Deficit for first quarter of 2000 is 51.8%
17 April 2000

The Ministry of Finance said today that the country's budget deficit for the first quarter of 2000 is $733 million, or 51.8% (by comparison, the deficit for the first quarter of 1999 was $369 million, or 36.4%). Government spending during the first quarter included $560 million in interest payments on the national debt. Finance Minister Georges Corm has called for a decrease in interest rates in order to reduce the cost of debt servicing, but Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has opposed any drop in interest rates.

The Baddawi power station after the air strikes

IAF bombs 2 power relay stations
5 May 2000

Israeli air force jets bombed the Bsalim power station, northeast of Beirut, and the Deir Ammar power station in Baddawi, knocking out electricity service to large parts of Beirut, the Beqaa Valley and northern Lebanon. Officials at Electricité du Liban estimated the damages at tens of millions of dollars.

Israel, Hezbollah reportedly held secret talks in April
9 May 2000

A European radio station and the Jerusalem Post reported today that Israel held secret negotiations with representatives of Hezbollah last month, but Syria intervened and forced its client militia to break off the talks. According to "sources close to the negotiations," the meetings were arranged by the Red cross and centered around an Israeli offer to free prisoners from the al-Khiam detention center in south Lebanon in return for a seven-day ceasefire.

Mugraby formally charged with "dishonoring" the judiciary
12 May 2000

Lebanon's most prominent human rights attorney, Dr. Muhamad Mugraby, appeared in court today and was formally charged with "libel, defamation and dishonoring of the judicial branch of government." The charges stemmed from a press conference last month in which Mugraby accused several high-ranking judicial officials of corruption (see related article in April edition of MEIB). Numerous lawyers and human rights activists assembled outside the court to show their solidarity with Dr. Mugraby, including representatives of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Shamseddine lashes out at Lebanese judicial system
12 May 2000

The chairman of Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council launched a scathing diatribe against the judiciary today. "Why is justice in Lebanon the way it is?" Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi Shamseddine asked in a speech attended by most members of the Higher Judicial Council (including the chief justice). "Why is there no judicial branch in the full meaning of the word, enjoying full independence, immune from all other branches, and exercising autonomy, as in those countries where the judiciary advanced and protects the big as well as the small and is trusted by the weak more so than the powerful?"

Gemayel's office after the attack

Office of parliamentary candidate attacked
15 May 2000

The office of Fadi Gemayel, a Beirut lawyer who is running for parliament in August, was sprayed with bullets from a machine gun early today. "It may be linked to the fact that I'm running for a parliamentary seat in the district of Metn," Gemayel told the Daily Star. "Such attacks can't change my beliefs or force me to withdraw from the parliamentary election race." No casualties were reported. According to local press reports, an investigation into the attack by police and army intelligence is underway.

PM Hoss calls for television self-censorship
15 May 2000

AFP reported today that Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss accused a satellite television station owned by former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri of "broadcasting a distorted and misleading picture which could inflict the greatest harm to the national economy, thus to the highest national interest." Future TV, he said in a statement released to the press, is "showing a dark and repulsive picture for narrow internal political objectives." Hoss instructed Information Minister Anwar al-Khalil to "take steps to oblige Future TV to exercise self-censorship."

Wakim: 2/3 of Lebanese are "teetering on the edge of poverty"
18 May 2000

Beirut MP Najah Wakim said at a press conference today that 72% of the Lebanese population are on the brink of the poverty line and nearly one half have slipped beneath it as a result of deteriorating economic conditions. He also noted that investments in industry declined by 35.4% during the first quarter of this year and emigration in 1999 rose by 57% over the previous year. The main cause of these problems, he said, is the government's financial and economic policies, which "have succumbed to the well-known banking cartel and capital market speculators."

Hezbollah won't disarm after Israeli withdrawal
29 May 2000

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said today that despite the recent withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon, his guerrillas will not disarm. "As long as Israel threatens Lebanon every day with air strikes, attacks, and punishment, Lebanon has the right to maintain all elements of strength that can confront these Israeli threats," said Nasrallah, the most unambiguous official statement from the group on its post-withdrawal future thus far.