Lebanon govt to subsidise postwar home rebuilding

BEIRUT, Aug 30: The Lebanese government will pay some 40,000 dollars in compensation to each family whose house was destroyed by Israel in the 34-day war to help them start rebuilding, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said today.

The offer excludes southern Beirut, where damage to residential areas was greatest, but where Hizbollah has already begun handing out its own 12,000 dollars in cash to help families pay a year's rent until it rebuilds their homes.

The government had been criticised for not moving fast enough to compensate Lebanese left homeless by Israeli air strikes, while Hizbollah began handing out cash only days after a truce was agreed two weeks ago.

''The Lebanese government will pay those who are rebuilding homes that are completely destroyed the sum of 50 million pounds 33,100 dollars as assistance per destroyed house regardless of its size or its contents,'' Siniora told a news conference.

''It also pledges the sum of 10 million Lebanese pounds for furniture and contents if they have been completely destroyed.'' Speaking before leaving for a donors' conference in Sweden, Siniora said 130,000 dwellings across Lebanon had been destroyed or damaged by Israeli air strikes in the war between the Jewish state and Hizbollah.

About 50,000 of those homes are in southern Beirut, a Hizbollah stronghold, and most of the rest in southern Lebanon, where much of the fighting took place.

Hizbollah sources say around 7,000 homes were destroyed in southern Beirut and more than 9,000 in south and east Lebanon.

SPONSOR VILLAGES

Compensation will be paid in two parts, with homeowners eligible for the second payment only if they can prove they have spent the first on rebuilding. Contents compensation will be paid only after a house has been rebuilt. Siniora said the government would also provide prefabricated houses to all whose homes had been destroyed so that they could stay in their villages until rebuilding was complete, and would compensate families whose damaged homes needed repairs.

The compensation Hizbollah is handing out is to help families rent accommodation until their houses have been rebuilt -- convenient in Beirut but less so in villages where people tend to own their homes and there are few properties to let.

Siniora said the government was still trying to work out how to compensate those whose shops, factories or offices were damaged in the war.

The Israelis destroyed Lebanon's largest factories as well as many shops and offices, causing damage running into tens of millions of dollars and threatening economic growth.

Siniora said Lebanon would ask for help from 60 countries and international organisations attending the Stockholm conference. Swedish officials have said Lebanon would be seeking 500 million dollars in aid at the meeting tomorrow.

Siniora said Lebanon also wanted countries to sponsor the rebuilding of villages. Saudi Arabia has already pledged to rebuild 10 villages in south Lebanon and Qatar two, he said. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference has said it will sponsor the rebuilding of Khiam, a badly hit town in the south.

Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said the party would top up the government compensation if more cash was needed to build a house of the same size and style as the original.

REUTERS