FOOTNOTES : Sports Fever Calms Beirut
World Cup fever is sweeping Lebanon. When matches begin, rival Christian fighters lay down their guns, switch on their portable TV sets and for a while, the country is calm.
The only gunfire comes when excited militiamen shoot in the air in jubilation when their favorite soccer teams score.
When West Germany played Yugoslavia last week, a group of scruffy militiamen from Samir Geagea’s Christian militia gathered around a mobile antiaircraft gun in East Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh district. They watched the game on a portable TV propped up beside the weapon.
A few yards away, their rivals--the troops of Gen. Michel Aoun--also watched the game, on a TV powered by a truck battery.
“The World Cup has been a godsend,” said one man in East Beirut. “We really needed a diversion, even if it’s only for a month.
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