'Diplomats and diplomacy': My friend Yasser Arafat and the days of civil war -VI

I might narrate a story of determination and courage of a young Pakistani. In 1976, in the height of Civil War, and when Beirut was a real death trap, still some construction continued right in front of our Embassy on Lyon Street. One day my First Secretary Taleb Khursheed Mir whose camaraderie during those dark days I cherish, told me "Sir, do you know in this building structure right in front of us, a young Pakistani is working as manual labourer, carrying bricks on the second floor under construction. He sleeps in this place also.
He passed his intermediate science in First Division and High School in science subjects in First Division. He says he is earning money for getting admission abroad in engineering because he could not get admission in engineering in Pakistan despite his high first division marks. I asked Taleb to bring this boy to me.
When he came he confirmed what he told Taleb Mir I asked him to bring his certificates and relevant papers to prove it. He came next day and his statements were confirmed. He had stood third in the university in his Intermediate Science. He said his father was an Excise Inspector in Okara. He had no sifarish so he could not get admission in engineering. His story presented to me the other side of picture.
Excise Inspectors are reputedly most corrupt officials. His father was one rare exception and an honest man whose son was carrying bricks to the second floor to earn some money for his education at a place where his life was in danger. I asked him what help he wanted from me.
I will do any thing I can do for him. He said; If you get me a Saudi Visa for work there, I would earn enough money to go to Europe for my engineering degree. I asked him how will he earn money in Saudi Arabia. He showed me some of his excellent writings of the Holy Verse by bamboo skin. I telephoned Saudi Charge Abdul Mohsin el Samman, and got him a visa. He left for Saudi Arabia. I never heard from him. I hop his dreams were fulfilled.
The militias never stopped me. They recognised my car, and my face. Even where they had a barrier and long line, I would go through, "taffadul ya safirona "(pass through our ambassador) Kuwaiti ambassador's car was stolen, some other ambassadors cars were stolen but my car which used to be on the open drive way of the Shell building was never harmed.
During the siege of Beirut, there was a great shortage of doctors to treat general public and the wounded Red Cross sent a medical mission of doctors, surgeons and nurses, Arafat asked me to send a telegraphic message from him to ZAB to send a complete Field Ambulance team to treat the sick and wounded in the Palestinian controlled area. ZAB immediately dispatched the team by air to Nicosia and from there they came in a small passenger boat to Sour (Tyre) I went to Sour to receive them.
It was headed by a Major and had some surgeons and physicians. The Nursing team was headed by an elderly lady (Major Nasim Burki?). PLO made arrangements for their stay in a three storied building much behind their camps. I gave a reception for them inviting the PLO commanders in the South. The entire team including the officers were imbibed with the spirit of service except their commandant, the major.
The lady Major earned great respect of the commandos and the local population for her nursing and sympathetic attitude. But the commandant of the team, the Major, was having cold feet as their lodging was about six about six miles from Israel.
I tried to persuade him to stay and went myself to live in an unguarded ground floor hotel in Sour but he insisted on early return and managed it through his own channels. He was given some kind of military bravery medal for his and his teams service in Lebanon!!
During their stay in Sour the team received a seriously wounded person and immediately started to operate on him. Palestinians commandos gathered outside the operation theatre demanding that the person be handed to them as he was an important commander or something of a pro-Israeli Christian militia. They said they wanted to kill him.
Our doctors refused saying that according to the medical ethics once a wounded had been brought to them they have to treat him, irrespective of his religion, creed or his politics. In Beirut PLO people complained to me about our doctors' non co-operation but I upheld the doctors. I rushed to Sour or Tyre to contain the incident.
The young captain later rose to be a major general in Army Medical and became a famous surgeon I went to Sour Tyre quite often when the team was staying there. It was risky as I had no guard and it was the area where Israelis made raids. Abu Jihad the local PLO Commander offered to take me inside Israel. I refused I said this can cause great embarrassment to Pakistan.
