Posted on 06/23/2008 12:20:18 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
International donors offered $120 million on Monday to help rebuild a Palestinian refugee camp badly damaged in fighting between Islamist militants and the Lebanese army last year.
The Austrian foreign ministry, hosting a conference in Vienna, said the sum had been pledged for the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon. It did not give a breakdown of the donations by country.
The camp was home to about 40,000 people before fighting erupted in May last year in the worst internal violence since the civil war.
The 15-week battle killed more than 420 people, including 168 soldiers, and left the camp largely destroyed, displacing more than 5,000 families.
Lebanon is home to some 400,000 registered Palestinian refugees whose families fled their homes after the creation of Israel in 1948. More than half of them live in 12 camps scattered across the country.
International donors gathered in Vienna at the request of the Lebanese government in a meeting attended by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and ministers from other countries.
"This conference comes as a confirmation of the solidarity of the international community and the Arab community with Lebanon.... and at the same time with the Palestinian people who have really been suffering for a long time," Siniora told a news conference during the meeting.
Citing estimates from the U.N., the World Bank and engineers, Siniora said camp reconstruction and the revitalization of surrounding villages would cost $450 million.
Half of the money would come from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries. ...
On Monday, the United States pledged $22 million at the conference, saying its contributions would be split between reconstruction efforts, revitalization of the surrounding areas and efforts to bolster Lebanese Internal Security Forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Terrorists use those camps to operate from, so I really have to scratch my head when our government and others agree to help rebuild their havens. I guess this is just more evidence of us not giving terrorists any quarter... Sad.
Why did the camps receive damage in the first place? Was it because the inhabitants were peaceful law abiding citizens?
I don't think I can think of a worse use for one's money.
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
This time, they'll build it right: gun turrets, reinforced walls, IED roadway emplacement sites, etc. Yeah, it'll be grand.
The reason the Lebanese want to rebuild this camp is to design it more to their liking. The center of this camp (more like a crowded town with buildings, roads, stores, & schools) is like a maze & that’s where Fatah al-Islam was dug in. They want to make those roads wider & restrict the size of buildings in order to make it easier for the Lebanese Army to roll in next time.
So this is another success of Condi’s last stopover in Lebanon...she is really doing a bangup job there Condi.
95% Saudi Arabia.
With all the Billions of petrodollars floating around the hierarchies in the middle east, you would think that the bigwigs could be a little more generous toward their moslem brothers in the camps. We’ve all seen those photos making the internet circuit of an indoors ski area somewhere in the Gulf. The money wasted on that toy would probably have paid for a new plumbing and sewage system in some of those camps. But, oh, no. WE get to help pay for it.
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