Heavily Bombed: Beirut Tries to Clean-up
By Tabinda al-Ghazala 'Pakistan Times' Foreign Correspondent

BEIRUT (Lebanon): The bitter smell of burned plastic is carried on the wind with the choking dust churned up by a noisy backhoe that rattles and scrapes at a small mountain of rubble.

Residents of the southern Beirut district of Haret Hreik are cleaning up, salvaging what they can from apartments and shops damaged by Israeli bombing during a 34-day war that ended with a ceasefire almost two weeks ago.

"That is my building, and my factory. It's called Rotex," Issam Wahid says of the collapsed jumble of small concrete lumps and larger slabs mixed with steel rods. The backhoe picks away at the three-metre- (10-foot-) high mess on the neighbourhood's main street.

His building was one of many hit in this district of tightly packed apartment blocks. Those not blasted into pieces had their windows blown in by the explosions.

The corners of other buildings have been sliced off, like the edge of a cake. About a block away from the remains of Wahid's factory, just the top floor of one building has been crushed.

Backhoes work throughout the area, dumping debris into trucks in a clean-up effort that residents say is funded by Hezbollah.

Wahid, who says the destruction cost him three million dollars, watches from a chair across the road from the rubble.

A few salvaged possessions lie at his feet -- a cracked and dirty mini stereo system, soggy books, a dusty camera, and a crumpled picture of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, whose militia fought the war with Israel.

Nasrallah himself lived in Haret Hreik, which also housed the Hezbollah political headquarters and associated agencies, including the television station Al Manar -- all of which became Israeli targets.

Wahid's two nephews climb onto the debris and scavenge what they can. One of the young men brings him some photographs and documents.

"That's my store in Paris," Wahid says, flipping through the pictures.

That store is still open, but his shirt and pants factory in Haret Hreik is finished. "There were 84 people working there. We sold merchandise to France, America, Europe," says Wahid. "There is no work for them now."

He lived in the same building, in an apartment taking up the entire 10th floor. "My brother was on the ninth," he says, his black slacks spotted with dust.

None of his family was killed or wounded, Wahid says while a pot-bellied man in civilian clothes and a pistol on his hip operates a makeshift checkpoint leading towards even worse damage down the road.

Like others who suffered losses in the area, Wahid says Hezbollah gave him some financial compensation.

"We received money but that's for renting a place to live -- 10,000 dollars," says Wahid, who is now living in a hotel.

A survey by Hezbollah engineers logged 6,000 damaged or destroyed apartments in the area.While Hezbollah began doling out cash compensation more than a week ago, the government has said it plans to begin a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction of Lebanon's damaged housing and other infrastructure next week.

"What government?" asks Hussein Mojed, 17, helping a friend prepare a small food store for reopening across the street from where Wahid sits. Mojed says Hezbollah's compensation money is funding their renovations.

"We want to open tomorrow," Mojed says. "We are the first ... Everyone wants to eat here."

The food store is on the ground floor of a building which survived with only slight damage from a blast that destroyed another structure next door. There is no longer any sign of the clothing boutique that Ghazwa, a well-dressed woman in a green headscarf, says she operated for two years.

Behind the lot strewn with garbage, cables, concrete, and a giant concrete slab perched curiously atop the other debris, is a scorched apartment building where Sabah Baidoon lived.

"We had a fire," she says, recounting the aftermath of a bomb strike on the adjacent building.

Baidoon said she is using 5,000 dollars compensation money from Hezbollah to repair her unit.

"We're happy because we defeated Israel," she says, and then gestures toward the grey landscape of damaged concrete stretching before her. "All this will come back."

EU's 7000 Troops

And a report from Brussels says that European nations pledged up to 7,000 troops to form the core of a beefed-up peacekeeping mission in Lebanon capable of enforcing the fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah, officials said.

The commitments account for more than half the extra soldiers needed to bring the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) up to a maximum mandated strength of 15,000, from its current count 2,000.

UN chief Kofi Annan, speaking after a meeting with foreign ministers of the 25 European Union states, hailed the conference "a success".

"We may have a unique opportunity to transform the cessation of hostilities into a durable ceasefire," he added in Brussels.

The pledges came after France, which currently commands UNIFIL, committed itself to a total deployment of 2,000 soldiers.

But French President Jacques Chirac, who was speaking separately Friday in Paris, said a level of 15,000 troops was "excessive" and it made "no sense" to have such a large contingent alongside the Lebanese army in the region.

In Brussels though, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the total European contribution would be "something between 5,600 and 6,900" soldiers, as well as air and naval assets.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy put the EU deployment at "6,500 to 7,000 soldiers on the ground, which means that the spinal column of the reinforced UNIFIL will be European."

The force is crucial to shoring up UN Resolution 1701, which on August 14 brought an end to the brutal 34-day conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

The UN chief also proposed that France see out its current term as commander of the force, which expires at the end of January, after which Italy would take over.

Italy is expected to supply up to 3,000 soldiers, which would make it the biggest contributor to the force.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said in Rome that the Italian troops could start being deployed from Tuesday after a cabinet meeting on Monday to give the final go ahead.

Spain was said to be ready to send 1,000 to 1,200 soldiers, substantially more than the 800 initially cited in media reports.

Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga said that Poland would boost the number of its troops in the UN force in Lebanon by 300 to a total of around 500.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said his country would provide 300 soldiers by late September or early October, with the possibility of adding nearly 100 more later.

Finland Pledged 250 Soldiers

Britain's Europe Minister Geoff Hoon said that while his country's military -- heavily deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan -- was too stretched to send ground troops, it might supply "specialised" units.

Greece is offering a frigate, helicopter and special forces while other countries, notably Portugal and Latvia, have indicated they could send soldiers, but no details were given.

Germany, wary of potential confrontations with Israel because of its Nazi past, is prepared to offer naval units, not troops, as is Sweden.

Russia, which is not an EU member, said it was still considering the possibility of sending troops.

Annan said Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia had offered to participate in UNIFIL -- though Israel has opposed contributions from those Muslim countries because of an absence of diplomatic relations.●