Syria's Lebanese refugees head home despite doubts

DAMASCUS, Aug 14 (Reuters) Happy to go home but uncertain of the future, thousands of Lebanese refugees in Syria headed back across the border after a truce between Hizbollah and Israel held precariously today.

''Many don't know whether their homes are still standing or not, but they're glad to go back,'' said Annette Rehlr, a UN refugee official who has been monitoring traffic at four border crossings linking Syria and Lebanon.

''Traffic is considerable. I've counted 50 cars in 10 minutes at one border post,'' said Rehlr, who works for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Five weeks of Israeli attacks have displaced an estimated one million Lebanese, 200,000 of which have taken refuge in Syria, where they have been housed in schools, mosques, monasteries, homes and even scouts' camps.

Syrian volunteers wept as they took photos and hugged tearful Lebanese refugees at a school for the blind in Damascus that was turned into a centre for the displaced.

''Whatever you do, don't go south of the Litani River, It is too dangerous,'' a Hizbollah social affairs official told the crowd, mostly from the south and the Bekaa Valley.

They paid little attention, although Israeli warplanes have bombed most roads linking Lebanon with Syria and Israel warned it may target vehicles it does not authorise to move in southern Lebanon, despite a truce that went into effect at 0500 GMT.

''I am going back today. God is the only one who protects,'' said Ali Hamiyeh from the village of Taraya in the Bekaa valley.

In Lebanon, tens of thousands of people also headed south towards their homes, choking bomb-damaged roads with their cars in spite of Israel's warning not to return to the area.

INSTABILITY At a Syrian camp set up in the Zabadani resort among the foothills of the mountains separating Syria from Lebanon, refugees were packing cars with their belongings and plastering pictures of Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on them.

Most of the 1,200 people in the camp were preparing to leave.

Kareem Walid, who fled with his family of eight only two days ago from the village of Riaq, was an exception.

''We're only going back when it is certain the ceasefire will hold. I am taking no chances. Israeli bombs missed us by metres,'' he said.

Hassan Hassan, from the city of Nabatiyeh in the south, was more concerned about Lebanon's ability to preserve internal stability in the wake of the Israeli onslaught, which started after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

''I am more afraid about civil war than another Israeli invasion.

We don't trust our weak government and army, or other sects,'' said Hassan, who is a Shi'ite, like most of those displaced by the war.

''The Shi'ites are the only ones who defended Lebanon,'' he said.

''Hizbollah should not give up its weapons.'' REUTERS SP RN2249