Maleh -- a founder of Human Rights Association Syria and a representative of Amnesty International -- accused the United States of undermining the cause of democracy and domestic opposition groups because of its actions next door in Iraq. "What happened in Iraq has been a perfect excuse for the (Assad) regime," he said in his slightly accented English, adding a warning that he assumed his office was bugged. "It says, 'Look at the chaos in Iraq. If we bow to America or outside pressure to reform, we will have the same mayhem and violence here.' " Syria has been under unprecedented international pressure since the assassination of former Lebanese President Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005. A preliminary U.N. report implicated Syria's state security apparatus, and Assad was forced to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon after three decades of occupation. Assad, who pledged reforms upon coming to power in 2000, reacted by suppressing democracy advocates who had, for a short time, felt emboldened during the so-called Damascus Spring, a brief period of intense political and social debate in Syria.
In recent weeks, a number of high-profile human rights campaigners have been arrested and, according to some, warned to tone down their criticism of the government or face long jail terms. Syrian newspapers that have been covering once-taboo subjects also have been told to steer clear of sensitive topics, such as the role of the security services in Syria. "In terms of human rights, this year is worse than last year," said Maleh. "The situation is going backwards." Since the government crackdown on human rights activists began, there has been an increase in state propaganda, produced by the year-old Syrian Public Relations Agency, or SPRA -- officially a nongovernmental body, but in fact controlled by Nezar Mihoub, director of the Information Ministry's foreign media department. The agency organizes patriotic rallies in support of Assad and sticks firmly to a simple message. "We are very happy in Syria, and we like our president," SPRA manager Haneih Ibrahim said.
According to Marwan Kabalan, a political scientist at the state-supported Center for Strategic Studies at Damascus University, Assad has been successful in consolidating his power, at least temporarily.
"Syria is isolated internationally and has serious economic problems, but the government still retains significant control. It may not be as strong as it was in the past, but it is relatively strong. Even if it gets weaker, I don't think we'll see what the Americans want to see -- a real change in the status quo."
Kabalan said the situation in Iraq had demonstrated to Syria that Washington could not unilaterally bring about changes in governments, giving the authorities breathing space to act as they pleased. "Syrian officials think the Americans are not after regime change here, just after behavior change," he said. "I think that is right -- America has enough problems in Iraq and can't handle another big problem in the Middle East." Maleh said the Bush administration had no credible claim to be a champion of progress in the Middle East.
"How can anyone trust a country that has Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib? If I had to choose between the Syrian regime and the American regime, I couldn't. Both are bad. We have secret intelligence services and people are locked up without trials, with no regard for justice. America has the same," he said. "I had a friend who spent 28 years in a Syrian prison with no trial, nothing. You can compare that to Guantanamo Bay. It's power without restraint. What's the difference between Syrian prisons and these American versions? It's the same thing." A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, when asked about such claims, declined to comment. Ammar Qurabi, at 35 one of the Syrian opposition's newer generation, was equally scathing of both the Syrian and U.S. governments, despite the presence of a government "minder" from the Ministry of Information sitting next to him during an interview and monitoring every word he said. "We are being governed illegally, and even those calling for peaceful democratic change have been put in prison," Qurabi said. His summary of Syria's current situation was concise and damning: "There is corruption, totalitarianism, our lands are occupied, and the economy is collapsing -- we have become a Third World country." He acknowledged Syria's opposition was weak and divided, with limited grassroots support. "Because of all the pressures, people are more concerned about putting food on the table than abstract ideals such as free speech," he said. But Qurabi resolutely declared that the United States did not represent the way forward: "We don't want to follow America. They do not care about the Syrian people or democracy, any more than they care about a nuclear-free Middle East. Their single goal is to serve their own interests."

Syria plans to double gas production
DAMASCUS, Syria, April 19 (UPI) -- Syria has said the country's gas production will be doubled over the next three years.