I better stay away. During these days my military attaché, Group Captain (later Air Vice Marshal) Yunus - whom I shared with Damascus embassy - wanted to go to the South I arranged his visit right up to the Lebanon-Israeli border with Al-Fatah's Southern Commander Abu Musa and his group. As a captain in Jordanian Army Abu Musa was trained in Pakistan the Military Attache was of course guarded by the Al-Fatah there. For eight months Beirut remained without electricity. It caused great hardship.
It was difficult to live in multi-storied buildings. My flat was on the eleventh floor I had to climb eleven floors in the absence of lift. Each story had 22 steps. Or 242 steps each time I climbed or descended. In the absence of electricity there was no water supply people started using the old wells I learnt that the nearest place to get water was Ramlatel Bida - about five miles from my residence.
The Chinese Embassy there had a well to which they had fixed a pipe from which people in the locality were taking water at fixed times. People would queue up to take water. Not to bother the Chinese friends, I started to stand in the queue at their gate to get water from that pipe for a few days but a few days later Dr Raza, an assistant professor in AUB arranged that I could take water from the AUB, and had baths at his house. In any case each day I had to take two tins of 10 liters of water up to my eleventh floor for drinking, shaving, washing dishes and cooking.
I was deeply touched when I received a personal letter (No D-419-A-PS (PM)/ 76 dated 8 July, '76 from prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto conveying his "deep appreciation (for) the courage and sense of duty "shown in the most harrowing and tragic situation in Lebanon." A copy of the letter has been reproduced in this book. In any other case, this appreciation would have formed part of a high national award. In my case, the boss of the Foreign Office was so kind that this letter found no mention in my Annual Confidential Performance Records. ZAB did not know me except as a Foreign Service Ambassador. This was an appreciation of a Prime Minister to his ambassador.
RETURN OF UNEASY PEACE: When the fighting between Syrians and PLO reached a precarious point, Saudi Arabia called a Summit of PLO, Syria, and the Phalangists at Riyadh on 18th October, 1976. This was followed by the Arab League Cairo Conference on 25th and 26th October 1976 before proceeding to Riyadh. Arafat called me to send his letter to ZAB, about the Arab Peace Conference. He had sent his car to fetch me to his headquarters in Sabra as it was late in the evening and my driver had left for his office.
This was the time when Beirut was still without electricity. On descending from the flat, I found that the keys of the main security gate of the building, which was erected during the civil war, had been left up in the flat, I had to go up to bring the keys.
It meant coming down and again going up and then again going down quickly or 726 steps in one go. When I reached his HQ, I found every famous Palestinian leader, and commanders waiting out side Arafat's office. Their faces were pulled down; the mood was very somber in the gathering. The rolly polly. Umme Naser, Arafat's secretary took me in to Arafat. She was a typical efficient secretary one finds with chief executives. Arafat was the only person who was still cheerful. He sent a message through me to ZAB.
The Arab Peace Conferences, at Riyad and Cairo set up an Arab Deterrence Force of 30,000 troops out of which 3,000 were UAE, Yemen, Sudan and Saudi troops and 27,000 were Syrian troops. Peace returned to Lebanon through these Arab conferences in early 1976 a new president Elias Sarkis was installed in the Presidency in Babda with Salim el Hoss as Prime Minister.
He named a cabinet of technocrats who were to rule by decrees for six months. Syrian Army manned posts upto Litani River, which Israel had declared since long as the
'red line' beyond which they could not tolerate any "foreign" or Arab troops. Palestinian hands continued to rule the area in the South.
The gregarious party loving Beirutis would still host lunch parties, because moving out in the night was risky. Few days after the Multi-Arab Truce Troops arrived to implement the Riyadh and Cairo Accord. A subdued night life returned to Beirut. During 1977 there were several direct contacts between ZAB and Arafat with me as channel.
I would mention only one. One day I was asked to stay at the wireless for an important message. ZAB was returning from Libya and wanted to come to Beirut next day to have a meeting with. Arafat he was in South then. He replied that it would be better if the meeting was held at Kuwait next morning. On another occasion, I was asked to arrange for Arafat's visit to Islamabad in 1977 January.
