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150 Lebanese arrive in Kano, plan protest

Started by Ete, August 05, 2006, 02:14:52 PM

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Ete

150 Lebanese arrive in Kano, plan protest
From Adamu Abuh, Kano (with agency reports)

PIQUED by the continuous pounding of their country by Israeli forces, hundreds of Lebanese residents in Kano have planned a protest for today.


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This The Guardian learnt that about 150 Lebanese who fled the strife-torn country have arrived in Kano and would join in the planned protest.

On the heels of this is the call by the United Nations that world leaders should not forget the humanitarian crisis in Gaza because of the current attack on Southern Lebanon by Israel.

But Israeli aircraft early yesterday resumed their attacks on Beirut, the Lebanese capital. This came after several days of lull.

The Kano protest, The Guardian learnt, would hold at 5 p.m. today at the Lebanese club, Bompai in the Kano metropolis.

"You just come to the Lebanon Club on Friday 5 p.m. where we want to show our anger about what is happening in Lebanon. If you want to see those who see the war, just come see them there and hear them yourself," a Lebanese who craved anonymity told The Guardian.

The Lebanese refugees who flew into the country via the Middle East airline and landed at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) on Monday are believed to be seeking refuge in the residences of their fellow compatriots within the Kano metropolis.

Kano is home to hundreds of Lebanese engaged in hospitality, textile, jewelry, industrial and tourism businesses.

The UN, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) yesterday, said more than 140 people have been killed during Israel's operations there over the past month in Gaza, many of them civilians.

Delivery of food and other essential items has been reduced to a trickle.

Thirty aid agencies backed the appeal, and one charity spoke of a sense among aid agencies that Gaza's population was being terrorised.

Care International told the BBC that Western nations had failed to put pressure on Israel to rein in its actions and that attention was being focused on Lebanon at the expense of the situation in the Gaza Strip.

According to the UN, Israel fires around 150 shells into the tiny territory every day in a bid to stop Palestinian militants who fire an average of 10 rockets across the border.

Israel says it needs to target civilian areas because that is where militants base themselves, but aid organisations say Gaza's population of 1.4 million is living in perpetual fear.

Several nights a week the noise of Israeli helicopters vibrates over Gaza, followed by the sudden explosion of air strikes.

Israel has begun dropping leaflets and leaving telephone messages warning residents not to stay near militant homes, but aid organisations say such measures leave people terrified and with nowhere safe to go.

The UN is currently sheltering 1,000 people in schools in Gaza.

Many others have moved in with relations.

Aid agencies are also calling on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

One hundred and fifty trucks carrying food and essential supplies are currently crossing the border each day, but according to Care International, this is only just enough to stop the population from starving.

To keep people from being hungry and to restore food security, they say, Israel needs to increase this to 400.

Gaza's population is already living in the dark.

Since Israel bombed the power station, homes are often without clean water or electricity and health officials say they are worried about the possible spread of disease.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas are battling for control of several border villages.

There have been about 70 Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Wednesday saw the worst day of rocket attacks since the conflict began, with 230 missiles fired, some of which hit 70km into Israel - the furthest yet.

More than 900 Lebanese people have been killed in the three-week conflict, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said.

In a video message to Muslim leaders meeting in Malaysia, he said more than 3,000 people had been wounded, and that a quarter of the country's population - one million people - had been displaced.

Fifty-five Israelis, including 19 civilians, have been killed.

Diplomats at the United Nations say the UK, France and the U.S. are close to agreeing on a UN resolution calling for an immediate end to the fighting.

The three countries were hoping to present the first part of a two-stage peace plan to the other 12 members of the UN Security Council later yesterday.

The BBC's James Robbins, at UN headquarters in New York, says a second resolution would be proposed at a later stage, focussing on a long-term settlement, including authorisation for an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

The BBC's World Affairs correspondent Frank Gardner says that since such a force could take weeks, or even months to arrive, there are reports that a smaller, more rapidly deployed force of French soldiers may be sent in first.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military's report into its air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday has concluded that the attack was a mistake.

