From Sidon to Tripoli

Abstract

Born in Canada of Greek parents, Dr Giannou trained at the Universi ty of Algiers medical school and completed his medical degree at Cairo University, specialising in cancer surgery. There he became fluent in Arabic. He then joined the Egyptian National Cancer Institute as a resident and worked in its hospital. Being on call from 7 am to mid night, at times seven days a week, for three years was to be excellent preparation for war surgery with its demands of discipline, drudgery and improvisation. After the Israelis invaded southern Lebanon in June 1982, Dr Gian nou operated on the wounded while shells and bombs fell around the hospital in Sidon where he was then working. Arrested by the Israelis, he witnessed beatings of prisoners and testified before the Canadian Ministry of External Affairs and the US House Foreign Affairs sub committee on the Middle East during the summer of 1982. That sum mer and in the autumn he toured thirty US cities, speaking at colleges and before church and community groups about his experiences in Lebanon. Dr Giannou returned to the Middle East to set up a hospital in the Tripoli region where he worked for eight months. When thefighting in the ranks of the Palestine Liberation Organisation spread to Tripoli, he continued to work there. As a new member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, he plans to return to the Middle East and practise surgery among Palestinians. He also will be responsible for helping to administer the extensive Palestine Red Crescent public health network. As a medical doctor he treated Arafat loyalists and dissidents alike. He came in contact with Israeli prisoners whom the PLO had earlier captured. In the course of his work he met with Arafat on a daily basis and participated in the difficult negotiations which led to the exchange of prisoners held by the Israelis and Palestinians. His eyewitness ac count provides one of the first insights we have into what transpired during the intense fighting in the Tripoli region prior to the evacuation of Palestinian forces in mid-December 1983. The events in Tripoli have caused him chagrin and deep anxiety, but he remains optimistic about the future, arguing that out of the Tripoli conflict will emerge new clarity and new political initiatives. These, he believes, will be based on the Arafat wing of the PLO accepting the principles of majority rule, rather than continuing to make decisions on the basis of difficult-to-achieve unanimity. He expects Franco- Egyptian peace initiatives to dominate the diplomatic stage in the mon ths ahead and he sees no alternative to Yasser Arafat's leadership of the PLO. He also expects Arafat to carry out changes while being sup ported by the majority of the Palestinian population living under Israeli occupation.