Coolassprov MC
11-08-06, 18:11
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/11/wmid211.xml
Christian militia chief helps his friends
By Harry de Quetteville in Tel Aviv
(Filed: 11/08/2006)
Israel has called on the services of the Christian militia it once sponsored in Lebanon to help its current fight against Hizbollah, the militia's former leader has disclosed.
Gen Anton Lahad assumed control of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) in 1984 - two years after it was implicated in the massascre of up to several thousand Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.
Now he says that Israel is tapping into his expertise in secret meetings.
"Many people have come to speak to me," he said. "But I am just an observer."
Nonetheless, after the outbreak of the current conflict he quickly returned to Israel from a trip to France, and he has since made several journeys to the front in the north of the country.
Indeed, of all the "observers" of Israel's war in Lebanon, few know the battlefield better than Anton Lahad.
A dapper 78-year-old former Lebanese general, Mr Lahad now runs a bar in Tel Aviv named after the ancient city of Byblos in his homeland.
But he will never return there. For while the locals in his lounge bar call him general, in Lebanon he is known as a traitor and a war criminal, the leader of an Israeli-sponsored militia that controlled the south of the country for 30 years.
"In Lebanon I have been tried and convicted to three life sentences," he said, puffing on a fat cigar outside his trendy seafront property. "The charge was collaborating with Israel, that is enough."
Lahad led the SLA after the death of its first leader in 1984. Its enemies were Israel's enemies: Palestinians from Yasser Arafat's PLO, and Syrian-sponsored militias.
Before he died, Saad Haddad, the former leader, said SLA fighters were among those who carried out the 1982 massacre at Sabra and Chatila.
Israel relied on Mr Lahad and the 3,000 Israeli-paid men under his command to be its proxy in southern Lebanon.
Then, in 2000, Israel abruptly left, and with Hizbollah closing in, many SLA fled to the sanctuary of their backers south of the border.
"Israel knew there would be a Khomeini state on its border," said Mr Lahad. "But Israel should have known its withdrawal in 2000 would strengthen Hizbollah."
Christian militia chief helps his friends
By Harry de Quetteville in Tel Aviv
(Filed: 11/08/2006)
Israel has called on the services of the Christian militia it once sponsored in Lebanon to help its current fight against Hizbollah, the militia's former leader has disclosed.
Gen Anton Lahad assumed control of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) in 1984 - two years after it was implicated in the massascre of up to several thousand Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.
Now he says that Israel is tapping into his expertise in secret meetings.
"Many people have come to speak to me," he said. "But I am just an observer."
Nonetheless, after the outbreak of the current conflict he quickly returned to Israel from a trip to France, and he has since made several journeys to the front in the north of the country.
Indeed, of all the "observers" of Israel's war in Lebanon, few know the battlefield better than Anton Lahad.
A dapper 78-year-old former Lebanese general, Mr Lahad now runs a bar in Tel Aviv named after the ancient city of Byblos in his homeland.
But he will never return there. For while the locals in his lounge bar call him general, in Lebanon he is known as a traitor and a war criminal, the leader of an Israeli-sponsored militia that controlled the south of the country for 30 years.
"In Lebanon I have been tried and convicted to three life sentences," he said, puffing on a fat cigar outside his trendy seafront property. "The charge was collaborating with Israel, that is enough."
Lahad led the SLA after the death of its first leader in 1984. Its enemies were Israel's enemies: Palestinians from Yasser Arafat's PLO, and Syrian-sponsored militias.
Before he died, Saad Haddad, the former leader, said SLA fighters were among those who carried out the 1982 massacre at Sabra and Chatila.
Israel relied on Mr Lahad and the 3,000 Israeli-paid men under his command to be its proxy in southern Lebanon.
Then, in 2000, Israel abruptly left, and with Hizbollah closing in, many SLA fled to the sanctuary of their backers south of the border.
"Israel knew there would be a Khomeini state on its border," said Mr Lahad. "But Israel should have known its withdrawal in 2000 would strengthen Hizbollah."