LEBANON: Lebanese farmers living close to the Syrian border ask their government for better protection from Syrian shelling

Record ID: 281038

  • Title: LEBANON: Lebanese farmers living close to the Syrian border ask their government for better protection from Syrian shelling
  • Date: 14th July 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CHILD HOLDING SHRAPNEL
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ARZ4XID4NWNHBNYVQR8YFM48
  • Story Text: Lebanese farmers living along the border with Syria are asking their government for protection and to publicly denounce nightly mortar attacks from Syrian forces. But they say their pleas are falling on deaf ears.
    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been fighting a pro-democracy revolt in his Middle Eastern state for 16 months with bullets and tanks. His forces routinely kill refugees fleeing the country and have chased rebels onto Lebanese territory and shelled Lebanese villages it says are harbouring militants.
    "They surprised us when they started shelling. We call on the officials to have mercy on women and children. One thousand people live in this village, [but] when they shell us you will not find anyone at their house. That's shameful, we are a sovereign country," said Nour al-deen Khouja, the local Mukhtar, or village elder, in the hilltop village of Debabiye, a mile from Syrian territory.
    Among the swaying fig and pomegranate trees, Khouja described how Syrian mortar bombs - a projectile that is lobbed over short distances before exploding, scattering shards of hot metal - start landing in his village from 11 p.m. every night. He said there have been five days of bombardment so far.
    So far, nobody has been injured in this village but Syrian mortars have claimed tens of Lebanese lives.
    The 1,000 or so residents of Debabiye, a Sunni Muslim village, leave their homes every night to sleep with relatives of friends in safer areas. They say the Syrian army is targeting their farmlands because they suspect rebels fighting for the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army are sheltering there. Debabiye residents say this is untrue.
    "Every day at midnight they start the bombardment, we run away and the children start to cry and shout, my son now has a problem with his blood pressure, he is not even 16 years old. I don't know what happened to him. We flee to another village called Kouachre and the shelling has even reached Kouachre," farmer's wife Aida Zein al-deen Mustafa said.
    Many Debabiye residents support the uprising across the border and many of Debabiye's families are inter-married with Syrians.
    Syria has not dared enter or mortar Turkey, its northern neighbour which is home to some 35,000 Syrian refugees living in camps, including rebels who use Turkey to smuggle weapons and regroup before reentering Syria.
    Assad was quick to apologise when Syria shot down a Turkish jet off the Syrian coast last month saying it was unidentified, after an uproar from Ankara which has since beefed up border security and scrambled jets several times.
    But Syria's aggression against Lebanon has not been met with a similar outcry from Beirut.
    Syrian troops were garrisoned in Lebanon, a tiny country still recovering from its own 15-year civil war, until 2005.
    Many Sunni Muslims in Lebanon's north sympathise with Syria's Sunni-led uprising against Assad and say the Lebanese army is taking orders from Damascus, which it is still maintains strong links with.
    On June 11, rival Lebanese politicians agreed to give the army financial resources to try to prevent violence in Syria from spilling over the border. But there has not been a marked increase in army presence at the border, residents say.
    "Why? No one knows why. What is happening? No one knows what is happening. Is there anyone to ask? There is nobody. The army comes here for two hours to patrol the area and then leaves. When people go to sleep, the army runs away and the bombardment starts, the army just leaves. Who do we ask? There is no one to ask," said Muhammed Hussein Sabha, a elderly resident of Debabiye sitting next to his house, now pockmarked with shrapnel from a mortar which fell in his farm the night before.
    Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour shrugged off criticism over Lebanon's failure to file a complaint with the United Nations, saying the Syrian shelling was not intentional.
    Hilal Khashan, a Lebanon-based political commentator, said that Lebanon's divided politicians have prevented any resolute action on Syria.
    Lebanon's politicians are at odds with each other over the Syrian revolt, with Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah supporting Assad and others the opposition.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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