A news report in the official Al-Ba'th newspaper Tuesday, citing Oil Ministry sources, said the increase in production was possible because of new discoveries by foreign companies. The Oil Ministry plans to build a plant south of the Central Region with a capacity of 6m cu.m. daily, the report said. Another plant will be built in the north of the region. Syria's proven natural gas reserves are estimated at 8.5 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration. In 2003, it produced about 245 Bcf of natural gas, up from 205 Bcf in 2002. The planned production increase is part of Syria's strategy to export most of its oil. Syria's has proven reserves of 2,500 million barrels and in 2004 it was estimated to produce 460,000 barrels per day.

Lebanon's Sri Lankan maids tell their story
By Sophie Claudet
Wednesday 19 April 2006,
Thousands of Sri Lankan women go to work in Lebanon each year
The film Maid in Lebanon is a tale of exile, occasional abuse and even death.
It documents the fate of Sri Lankan women seeking better wages abroad to support their families. The documentary, shot by Carol Mansour, both in her native Lebanon and in Sri Lanka, opens on a hopeful note. Sixteen-year-old Sureika is getting ready to leave for Lebanon, where her $100 monthly wage will support her family back home, pay her dowry and may even put her sister through school. Like all 80,000 Sri Lankan women who have similar jobs in Lebanon, Sureika is checked for HIV, hepatitis B, TB and pregnancy before departure.
She also takes a 12-day course in English, Arabic and local cooking, and gets acquainted with electrical appliances she has never used before - a vacuum cleaner and a blender. Sureika's village has no electricity.
When she arrives in Lebanon she will be asked to clean, cook and probably look after children.
Employer's property
On signing the contract," says a voice-over in the film, "we almost become property of the employer and will work three years without a day off."
Some film viewers remarked on how beautiful Sri Lanka is
Mansour told Aljazeera.net that during her research for the 26-minute film she discovered many examples of mistreatment.
"Some of the maids are actually not paid during the first three months to make up for part of the money their employers paid to the agency that brought them over," she said.
"Employers keep their passport for the duration of their contract."
Sureika may encounter the same fate as another maid, Kumari, who says her first employer locked her up for hours without food.
Kumari, in her twenties, says she had to work for more than a year to pay $2,000 to the Lebanese agency that did her paperwork, in order to get her passport back.
Even then, she ended up going back to Lebanon to support her children, whom she left in the care of her parents.
Lila, too, left her children behind. She sends her salary to her sister rather than to her husband, who has a drinking problem.
She cries when Mansour shows her footage of her daughter in Sri Lanka.
"People here in Lebanon think that $100 salary is a lot of money," says Mansour, "but what they don't know is that families in Sri Lanka are completely dependent on these women."
Success stories
But there are success stories as well, such as Nirosha's.
"Some of the maids are actually not paid during the first three months to make up for part the money their employers paid to the agency that brought them over"
Carol Mansour, director, Maid in Lebanon
Together with her husband, who stayed in Sri Lanka to take care of the family, she is helping to finance the construction of their future home.
Nirosha's employer says she is happy that Nirosha is "doing something with the money".
She is one of the few employers who agreed to appear on camera.
"Some owners [employers] simply did not want to be interviewed," Mansour says. "I felt they knew deep down that what they're doing is wrong. Some would admit off camera that they keep theirs maids locked up at home.
"I knew that there was some abuse going on, but the more I got into the subject, the more I saw how difficult their situation is."
Rape and death
The film also tells the story of abused maids.
While Mansour was shooting, she discovered that most maids do not have a room to sleep in. Some sleep on couches, others in windowless spaces.
"Some owners simply did not want to be interviewed. I felt they knew deep down that what they’re doing is wrong. Some would admit off camera that they keep theirs maids locked up at home"
Mansour
Mansour says the more money an employer has, the more likely they are to abuse their maids.
"Maybe they don't look at them as human beings," she says.
One maid, Sudany, says she was abused by a boy from the family she was working for. Another woman, speaking on condition of anonymity with her face obscured, says she was repeatedly raped by a teenager while working.
A third, who does not give her name but shows her face on camera, tells of physical abuse and humiliation, involving beatings while handcuffed, hair pulling and chopping, as well as threats to throw her off a balcony while being held from the window by her male employer.
