Survivors of Camp Massacre Blame Sharon

B E I R U T, Lebanon -- In her tiny home in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra in Beirut, Nadima Nasser dabs her eyes as she recalls the horrific events of September 1982, when virtually every male in her family was slaughtered or went missing in one of the worst atrocities of the Middle East conflict.

History hangs heavy in Nasser's spotlessly clean one-room home in the northern edge of the sprawling camp. Photographs of dead and missing relatives on the walls, her soft weeping and the family silence as she recounts her story are testimony to the fact that in the Nasser household, life may go on, but the past prevails.

Naseer is one of 23 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in a Belgian court against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his alleged involvement in the September 1982 massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla.

More than 800 people were killed or went missing in a three-day killing spree by Lebanese Christian militiamen allowed into the camps by Israeli soldiers. Some estimates, however, put the death toll at 1,800. Israel had invaded Lebanon in June 1982 and as occupiers responsible for the security of civilians in Lebanon, Israeli troops were stationed around the camps during the time the massacres occurred.

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On Wednesday, a legal panel is expected to rule on whether Sharon can be tried in a Brussels court under a 1993 Belgian law, which allows crimes against humanity and genocide to be tried in Belgian courts, regardless of where the crimes were committed.

Sharon's lawyers have argued that the Israeli prime minister — who was defense minister during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon when the massacres occurred — enjoys diplomatic immunity. They have also questioned the competence of the court to try a crime not committed on Belgian soil.

But Chibli Mallat, one of three lawyers who filed the case on behalf of the plaintiffs, says he is ready for a long legal haul. "Obviously we are going to exhaust all legal possibilities on March 6 and so will Sharon's lawyers. If we lose, we will appeal to a cessation court in Belgium and we expect Sharon's lawyers to do the same."