Southern Lebanon hopes for donor aid as a boost

RMAISH, Lebanon, July 27 (Reuters) -- Elias and his nine children are among the poor southern Lebanese to whom the government hopes to channel international aid, with a donor conference opening in Beirut on Thursday.

"I am counting that conditions will improve so I can keep my children in school next semester," said Elias, a construction worker from the village of Rmaish at the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Economy Minister Nasser Saidi has said Lebanon's appeal to donor nations would include $1.3 billion to rehabilitate southern Lebanon, $260 million in emergency aid and another $5 billion for other backward areas of the country in grants or soft loans.

Thursday's meeting, however, will only be at ambassadorial level and a full pledging meeting of donors is not expected before early October.

But Elias hopes plans to revive south Lebanon's economy will raise demand for his skills. His 10-year-old daughter Reymonda helps sustain the family by picking tobacco leaves before she goes to school.

Unemployment has been the main problem in the area since Israel ended its 22-year occupation in May.

An estimated 70 percent of the 80,000 people who lived under Israeli occupation depended on the now-defunct Israeli-backed local militia and Israeli factories for their incomes.

"Money used to circulate here," Zeina Ali-Ahmad, a programme officer with the United Nations Development Programme, said during a tour of the south this week.

"But many areas still suffer lack of drinking or irrigation water. There should be encouragement to start small agro-industrial enterprises. This is fertile land," she said.

Most people in the former Israeli-occupied zone planted Lebanese-subsidized tobacco to supplement their salaries.

Poverty dominated the south before Israel occupied it in 1978. Lack of opportunity and government inattention forced migration to a "misery belt" around Beirut or abroad, especially to Africa where many made their fortunes.

The Lebanese government wants potential donor countries to help open and pave southern roads, build schools and hospitals and even reconstruct houses destroyed during Israel's occupation.

"We need schools for our children and clinics close to our villages," said Mohammed, from Aitaroun.

In the flattened Haneen village, families returned after the Israeli withdrawal to find their homes destroyed.

"That used to be mine," Yousef Soufan said, pointing to the remains of a house where green grass grew on the side of a former ceiling.

"Israel destroyed it along with all the houses of the village over two decades ago. We need help, at least soft loans to rebuild."

In Marjayoun, former base for the pro-Israeli militia, about 1,000 people still live in the town, while hundreds fled with the retreating Israelis in fear of revenge.

"Our roads are not paved, agriculture is almost non-existent and we do not have a fixed telephone network," said Archbishop Elias Khoury.

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