Again ZAB asked me to approach Arafat to send some PLO leader to join the mediatory efforts of Saudi Ambassador in Islamabad with the combined opposition Arafat sent his Political adviser, Hani El Hassan, to Islamabad.
My last party in Beirut was a memorable event. After I was transferred to Cairo, and I paid my farewell call on Yasser Arafat at his Sabra Headquarters, we had a long friendly conversation like between two friends. I told him I was planning to leave on 7th July for Cairo and asked him to have a dinner with me. He was quiet choosy even in attending National Day reception. I saw him only at Soviet National Day once.
He gave me 3rd of July (1977) the date for his dinner at my Rouche Residence. I invited about thirty Pakistanis including some students, without telling them what the dinner was about, for security reasons. But I emphasised that they should be punctually ten minutes before eight in my place; and that no one will be allowed entry thereafter. No one understood why I was saying this kind of things for the first time.
After Arafat and his party arrived Pakistanis were thrilled to see him amidst them. One should have seen the astonishment on the faces of the ladies and the students. Arafat arrived with his seven of his top PLO aides, including Farouk el Kaddoumi (PLO Foreign Minister) Abu Walid, Commander of Al-Fatah forces. His security people drew the entire curtain on the large window glasses so nobody could take an aim from some adjoining building.
He and his party stayed for about three hours enjoying Pakistani food at my residence, with Pakistanis taking his autographs, and group photos with him.
Someone high up in the Foreign Office was so jealous of my friendship with Arafat that he prohibited the Press Information Department from getting the photos of my dinner for Arafat published in Pakistan.
The Reply I received was that "Ministry of Foreign Affairs consulted (sic) and it was not possible for this wing to publicize these photos and which are returned for your records." Signed B. A. Tabassum, Joint Director, External Publicity Wing".
It must be a rare occasion when Information Department decided to black out a very important diplomatic social occasion, and perhaps a unique example of its own kind.
On 9th July 1977, after Bhutto's government was toppled, Black September number two came to me early in the morning. "Brother I have come to ask you to reply was this 'Zia ul Haq not a colonel in Pakistan Army once in Jordan? Brother Abu Ammar wants to know". "Black September", the secret "terrorist" arm of Al-Fath had come into existence to avenge this very expulsion of Palestinians from Jordan in September 1970. I become evasive.
"Brother, Pakistan has a big Army. How would I know which colonel was in Jordan. I was in Nigeria in 1970" I acted on a well known advice to diplomats. "Never tell a lie, but do not reveal information which may damage your country's interests.
I was transferred to Cairo. I had a memorable send off, parties, dinners, attended by prime Minister Salem el Hoss whose wife Leila was a bridge partner of my wife, high ups, etc some kind of normalcy prevailed in Beirut. I mustered courage to call on the Foreign Minister Faud Naffah on the Christian divide - He surprised me by presenting me with Lebanon's top State decoration, Grand Cordon of the order of the Cedars. He regretted that under the present conditions a formal presentation could not be made.
This was the highest national award. It is conferred on the president of Lebanon, on the end of his tenure, if he does not already have it. At my departure at the VIP Room were present my dear friends and their wives, including Leila el Hoss - a Greek Orthodox - as a friend of my wife, saying prime Minister was busy at the time.
Brigadier Harike was present. He ordered a through search of the aircraft lest it had any suspicious parcel or passenger. We admired the Lebanese among whom we had several dear, dear, friends a representative of the charm and warmth of the Lebanese people which not even the Civil War destroyed I would always remember the refusal of a Kataib leader to kill a Pakistani labours whom he had lined up to shoot.
He asked, "Where are you from? "Lahore". The gang leader laughed. "I am engineer. I have a good friend in Lahore. I cannot kill you. Get out from here". The soul of Lebanon is the cult of friendship.
(Concluded)