NAHR Al-BARED, Lebanon, 31 May 2007 — Fighting between the Lebanese Army and militants flared again as their deadly standoff entered its 10th day yesterday and relief workers tried to get aid to stranded civilians.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese military magistrate filed terrorism charges yesterday against 20 suspected members of the militant Fatah Al-Islam group, court officials said.
The militants, who include 18 Lebanese, a nonnative Lebanese and a Syrian, are all in custody, officials said. It was not known how or when they were arrested.
Also, yesterday the UN Security Council voted to set up an international court to try suspects in the murder of Lebanese ex-Premier Rafik Hariri which rocked the country two years ago.
The 15-member council adopted a legally binding resolution that sets June 10 as the date for the entry into force of a 2006 agreement between the United Nations and the Beirut government to establish the court.
Ten countries voted in favor. Veto-wielding members Russia and China as well as South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar — three nonpermanent members — abstained.
At the Nahr Al-Bared camp, where troops have laid siege to the Fatah Al-Islam group since its fighters attacked army targets on May 20, the two sides traded fire sporadically through the night .
There were no immediate reports of casualties. On Tuesday, a soldier was killed in a firefight, bringing to 79 the death toll from the bloodiest internal unrest in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.
Fighting has erupted almost daily at the impoverished northern shantytown near the Mediterranean coast, although the fierce gunbattles of the early days of the standoff have subsided amid efforts to mediate a peaceful solution.
Fatah Al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha said the group was refusing to surrender any of its militants despite demands of the Lebanese government which has vowed to crush the “terrorist phenomenon.” A three-member delegation of clerics from the Union of Palestinian Scholars met militants in the camp on Sunday after winning approval from Lebanese authorities, Palestinian factions and Fatah Al-Islam to mediate.
“We are still working with the delegation of the Union of Palestinian Scholars in order to find a political solution,” Taha said on Tuesday. Under a longstanding arrangement, the 12 refugee camps in Lebanon remain outside government control and in the hands of armed Palestinian factions — despite a UN resolution calling for the disarmament of all militias.
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) continued deliveries of supplies yesterday to those stranded in the camp without electricity and dwindling supplies. Trucks piled with water and food were waiting to enter the camp. ICRC officials said eight trucks had on Tuesday delivered food, water and candles.
In New York, Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters the aim of the resolution was to “send the right political signal in Lebanon that there cannot be impunity and that the UN stands behind those people who want to see justice.” The resolution was sponsored by the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, Slovakia and Italy, and introduced at the request of embattled Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. It came after UN chief Ban Ki-moon reported that rival Lebanese parties had failed to agree on ratifying the 2006 accord.
Lebanon’s pro-Syrian opposition objects to the way the Western-backed Siniora government has handled plans to create the court under UN auspices and has so far blocked all moves to set up the court.
The Siniora government in turn accuses allies of Syria of bowing to pressure from Damascus to try to prevent the creation of the tribunal.
