Palestinians mark 1982 massacre with little hope they'll see justice

BEIRUT (AP) — Billboards bearing pictures of the dead look over the mass grave of hundreds of men, women and children slain by Lebanese militiamen at two Palestinian refugee camps during Israel's 1982 invasion. On the 20th anniversary of the Sabra and Chatilla massacre, the survivors have little hope they will ever see justice.

"Each year is worse than the one before," said Mohammed Abu Rdeina, who lost his father, sister and other relatives in the slaughter.

On Sept. 16, 1982, pro-Israeli Lebanese Christian militiamen entered the Beirut camps and killed hundreds of civilians over the next three days. They sought revenge for the assassination of their leader, President-elect Bashir Gemayel, which they blamed on Palestinian guerrillas.

The exact number of people killed has never been firmly established, but most estimates center around 700-800.

Lebanon, which suffered 150,000 deaths during its 1975-90 civil war and is patched together by a fragile pact of coexistence between its Christian and Muslim communities, has never prosecuted any Lebanese for the massacre.

Many Arabs blame Israel for the slayings, noting that soldiers of its invading army stood by just outside the camps during the killings.

An Israeli commission of inquiry found then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of the invasion, indirectly responsible for the massacre, prompting his resignation in 1983.

When Sharon became Israel's prime minister last year, 23 survivors of the massacre filed a war crimes complaint against him in Belgium under a 1993 Belgian law granting its courts "universal jurisdiction" over war crimes committed elsewhere.

But a Belgian appeals court dismissed the complaint June 26, ruling a case could not proceed against a person not in Belgium.

Some Belgian lawmakers are seeking to bolster the "universal jurisdiction" provision, but Abu Rdeina puts little faith in the effort.

"The case is over against Sharon," he said, standing in a narrow alley of Chatilla where his father, pregnant sister, brother-in-law and several cousins were killed. He, his mother and younger sister had become separated from the rest of the family and were freed after being taken to another location by Christian militiamen.