The report said the house where the civilians were sheltering was thought to be a hiding place for Hezbollah militants and would not have been destroyed if Israeli officers had realised civilians were present.

On Sunday, the Red Cross said 54 people, many of them children, died when the house they were sheltering in was hit by Israeli missiles.

Now, a report from the US-based Human Rights Watch says the toll is lower. It said 28 bodies had been recovered and 13 people were still missing.

The Israeli air force said it carried out 70 raids on Lebanon overnight.

Four large explosions hit the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, early yesterday as Israeli war planes attacked the area for the first time in more than a week.

Dahieh was heavily bombed earlier in the Israeli campaign.

There were also air strikes on a bridge in the northern region of Akkar and roads near the border with Syria, and in the Bekaa Valley.

In southern Lebanon, the fighting rages on in at least five areas along the border where Israel has launched ground incursions with more 10,000 ground troops.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there will be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon.

Olmert has said that about 15,000 foreign troops would be needed for such a UN peacekeeping force and that their arrival in the area must overlap with Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

In interviews with UK newspapers, The Times and Financial Times, Prime Minister Olmert said the force must have proper combat units, able to implement UN resolutions.

He also said that Israel would reserve the right to respond to any aggression by Hezbollah - even after the international force was deployed.

"I can tell you only one thing - if our soldiers or our cities are attacked by Hezbollah, we will respond," Mr. Olmert told the Times. "Israel will never, ever allow anyone any more to attack Israel without response."

The Israeli campaign began three weeks ago after Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers.

Ete

Without being insensitive, I don't think Lebanese people have any business staging any protest in Nigeria.  

For one, the World is aware of their plight and the the UN has condemned the bombardment of Lebanon. There is global awareness of the current crisis in their nation. Nigeria has little or no significance in middle east politics, hence any protest in Nigeria about current events in Lebanon is of little relevance.  

My main concern however,  is with the security of lives and property in our country.  There is pattern of violence whenever protests along ethnic and or religious issues are at center stage in Northern Nigerian. Given this kind of volatile atmosphere, it is ill adviced for anyone to plan on staging a protest. We know too well that violence can erupt so easily, and unless the organizers of this protest have some other motive up their sleeves, they ought to know better.

Take for example the Cartoon riots that left over 200 people dead. Nigeria had nothing to do with it. This was between some disgruntled Muslims and a Danish tabloid; somehow, some northern Nigerian Muslims managed to drag other Nigerians into the equation, and the result was another senseless slaughter of innocent people.

If these crooked Lebanese had any sense of decency, they would have thought twice staging any such protest in northern Nigeria given the tendency of certain Nigerians to go over board and turn such occassions to a killing spree.

I have heard first hand from Nigerians that have lived in Lebanon of how they are treated by the Lebanese public and it is very demeaning.

As a matter of fact,  one of my colleagues that went to Nigeria with me for the youth leadership program often recounts his ordeal when he played semi professional basketball in Beirut a few years ago before moving to the US. We used to laugh at stories of his ordeals in Lebanon, but it is no laughing matter. Many Nigerians in Lebanon also suffer similar indignity.

According to him, whenever he left his apartment to go grocery shopping, people would jeer and spew racial insults at him.  Often times, he would ignore the insults and act as if he was completely unaware of the insults, but then they'd point at him and shout "NIGGER" just to make sure he knew it was him they were refering to.  This was no isolated incident either.  It happened so often, he learnt to live with it.

The one that blew my mind was an incident that occured at the Murtala Muhammed Internatonal Airport on his way back to Lebanon after a visit to Nigeria to see his parents during his off season. He said after he showed is passport and necessary travel documents to Nigerian immigration/customs officials, they asked him several un-necessary questions, and then asked him to step out of line for further questioning. He complied. They then went away into an office with his passport along with his Lebanese work permit. After about 15 mins, they re-appeard and told him he could not travel because their was a problem.  

