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Syrians flee 'revenge'
A growing exodus of Syrian workers, fearful they will be scapegoated for last week's killing of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, threatens to cost Lebanon's construction and agriculture sectors millions of dollars. Businessmen say many building sites are scarcely functioning amid reports of a spate of beatings, robberies and arson attacks targeting the 300,000-plus Syrian migrant workers, the backbone of Lebanon's cheap labour force.
Syrian street-vendors and nightwatchmen are widely suspected by ordinary Lebanese of working for their country's powerful intelligence services, particularly in Christian, Druze and Sunni areas, where opposition to Damascus's dominant role in Lebanon runs deep. The scale of the resentment against all things Syrian in those areas prompted a call for calm from the leading opposition politician, Druze MP Walid Jumblatt. "Lebanese should not display hostility towards Syrian citizens and Syrian workers in Lebanon because they are not responsible" for Hariri's killing, Jumblatt said. "The intelligence services are one thing and the Syrian worker is another. We don't want rancour against the Syrian worker. We want to finish with the terrorist rule of the combined Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services." Posted by: Fred 2005-02-26 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=57435 |