Gemayel Says He Is Sure That 1987 Will See Peace in Lebanon

Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, delivering a New Year’s Eve address to his country as bloody battles raged around refugee camps in Beirut, said Wednesday that he is confident that 1987 will finally bring peace to Lebanon.

The president’s nationally broadcast speech came amid a flurry of behind-the-scenes maneuvers aimed at arranging a meeting between Gemayel and President Hafez Assad of Syria, the main foreign power broker in Lebanon.

“These contacts will end with the holding of a summit between President Gemayel and Assad,” a source close to Gemayel told United Press International. “But it is still early to tell when this summit will be held.”

‘End of Dark Tunnel’

Speaking to the nation, Gemayel said: “We are about to reach the end of the dark tunnel.”

“I am full of confidence that the new year will bring with it peace and liberty,” he said.

There have been countless attempts to end Lebanon’s 12-year-old civil war, but all have failed.

Nine weeks of clashes between Shia Muslim militiamen and Palestinian guerrillas trapped in refugee camps in Beirut and the coastal city of Tyre, 46 miles south of Beirut, continued on Wednesday, leaving six people dead. The casualties hiked to 349 the death toll in the camp battles.

Militia guns fell silent Wednesday on the three-mile-long “Green Line” separating Muslim West Beirut from Christian East Beirut, but limited artillery exchanges late Tuesday killed two civilians, police sources said.

Thousands Homeless

At least 100,000 people have been killed and thousands of others have been left homeless since war broke out in Lebanon in April, 1975.

The last major attempt at arranging a peace came in December, 1985, when the country’s main militia factions signed a Syrian-sponsored peace accord.

But the pact fell apart--straining relations between Gemayel and Assad--after Gemayal and other Christian leaders rejected provisions designed to give Muslims more power in the traditionally Christian-controlled government.

The peace agreement also stipulated that Damascus and Beirut should closely coordinate foreign, defense and security policy. But Christians said the two countries should respect each other’s independence and liberty.