posted July 18, 2006 08:07 PM
I know nobody here pays much mind to Canadian issues in the news, but this could apply across the board, to all nationalities attempting to flee Lebanon....
Canadians fleeing Lebanon could be Hezbollah targets: Israeli ambassador
1 hour, 37 minutes ago
By Joan Bryden
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OTTAWA (CP) - Israel will do whatever it can to ensure safe passage for Canadians fleeing Lebanon but Israel's ambassador warns there's no guarantee they won't be targeted by Islamic guerrillas.
Indeed, Alan Baker suggested Tuesday that Hezbollah, the militant Islamic group that controls much of southern Lebanon, might deliberately target Canadian refugees in order to provoke an international incident.
Baker issued the grim warning as Foreign Affairs officials prepared to begin evacuating the first Canadians from Beirut on Wednesday. They'll board ships destined for Cyprus or Turkey about 200 kilometres across the Mediterranean Sea. From there, government-leased aircraft will fly them home.
On Monday, officials said the government had leased six commercial passenger ships with a capacity to carry 4,500 Canadians per day to Cyprus.
By Tuesday, however, that had changed to seven vessels with capacity for only 2,000, and Turkey had been added as an additional destination for fear that Cyprus will be overwhelmed by refugees fleeing Lebanon.
A government e-mail message sent to some of the estimated 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon advised that departures would begin Wednesday but provided few other details. It did say that the Canadian government will foot the bill for the evacuation, unlike some other countries which are making refugees pay for transport out of Lebanon.
It told the Canadian refugees to stay put until contacted by the embassy with specific departure arrangements and asked that they "please do not come to the embassy." In preparation for departure on short notice, the e-mail advised them to gather their travel documents, one piece of luggage per person, weighing no more than 20 kg, and three days' worth of any required medication.
Kim Girtel, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs, said about 30,000 Canadians in Lebanon have now registered with the embassy in Beirut. She said it's not clear how many of those want to leave the country but acknowledged the evacuation will take awhile.
"It would be nice if we could Star Trek them out but it's going to take time. Priority goes to people in greatest need," she said.
Girtel said Canada has received assurances that the ships will have safe passage. But she had no information on how Canadians outside Beirut will make it safely to the city to board the vessels.
Baker said Canada's ambassador and military attache in Israel have been meeting with Israeli military and foreign affairs officials to devise safe routes to Beirut. He said the Lebanese government has also been involved in co-ordinating the evacuation.
Although southern Lebanon has been pummelled by Israeli attacks over the past week and much of its roads, bridges and ports destroyed, Baker said it should be possible to find a way for fleeing Canadians to reach Beirut.
"I don't think the roads are blocked to such an extent to prevent transporting these people," he said in an interview.
But he refused to go into any detail about possible travel plans because, he said, Hezbollah "can't be trusted to honour any type of arrangement that would enable safe passage.
"We don't want the Hezbollah to try and provoke some type of event which could jeopardize those arrangements."
Asked if he believes Hezbollah would deliberately target fleeing foreigners to create an international incident, Baker said: "Absolutely.
"Look, why do they put their artillery launching things in the back gardens of private homes? In order to provoke a response by Israel which would kill innocent people, including, as happened, eight Canadians."
Seven Canadians were killed over the weekend and another has since succumbed to wounds suffered during Israeli attacks on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon.
That said, Baker added that he doesn't think Hezbollah "has any reason to harm Canadians" in particular.
"The opposite. They should want that Canadians won't be annoyed with them."
Nevertheless, he said Canada should be urging the Lebanese government to wring a promise of safe passage out of Hezbollah.
Once Canadians board the ships, Baker said there's no chance Israel would harm them, even by accident.
"Our targets are strictly limited to Hezbollah infrastructure and runways of airports so that they won't be able to be used for supplying missiles and weapons," he said.
"One would presume that boats carrying Canadians and other foreign people, including Lebanese civilians - it doesn't make any difference - they're not the targets that we're looking for."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/18072006/2/national-canadians-fleeing-lebanon-hezbollah-targets-israeli-ambassador.html