Major attack by Israel but

SOME Trinidad and Tobago nationals in Lebanon were reportedly partying yesterday in Lebanon as that country continued to face attack by Israel.

After much difficulty in getting connected by telephone, Newsday managed to talk to Natasha Tommy who had managed to get out of Beirut to a safer area near Lebanon’s second capital city of Tripoli in the north of the country.

She said, “We are doing fine.” Tommy was speaking at about 9pm Lebanon-time. She said, “We are actually having a dinner party right now, which sounds strange when you are in the middle of a war.” At that remark, Newsday lost connection to her. Tommy and her sister live and work in Lebanon and are now staying at their grandmother’s home. A friend living in Trinidad told Newsday she speaks regularly to the sisters. “They seem safe and are not worried. On the news it looks worse than what it actually is for them.”

She quipped, “They even said please stop calling because you are only getting us more nervous.”

The friend said that, although some TT nationals were trying to leave Lebanon, the duo was trying to sit out the Israeli attack.

“They said ‘we don’t want to leave now under those risks.”

The friend said, “Whoever is not in Beirut feels safe. Whoever has a British passport can leave through Cyprus, but they have Trinidad and Tobago passports so they are staying. They feel safe.” The friend said she too had been due last Monday to fly out to Lebanon which attracts many visitors including Trinidad and Tobago nationals during the summer vacation. “Around 30 people I know (from Trinidad and Tobago) went on holiday to Lebanon.” She said these names had been given to the TT High Commission in London, England. She lamented the outbreak of fighting, saying she hoped this was not the start of a long-term war. “We went through 20 years of war and we don’t want another.”

While she took some reassurance from the fact that the Israeli attack was chiefly directed at the Hizbollah group, she also feared it could spill over to a larger area.

“The war in the 1970s lasted 20 years and the place was now getting back to how it was. Beirut is a beautiful city. We hope things can change for the better.” She said most Syrian/Lebanese in Trinidad and Tobago still have family in the Middle East. “The Syrian-Lebanese community in TT is close, so when one is affected we all are. Of course we all are concerned.”

Added to this concern, she said Syrian/Lebanese in TT also fear the war in Lebanon may spill over into Syria. Meanwhile at the British High Commission in Port-of-Spain yesterday, public affairs spokesman, Brent Bulling, told Newsday that the UK is trying to help Trinidad and Tobago nationals. “We have informed the Foreign Office in London of the Trinidad and Tobago nationals who are in Lebanon, who in turn told the British Embassy in Beirut, who will try to help. The advice to Trinidad and Tobago nationals is to keep an eye on the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s web-page, www.fco.gov.uk.

Meanwhile a story by Associated Press yesterday quoted British Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman, Barbara Christie, as saying that British officials are trying to help TT nationals get evacuated to Cyprus. On Tuesday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying TT High Commissioner to London, Glenda Morean-Phillip, is in contact with TT’s honorary counsel in Lebanon, Jean Haidar, in an attempt to coordinate efforts to locate and evacuate Trinidad and Tobago nationals who wish to leave Lebanon.