CTV: Hezbollah feared to be buying loyalty in Lebanon

Hezbollah feared to be buying loyalty in Lebanon

Friday August 18 2006 11:43 PM ET | CTV.ca News Staff

Having declared victory in the wake of the ceasefire with Israel, a well-funded Hezbollah is consolidating its hold on the hearts and minds of the Lebanese by rebuilding communities destroyed in the war.

It's estimated Hezbollah has a budget of more than $100-million a year -- most of it from Iran. The group is using that money to pay for new homes, rent, and even furniture for any families who register.

"This is something really nice," one man told Associated Press Television. "God bless them."

The group announced its commitment to financial aid before the Lebanese government had a chance to act, which analysts called a major public relations victory.

"Hezbollah is going to milk this for all it's worth. People are in a very radicalized, angry state," said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb of the Lebanese American University.

In Hezbollah strongholds like Haret Hreik in south Beirut, where more than 200 buildings were destroyed, journalists are invited to survey the damage and the reconstruction process.

"We try, you know, to show everybody what Israel has done over here," said construction worker Ahmed Awada.

The success at which Hezbollah has moved into action to rebuild homes has worried U.S. officials, concerned the terrorist group will be able to buy Lebanese loyalty.

U.S. President George W. Bush said Friday that it will take time for the Lebanese to understand Hezbollah is a destabilizing force in the region.

In total, about 15,000 homes are estimated to have been destroyed in pitched battles between Israel and Hezbollah. The war began when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

An estimated 118 Israeli troops died in the conflict. Hezbollah has claimed only 68 of its fighters were killed, but Israel said the number is likely closer to 300.

Meanwhile, about 15,000 Lebanese soldiers are being sent to keep an uneasy peace in south Lebanon, about 20 kilometres from the border with Israel, where they await a similar number of troops from an international peacekeeping force.

The United Nations has received about 3,500 pledges of troops so far. Bangladesh is sending 2,000, the largest number of any other country.

Bush said he was disappointed with France's commitment to send only 400 soldiers, admitting he had hoped France would send more.

But France may be fighting public opinion over losses incurred in previous peacekeeping efforts.

Fifty-eight French paratroopers were killed by a suicide bomb attack in Beirut in 1983, and a total of 84 were killed in Bosnia in the 1990s.

Germany, still sensitive about its Nazi past, has declined to send any troops at all, worried about the possibility of confrontation with Israeli troops.

With a report by CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer in Haret Hreik, Beirut and files from The Associated Press