AUSTRIA: Over four hundred million dollars needed on reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared camp

Record ID: 1543028

  • Title: AUSTRIA: Over four hundred million dollars needed on reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared camp
  • Date: 23rd June 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMMISSIONER BENITA FERRERO-WALDNER SAYING: "And now as fresh money today I've pledged eight million Euros or I can say for the whole camp until today we have given forty five million (USD) dollars". JOURNALIST READING PAPERS WIDE OF DELEGATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER FOUAD SINIORA TALKING ABOUT SHEBA FARMS, SAYING: "This is a Lebanese land and israel has to withdraw from these lands and until they withdraw and put (Sheba farms) under United nations custodionship then the area will be delineated between Lebanon and Syria, until then, until we reach that time Israel has to withdraw." DELEGATION LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 8th July 2008 13:03
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: International Relations,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVA7STEFO82FMGWLZ6HAZJ3JXEGB
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Four hundred and fifty million U.S. dollars will be needed to help reconstruct a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon that last year saw the country's worst internal violence since the civil war, according to Lebanese Prime Minster Fouad Siniora.
    Delegates gathered in Vienna on Monday (June 23) for the International Donors' conference to discuss the reconstruction of the Palestinian refugee camp, Nahr el Bared in Lebanon.
    The camp, in northern Lebanon, was home to about 40,000 people before fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants holed up inside erupted in May 2007. The 15-week battle killed more than 420 people, including 168 soldiers.
    International donors met at the request of the Lebanese government.
    Attendees included Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Arab League chief Amr Moussa, as well as Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and ministers from other countries.
    Speaking at a news conference in between talks the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said that 450 million (USD) would be needed over a period of three years.

    "We have tried to make an assessment with the co-operation of the World bank, the United nations and the consulting engineers which will be in the range of about 450 million (USD) dollars and this we have already estimated is going to be spent over a period of three years", Siniora said.

    "There is the contribution to be made by the four arab gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates which will be about fifty percent and some other arab country's and the remaining that will be made by the international community," he added.
    European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she hoped the aid for the Nahr al-Bared camp, which was largely destroyed in the fighting, would show support for both the refugees and their hosts and pledged fresh money.

    "And now as fresh money today I've pledged eight million Euros or I can say for the whole camp until today we have given forty five million (USD) dollars," Waldner said.
    Raising funds to strengthen Palestinian police and legal institutions will be the focus of another donors conference in Berlin on Tuesday. Delegates from around 50 countries are expected to attend, with the "Quartet" of Middle East mediators -- the EU, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- set to meet on the conference sidelines.
    Siniora also touched on the issue of the Sheba farms saying that Israel must withdrawl all it's troops.

    "This is a Lebanese land and israel has to withdraw from these lands and until they withdraw and put (Sheba farms) under United nations custodionship then the area will be delineated between Lebanon and Syria, until then, until we reach that time Israel has to withdraw", Siniora said.
    The tiny sliver of lush land 25 square kilometres (10 square miles) across is located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel. Israel seized the Farms from Syria at the same time it captured the nearby Golan Heights, which it later annexed.
    Ever since, the Farms have been caught in a tug-of-war over ownership.
    Lebanon claims them, with the backing of Damascus, while Israel says they are part of Syria.
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