Opium poppy fields eradicated in eastern Lebanon

BAALBEK, Lebanon, April 30 (AFP) - Lebanon's drugs squad eradicated on Tuesday 200 hectares (500 acres) of opium poppy fields in the Baalbek-Hermel region in eastern Lebanon, the anti-narcotics bureau said. Officers escorted by police used agricultural tractors to destroy the crop in the Bekaa valley, and met no resistance from farmers, the source said.

A delegation from the International Narcotics Control Board visited Lebanon late March to supervise the opium poppy eradication campaign initiated by the government.

Lebanon's Interior Minister Elias Murr declared at the end of November that he was determined to prevent the cultivation of prohibited plants, no matter what "socio-economic pretexts" were presented. Murr in particular warned against the cultivation of opium, "since it is the most dangerous drug", and said that the counter-narcotics measures adopted would also clamp-down on cannabis cultivators, who restarted their activities in 2000.

However, the government did not prevent in 2001 the harvest of Indian hemp, cultivated in the Bekaa valley under Syrian supervision, which it believed was justified by the economic crisis and the failure of a crop substitution program.

Since Murr's warning, 26 tons of cannabis have been seized from cultivators. The Lebanese government, aided by the Syrian army, clamped down on drug cultivation in 1993. Cultivation and trafficking in drugs had brought the country an income of some four billion dollars annually in the 1980s.

Opium was introduced to Lebanon at the height of the civil war in 1984, and was cultivated along with cannabis, that has been in the country since the 1930s.

Beirut calls on UN to "force" Israel to accept refugee camp probe

BEIRUT, April 30 (AFP) - Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud called Tuesday on the UN Security Council to adopt measures to "force" Israel to accept a UN decision to send a probe team to the devastated Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin.

"Security Council Resolution 1405, adopted unanimously, has decided the dispatch of this mission on April 19 and since then, Israel continues to put conditions and vetoes," Hammud told reporters. Hammud said Israel's continued decision to block the UN mission "defies the international community and discredits (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan." "If this attitude continues, the Security Council should adopt new decisions to force Israel to comply with international resolutions," said Hammud, noting that he was speaking as head of the Arab summit chaired by Beirut in March.

The Israeli security cabinet voted Tuesday to keep the UN fact-finding mission out until the world body meets all of its terms for the inquiry into the fighting at the camp. The UN Security Council approved the fact-finding probe nearly two week ago over what happened during nine days of ferocious fighting after the Israeli army swooped down on Jenin in the northern-most West Bank on April 3.

Israeli warplanes violate Lebanese airspace during US envoy's trip

HASBAYA, Lebanon, April 30 (AFP) - Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace over the south of the country Tuesday during a visit to the region by the US ambassador to Lebanon, Vincent Battle, AFP correspondents said.

The fighter-bombers zoomed over the mainly-Druze town of Hasbaya in southeast Lebanon as Battle was visiting the municipality building and strolling in the old souk, or Arab market. The jets then headed at low altitude over the coastal cities of Naqura and Tyre as well as nearby villages.

The overflights drew bursts of anti-aircraft fire which did not hit the aircrafts, according to Lebanese police. The Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the anti-aircraft fire in a statement which said its guerrillas "confronted Israeli warplanes that had violated Lebanese airspace." Shrapnel from the anti-aircraft fire landed on the "blue line" demarcated by the United Nations after Israeli troops pulled out of south Lebanon in May 2000 following 22 years of occupation, according to Lebanese police. The United Nations counts Israel's frequent overflights as violations of the "blue line."

Herald Tribune fails to appear in Arab cities due to pro-Israel ad

BEIRUT, April 30 (AFP) - A Beirut newspaper failed Tuesday to print and distribute across Arab cities the International Herald Tribune to avoid "possible legal action" by the Lebanese government due to a pro-Israeli ad carried by the US daily.

"The Daily Star has decided that due to possible legal action by the Lebanese government, it will not distribute the International Herald Tribune on Tuesday because of advertising content in the IHT, as published around the world," it said in a front-page announcement. A source at the Daily Star told AFP that Tuesday's issue of the Tribune contained the same pro-Israeli advertisement that the Paris-based daily had printed on April 5, prompting legal action against Daily Star owner Jamil Mroueh.

Jamil Mroueh owns the English-language Daily Star, which since September has been printing the IHT in Beirut and distributing both papers together in Lebanon, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. On April 11, Mroueh was indicted for allowing the "publication of a notice which supports Israel in its war against the Palestinians, weakens national sentiment and raises dissension of a racist nature." He risks a jail term of three to 15 years.

The April 5 quarter-page advertisement was placed by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League under the headline, "Israel we are with you ... now more than ever." It was a message of solidarity with Israel's onslaught against the Palestinians.