PLO Guerrillas Give Up Their Heavy Weapons

SIDON, Lebanon —  Guerrillas of the Palestine Liberation Organization, driven out of their last bases near Israeli forces, handed over their heavy weapons to the Lebanese army Saturday.

The Syrian-backed Lebanese government, saying guerrillas no longer threaten the Jewish state, promptly urged Washington to push for an Israeli withdrawal from the area.

Security sources said the weapons, which included 10 rocket launchers, 14 antiaircraft guns and seven jeep-mounted cannons, were assembled at the entrance of the Ein el Hilwa Palestinian refugee camp east of Sidon.

They said the arms from Ein al Hilwa and nearby Miye ou Miye camp were then taken for storage under army guard in the Sidon region, 25 miles south of Beirut.

The handover was part of a peace agreement reached Thursday. The pact followed three days of battles that left 46 people dead and 173 wounded.

With the two camps secured and its 5,000 guerrillas disarmed, the Christian town of Jezzine, 11 miles east of Sidon, is expected to be the army’s next target.

Jezzine is controlled by the South Lebanon Army militia, which is financed and trained by Israel. The militia also patrols Israel’s self-proclaimed “security zone” in southern Lebanon.

President Elias Hrawi called for Washington’s help to secure an Israeli pullout in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution 425 during talks Saturday with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, official sources said. The government, seeking to extend its authority over all the country, wants Israel to withdraw its troops and an allied militia from Jezzine and then abandon its border security zone.

Some PLO bases seized by the army in its first push into the south since the civil war began in 1975 were less than three miles from Israeli-held territory around Jezzine and six miles from the buffer strip.

Crocker declined to answer directly when asked whether Hrawi had appealed to Washington to pressure Israel.

But he told reporters he welcomed the government’s drive, adding, “We have always supported the extension of state authority over all Lebanese territory.”

The army refused a request from Zeid Wehbeh, Lebanon representative of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, for more time to collect the weapons.

“The Palestinian weapons are Palestinian property,” Wehbeh declared. He said Friday that the weapons could later be shipped abroad along with the estimated 6,000 PLO fighters in the camps.

Kamal Medhat, a senior officer of the PLO’s mainstream Fatah movement, told reporters: “The Palestinian weapons that we are now handing over to the Lebanese government are a temporary deposit that we will recover in due time.”

Israel’s ‘Security Zone’ in Lebanon

Israel’s self-proclaimed “security zone,” seized when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, is a strip in southernmost Lebanon encompassing 325 square miles. It contains more than 200,000 of Lebanon’s 2.7 million people. The zone was set up as a buffer against guerrilla attacks when Israeli forces withdrew after a three-year occupation. It is patrolled by the Israel-backed South Lebanon Army. Sixty percent of the zone’s residents are Shiite Muslims, and 30% are Christian. Israel has said it is unconvinced by Lebanese claims that the army has reasserted control and has pledged continued military support for the Christian-dominated militia.