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[WORLD ncuis) MIDDLE EAST
v — 1 ———^
Refugee deaths 'not a massacre'
TEL AVIV, Friday (AAP-AP). —
Lebanon's military prosecutor had
concluded that 470 people, all but 35
of them adult males, were killed in the
September massacre in Beirut's Sabra
and Chatilla refugee camps, a Tel Aviv
newspaper reported yesterday.
The daily Yedioth Ahronoih said the
report by the prosccutor, Mr Assad Ger
manos, had held that what happened in the
Palestinian camps "was not a massacre, by
Lebanese standards". It quoted the report
as saying this sort of thing had been
happening throughout the Lebanese civil
war.
The newspaper said the report had
reached Israel, but it did not say where it
had got the report.
It said the number of victims was much
lower than the 3,000 stated by the
Palestine Liberation Organisation and the
700 to 800 reported by Israeli and Ameri
can intelligence.
The report had listed 328 Palestinians ,
killed, including seven women-and eight
children, and 109 Lebanese, including 12
children and eight women. It also listed
seven Syrians, three Pakistanis, two Alger
ians and 21 Iranians.
The newspaper quoted the report as
insisting that the deaths had resulted from
"a battle", not "a massacre".
Israel is conducting its own judicial
inquiry into the massacre and has taken
testimony from the Prime Minister, Mr
Begin, and other top ministers and army
men.
The newspaper said the report based its
figures on counts by five groups — the
Lebanese Army medical scrvice, civil de
fence wardens, the International Red
Cross, the Lebanese Red Cross and rela
tives of the victims.
Mr Germanos had based his report on
intelligence reports by Lebanese domestic
security services, and a September 29
investigation, 12 days after the killings, by
a Lebanese military court.
□ BEIRUT, Friday (AAP-Reut£r). —
Christian and Druzc militiamen clashed
yesterday in the mountains south-east of
Beirut just a day after the Druzc leader,
Mr Walid Jumblatt, narrowly escaped an
assassination attempt.
Security sources reported fighting in the
villages of Aitat and Souq al-Gharb, in an
area that has seen many bloody sectarian
clashes in recent weeks, but said they
subsided in the afternoon. There were no
details of casualties.
□ MOSCOW, Friday (AAP-Reutcr). —
An Arab League delegation headed by
King Hussein of Jordan will outline today
an Arab Middle East peace plan to high
ranking Soviet officials, Arab diplomats
said.
The delegation, which includes Foreign
Ministers of Algeria, Syria, Morocco, Jor
dan, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, which has
no diplomatic relations with Moscow, was
expected to explain the Arab plan in talks
with the Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr
Gromyko.
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