Sweden spearheads Lebanon reconstruction effort

Sweden has invited 60 countries and aid agencies to a donors’ conference aimed at helping Lebanon rebuild homes, roads and lives.

Big donor nations such as the US, France, Britain, Germany, Norway and Japan as well as the Gulf States were among those invited to the August 31 conference in Stockholm, Swedish aid minister Carin Jamtin said yesterday.

She said Israel was not on the guest list for the meeting, which Sweden would host with help from the United Nations and the Lebanese government.

“The countries invited are those who are traditional donors at this type of conference,” Jamtin told The Associated Press by telephone. “This will not be a political meeting, it's about urgent reconstruction.”

Jamtin said that included rebuilding ports, bridges and roads wrecked by Israeli bombs to help thousands of people who fled the month long fighting return to their homes.

“Security is a condition for people to move back. But there must also be bridges to cross and there must be homes with roofs over their heads,” Jamtin said. She declined to name a figure on how much aid was needed, saying that was up to Lebanon to determine.

Israel halted its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas yesterday as a UN-imposed cease-fire went into effect after a month of warfare that killed more than 900 people, devastated much of south Lebanon and forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters.

Lebanon said 791 people were killed since July 12. Israel said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians were killed in fighting or from Hezbollah rockets.

“The world community now has to give its support to Lebanon’s recovery and to the Lebanese people who have been severely affected,” said Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson, who will co-host the conference with Jamtin.

Prime Minister Goran Persson said on August 6 that Sweden was ready to host a donors’ conference for Lebanon once a UN resolution for a cease-fire was in place.

The conference will take place two weeks ahead of national elections in Sweden, but the governing Social Democrats said it would not interrupt its campaign for re-election.

“I hope neither we nor others make party politics out of this,” Jamtin said.