Testimonials of the civil war in Lebanon
Posted by: adonis49 on: September 3, 2020
Testimonials of a civil war:
The case of Zeinab Shaaban Naanuh . Posted in 2008
Note: civil war in Lebanon (1975-1991)
The issue of the daily Al Balad, April 17, 2005
Zinab Sheaban Naanuh is from the Shia Muslim sect and in her fifty now. Zinab had to relocate 7 times with her four children, without the assistance of her husband.
When she was living in Ras Dekwani in East Beirut, close to the Palestinian refugees’ camp of Tel Zaatar.
Water was the priciest commodity during the war.
People had to walk far to the only well available because all water lines were destroyed or cut off.
In every sortie for fetching water, 3 out of 10 volunteers died during the trip to the well.
Then the Christian militias polluted the well by dumping dead bodies.
Zinab new born child almost died of dehydration and she had to leave all her children and tempt death to the well.
Her husband Abu Nasser sold cigarettes, but they lived the good life before the war. Her husband had to travel to Russia for a stomach surgery and Zinab did not see him for the duration of the war.
She remembers the Black Saturday massacre as the Christian militias slaughtered all of Beirut port workers using machetes, daggers, and bullets, while her husband was isolated in West Beirut for two weeks.
One day, a butcher sold her half of a whole mutton for two cigarettes. Zinab never patronized any shelter for the duration of the war because of the serious diseases contracted in these infected places and opted instead to taking her chances.
Zinab twice gave birth during heavy shelling while having to cater for her children all alone.
Once, a rocket entered her living room but did not explode. After cleaning the house she carried the rocket outside the building where expert people detonated it and the Captain admonished her for this foolishness.
After the fall of Tal Zaatar, Zinab experienced her worst nightmares during her exit from Dekwani to West Beirut. The Christian militias exterminated the Palestinian males and left only one male to each mother and carried away the rest to their death.
One method the militia used to carry out this mass killing plan was to deliver sleeping pills under the guise of aspirin to the refugees and to retrieve the males sentenced to death while people were sleeping.
A taxi driver charged Zinab $100 to take her out of this mad place.
Zinab was an eyewitness to the impalements of people: two jeeps would attach the limbs of a person then drive away in different directions.
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