My buddy knowing very well that his paperwork was legitimate and he had never been in any trouble with the law,  began demanding to know what reasons they had to prevent him from travelling. They could not provide him with answers, but escorted him to an airport security room in the building.  There, he encountered an SSS officer. He again demanded to know what was going on and why he was being detained. The SSS officer claimed he was unaware of anything, but that he (my buddy) should wait, and then left the room.  shortly after, a Lebanese businessmnan walked into the room and introduced himself.

My buddy enquired as to his identity and the Lebanese businessman apologized for my buddy's inconvenience revealing that he (the lebanese) was the one who asked the Nigerian official to detain him.  When my friend asked why, his response was that he wanted a chance to negotiate a possible transfer deal with him regarding leaving his current basketball team, and joining his (the lebanese businessman's team).  

I told my buddy, that if had been me in that situation, it would have been war.  Imagine a Lebanese asking Nigerian officiasl at a Nigerian International Airport to detain and disrupt the travel plans of a Nigerian. Which Nigerian can pull that off in Beirut? Not in this life time, and not even in a 100 life times.

This is one of the reasons why I have absolutelty no regard for Nigerian immigrations/ customs. Above all, I have little respect for Lebanese folks.
I even encountered an obnoxious one at Eko Hotel, who found out in a hurry that he wasn't talking to a regular Nigerian, and then jumped in his car and ran after a brief confrontation that he wouldn't forget soon. I'm not going to get into that.  But people, Nigeria is really in serious trouble.  If  Lebanese and others can disrespect us in their countries as well as ours,  then something is seriously seriously wrong.

admin

Ete

Please why don't you just link us to the article(s) and then follow it with your own post,  instead of Copy & Paste?!
Kaini Kano ko a buhun barkono!!!


HUSNAA

There have been several demonstrations staged already in Kano and elsewhere and there has been no violence to date. So hopefully, nothing will happen when the Lebanese stage their protests at the Lebanon club.

Having said that, I am totally in agreement with you, Ete. I really deplore what is happening in Lebanon, but at the same time I really dont like the Lebanese people who live in Kano, specifically. I dont know about the rest of Nigeria, but my experience of them in Kano, is that they are a very arrogant lot. One of them many years ago nearly killed me and my sister on Ahmadu Bello Way Kano, when my sister was speeding and he cut in front of us and caused her to ram in her brakes. The SOB didnt stop, he just sped on. She became so angry that she went after him and wouldnt let him out of her sight until he eventually stopped, then gave him a piece of her mind. He did apologize, but it was only because he thought he wouldnt get away with it or because my sister could speak colloquial arabic like a native.
There is no symbiosis in our business relationships with them, they simply leach us dry, and our social relationship with them is none existent. They hardly make any effort to integrate with the rest of society on an equal footing. If you see any social interaction between a Lebanese and a black, ten to one, the black is a moneyed member of society. The rest of the populace is just a source of cheap exploitative labor.  
So I am not happy to hear an influx of them into Kano. I mean on a humanitarian basis, they are welcome, but what is going to happen is that sooner or later they will bite the hand that feeds them.  
We Nigerians should shed this inferiority complex where any white tom dick and lebanese is concerned, and treat any with the same contempt that they treat us and let them know that we have the upper hand in our own country.
Ghafurallahi lana wa lakum

lionger

Wow. I was about to say that Ete's comments were rather harsh on the Lebanese but HUSNAA's post reminds me of certain things I heard when I was in Nigeria. I think we all agree that the situation in Lebanon is unacceptable. However, news of such protests in Kano leave me a bit  uneasy, given the tendency for such protests to turn into riots. Thank God that has not happened so far.

neozizo

I agree with you Husnaa that they (lebanese)are a snobish, arrogant,  parasitic and rasist lot and i dont care for them living in Nigeria but they are not the only ones guilty of bad driving.

Abeg Ete u be reporter or what?LOL