Ray Jureidi, a professor of sociology at the American University in Beirut, who is interviewed in the documentary, says: "There seems to be some kind of censorship with regard to abuse and deaths of migrant domestic workers."
Indifference
Two screenings of Mansour's documentary were held in Beirut.
She asked her acquaintances to bring their maids to one of them in November. She says some people were "a bit disturbed" by what they saw.
"But many actually remarked on the beauty of Sri Lanka, how green and lush it is. It goes to show they have no idea about the women they employ," she says.
The film, which was released last summer and funded by Caritas Sweden, the Netherlands Embassy in Beirut and the International Labor Organisation (ILO), is being shown in Lebanon's schools and to other pupils worldwide to create awareness about problems faced by migrant workers.
Hope
"There seems to be some kind of censorship with regard to abuse and deaths of migrant domestic workers"
The ILO said in a statement last week that Lebanon's labour minister had formed a panel to review the labour law and put together a standard contract for domestic workers.
The committee is also drafting a "rights and responsibilities booklet" for maids which should be availabe by May.
Mansour directed other documentaries focusing on socio-economic issues such as child labour.
Her first documentary 100% Asphalt told the story of street children in Cairo and was awarded the Jury's Prize by the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris 2000, and Best Documentary at the Arab Film Festival in Rotterdam and in Sydney.
She recently completed another piece focusing on child labour in Lebanon, entitled Invisible Children.
She says she and the producer of Maid in Lebanon, Cheryl Uys Allie, went back to Sri Lanka last autumn and documented the stories of other women there. She is currently seeking funds to work on a 52-minute version of Maid in Lebanon. Aljazeera

 


Muslims, Christians continue to clash
By Omar Sinan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 17, 2006
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt -- Police fired live ammunition into the air and lobbed tear gas at rioting crowds of Christians and Muslims yesterday in a third day of sectarian violence in Egypt's second-largest city.
One Muslim reportedly died of wounds suffered a day earlier, and dozens more were wounded and arrested.
Police fought back Coptic Christians, who were encircled by a security cordon around the Saints Church in downtown Alexandria after hurling stones and bottles from inside the police line. Fellow demonstrators tossed Molotov cocktails from the balconies of nearby buildings.
Police could be seen repeatedly beating a boy of about 12, who was among the crowd of Coptic young people who fled into the church, slamming the doors behind them, or dashed down narrow streets surrounding the church. Most of the protesters were ages 12 to 25.
Later, a huge mob of what appeared to be Muslim protesters charged the police cordon from the other side.
Mustafa Mohammed Mustafa, a Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarian, said a 24-year-old Muslim died early yesterday of wounds from a beating by Christians during rioting Saturday.
The violence apparently was prompted by knife attacks that wounded as many as 16 people at three churches in Alexandria on Friday. Although it was Good Friday for many of the world's Christians, the Copts and other Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate Easter next week.
The Christian protesters behind the police cordon yesterday repeatedly surged against it from the front of the church, and by late afternoon they were hurling rocks and bottles at security troops as others tossed firebombs from surrounding apartment balconies.
Sirens blared as ambulances raced toward the scene. Armored police vehicles surrounded the church as tear gas fumes sent protesters fleeing down narrow streets in the neighborhood.
Earlier yesterday, police officials said, 43 persons had been wounded in clashes near the church and 50 others had been arrested as religious leaders and politicians sought to ease sectarian tensions.
About 2,000 riot police had cordoned off the front of the Saints Church, but they were unable to prevent the late-afternoon melee by about 200 young men milling around church grounds after services ended. They carried wooden crosses, clubs and machetes.
At least 22 persons were wounded in clashes in the Mediterranean city Saturday, and 15 persons were arrested in the fighting that police said was instigated by "fanatics."
Security forces also used tear gas to put down the Saturday violence, which erupted among several hundred Coptic Christians and Muslims at the end of the funeral procession for Nushi Atta Girgis, 78, who was slain Friday outside the Saints Church in the Sidi Bishr district.
