Maronite archbishop calls refugee problem in Lebanon huge, dire

Published: 2006-07-19

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- The refugee problem in Lebanon is huge and the situation in the south of the country is "atrocious," said Maronite Archbishop Paul Nabil Sayah of Haifa and the Holy Land. "In some of the areas in the south the humanitarian situation is dire. People have no food, no medicine and no way of going anywhere or getting anything," he said in a July 19 phone interview from Amman, Jordan. "They are living in fear with one raid after another." Archbishop Sayah was in Lebanon when the war began with Israel, and he arrived in Amman July 18, traveling through Damascus, Syria, and getting through only by "sheer providence," he said. He said he wanted to make the dangerous return trip to be with his people in Israel, some of whose communities have been hit by Katyusha rockets lobbed by Hezbollah militants. "The Lebanese are also my people but my responsibility is here. ... (In) Haifa and (the village of) Jish they are scared. I can't help but feel the suffering of my people, and I am helpless," he said.

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