Father Says They Live in Terror, Fear : Lebanese Offer Children for Adoption

A despairing family today offered their children for adoption in any liberal European country as the once-prosperous Lebanese united in a strike to protest the nation’s worsening economic crisis after 12 years of civil war.

Witnesses said the one-day protest, called by the General Labor Federation, was observed in both Muslim and Christian areas and closed schools, banks, stores, public and private institutions and Beirut airport.

Fayez Awarki, a 38-year-old bank employee, grimly told reporters that he and his wife want their three children to be adopted because life is too difficult.

“They are prisoners of war . . . they only think of terror and fear. It is very important for my children to leave this country for any European country where the value of human life is important,” he said.

The Awarkis are the third family known to have offered to give away or sell children in Lebanon in the last nine months. In a fourth case, a woman was criminally charged for selling her three children to a British family.

Siham Awarki, 28, said she preferred to live away from her children rather than watch them go hungry and perhaps be hurt in violence.

The Awarkis said their decision was not linked to today’s strike but came after failing to emigrate and being unable to increase the husband’s $41 monthly salary.

The labor federation, in calling its third strike this year, said the inflation rate is running at more than 200% a year and warned that it will step up disruptions if nothing is done.

The cheapest 12-ounce can of powdered milk costs $3.25. About one-third of the people are out of work and the minimum weekly salary is $27--or seven tins of milk.

Lebanon imports 80% of its needs and, since the war began, the average annual salary has fallen to about $600 from $5,300.