Coptic Christians form about 10 percent of Egypt's 73 million population and generally live in peace with the Muslim majority.



Press Conference, Beirut, April 17, 2006
Statement by Dr. Willem van Manen on behalf of
the Dutch Foundation Lawyers for Lawyers
Friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Although I almost feel an expert on Lebanese law, I shall not pretend to be such an expert and shall restrict myself to a field of the law of which I know a bit more and with which you have acquired important ties recently that is European law.
The case we came here for last Saturday suddenly ended well before it had begun. This case is and was a very simple one.
Invitation to EU Parliament
Dr Mugraby was invited to come to the European Parliament in Brussels and present his views of the Human Rights' situation in Lebanon and the region. On November 4 2003, Dr. Mugraby did so.
What offended the Military?
It then appeared that Lebanese Military were said to have been offended by certain things Dr. Mugraby said during his presentation. Which things exactly is not clear since all I have is a small and brief message signed by Judge Jean Fahd with hardly anything in it and in particular no specification of any alleged wrongdoing by Dr. Mugraby.
What did Dr. Mugraby say?
From the written form of Dr. Mugraby's presentation appears what he did say and that he criticized Lebanon for subjecting ordinary citizens to the jurisdiction of military courts. In the EU the very fact of subjecting a non-military to a military court violates the principles of fair trial. According to my information the way the subjection as so far practiced also runs contrary to various other human rights.
Freedom of speech?
In Europe it is unthinkable that somebody who criticizes subjecting ordinary citizens to military courts would be judged to have slandered the military. Punishing it as such would without any doubt be judged to violate the fundamental right to freedom of speech that over the years has been extended considerably by the European Court of Human Rights that has said on many occasions that freedom of _expression is THE pillar of democracy.
A double violation
In this case we are faced with a double violation of the freedom of speech. Under the European Human Rights Treaty freedom of speech not only refers to supplying information but also to receiving information. And here, Dr. Mugraby supplied information and the EU Parliament received it. The fact that Dr. Mugraby had to stand trial for supplying information to the Parliament is liable to have some chilling effect and deter others from supplying information to the parliament. Therefore through this trial Lebanon was confronting the European Union.
Association Agreement
There is a special reason to pay special attention to European law. On April 1 Lebanon celebrated the full and final entry into force of the EU/Lebanon Association Agreement. (It had already been in force for quite a while, but without celebrations and now the EU Ambassador in Beirut and thee Lebanese Prime Minister, mr Siniora, delivered celebration speeches.)
Human Rights and democracy clause
And there was reason for celebrations, e.g. the inclusion in the agreement of a very potent human rights and democracy clause, following the example of the other association agreements with countries around the Mediterranean. That clause is expected to turn out to be an important tool if association partners fail to live up to their human rights commitments. That has not yet happened but the EU came close when the EU Presidency (Great Britain) and Commission undertook a human rights demarche on behalf of Dr. Mugraby by the end of December 2005. Then the Lebanese government was told that the trial was causing serious concerns in the EU that pointed at:
- the infringements of freedom of speech,
- the importance of defenders of human rights being able to operate freely,
- the inappropriateness of the case coming before a military court.
Fair trial
One of the most stringent requirements for a trial to be fair is that the court shall be impartial. An alleged slanderer should of course never be tried by those he is supposed to have slandered.("eigenrichting")
Action-Plan
Negotiations between the EU and Lebanon on an Action Plan are to start soon. There human rights and democracy will have the highest priority. As the EU recently replied to questions in Parliament. Further the Association Agreement is now in full force, and so is its severe human rights clause.
Soon it will be time to correct certain things that went wrong in the past, e.g. on the part of the Beirut Bar Association that waged a war of its own. Let us hope that they will follow the example set by the military court of cassation on April 15, 2006.
More information can be found at: http://www.advocatenvooradvocaten.nl/projects.html
Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation
For more information, please contact:
Willem van Manen (+31 653 22 55 60);
Jens van den Brink (+31 0 648 42 78 72); or
Ilan de Vré (+31 618 80 78 43)