Word: karami
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...bringing the eight-month death toll to more than 4,000. (Lebanon's population is only 3 million. It is as though the U.S. had suffered 250,000 deaths in a civil war.) "We cannot stand any more fighting," said Lebanon's almost despairing Moslem Premier, Rashid Karami. "The country is on the brink of collapse...
...chance, Lebanon's twelfth cease-fire takes hold, the man responsible will be Premier Rashid Karami, whose amazing patience makes him look like "the man of eternal hope. "A Sunni Moslem lawyer from Tripoli, Karami locked himself in the Serail (Government House) during the peak of the most recent fighting and vowed he would not leave until the street battles ended. In effect, Karami became the government. He took over the direction of security affairs-he holds the Defense portfolio in addition to being Premier-and worked round the clock without the help of aides, pleading with leaders...
...cease-fire was the result of Premier Rashid Karami's tireless wheedling, pushing and talking with leaders of the rival warring factions (see box). But there was no agreement on any of the political issues that have divided Lebanon between conservative Christians, who constitute less than 40% of the population, and predominantly Moslem leftists, who are in the majority and want political reforms that would result in a more equitable distribution of power now largely in Christian hands...
...Phalangists did leave some of the luxury hotels they had occupied in downtown Beirut but held on to the rocket-battered 26-story Holiday Inn. Leftists refused to budge from their commanding perch in the nearby 30-story, unfinished Murr Tower. Public cynicism about the cease-fire deepened when Karami's attempt to collect heavy weapons from both sides produced nothing. Kidnaping continued, and snipers killed ten on the third day of the truce...
Clean-up efforts began, but schools and most banks did not reopen, and most civil servants ignored Premier Karami's order to return to work. One suspicion was that the lull was only a "paycheck truce" during which the soldiers of the private militias involved would collect back salaries from local political bosses or other employers, get food for their families and rebuild their own supply of arms and ammunition...