Shia Muslims Call Truce in War With PLO

In what appeared to be a victory for Palestinian guerrilla forces, Lebanon’s Shia Muslim militia Monday called an immediate cease-fire around Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and southern Lebanon.

Addressing a press conference in Damascus, Nabih Berri, leader of the Amal militia, also announced that his forces will allow food and medical supplies into a besieged camp near the southern port of Tyre on New Year’s Eve and provide for the evacuation of the wounded.

“On the occasion of the New Year and as a good-will gesture, because of the sisterly stand of Syria and the wish of the Iranian president, we have called on our fighters to observe a total cease-fire as of today,” Berri said.

Over 500 Slain

More than 500 people have been reported killed and hundreds wounded in the last three months in clashes between Amal and Palestinian fighters in and around the Rashidiyeh camp near Tyre, at the Ein el Hilwa camp near the southern port of Sidon and at the Chatilla and Borj el Brajne camps in Beirut.

In what appeared to be a concession to the Palestinians, Berri indicated that the cease-fire would take place without the Palestinians being required to withdraw from the strategic village of Maghdousheh near Sidon, as Amal has been demanding for the last six weeks. But he said Amal still wants the withdrawal to take place.

Maghdousheh is a formerly Christian village from which Amal forces were able to bombard the Palestinian camp in Sidon. Palestinian forces, in their first battle outside the refugee camps in two years, wrested control of Maghdousheh from Amal last month. It was a humiliating defeat for Amal and gave the Palestinians control over traffic moving into southern Lebanon, which is predominantly Shia Muslim.

Apart from the concession of allowing food and medicine into Rashidiyeh camp, it was unclear if the cease-fire announced by Berri has any greater chance of success than a dozen earlier truces that failed to take hold in the last three months.

“Without a political agreement, it will not be any different from any of the previous cease-fires,” said a Palestinian official in Damascus. “The truce remains fragile and can be broken at will.”

The official said that the cease-fire, combined with the provision of food and medicine to Rashidiyeh, was “the first gesture” toward achieving a settlement.

But he noted that Berri had rejected as recently as three days ago a peace proposal put forth by Iranian President Ali Khamenei calling for the withdrawal of Palestinian forces from Maghdousheh and the removal of Amal forces from around the camps in the south.

Under this proposal, a buffer force composed of various Lebanese Muslim militias would have taken up positions between the two sides.

A Measure of Unity

Apart from undermining Amal’s strength in southern Lebanon, the “camps war” has succeeded in uniting disparate Palestinian guerrilla factions that have been bickering since 1984.

The recent fighting saw forces loyal to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah guerrilla faction fighting side by side with dissident PLO groups based in Damascus that are members of the Syrian-backed Palestinian National Salvation Front, which is nominally opposed to Arafat’s leadership.

The realignment of forces during the recent camps battles prompted an Israeli military officer in Tel Aviv to tell a news briefing that the Palestine Liberation Organization has made a significant comeback in southern Lebanon, from which it was dislodged by the Israeli invasion in June, 1982.

The officer, who spoke anonymously at the briefing, said Palestinian fighters in the last five weeks have taken control of the area around Sidon and the coastal road leading from Beirut into southern Lebanon.

“This position gives them quite a say in what goes on in the south,” the officer said. “We think they have outclassed their enemy.”

PLO Strength Estimates

He estimated the number of Palestinian fighters at between 7,500 and 8,000, including 2,500 near Sidon, 2,300 in Beirut, 700 in the northern city of Tripoli, 300 in Tyre, 900 in the Shouf Mountains and 1,000 in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon.

The officer also asserted that Christian militias loyal to Lebanese President Amin Gemayel have been providing the PLO with safe passage into Lebanon through the Christian-controlled port of Juniyah north of Beirut.

Gemayel and Arafat once were mortal enemies, but there has been considerable speculation in Lebanon recently about a link between the two men because both are opposed to Syrian President Hafez Assad.