Lebanon Diary Part IX

Saide Chaar and 22 other Liberians and Lebanese-Liberians have been seeking a way out of Beirut for nearly three weeks. They are among some 50 Liberians trapped in the besieged city. Their own recently elected post-war government is unable to offer help, and now the group risks being left behind as United Nations agencies step up efforts to evacuate foreign civilians. Many of the Liberians had fled civil war in their own country. They went to Lebanon on their own, having left a refugee camp in Ghana. Some family members were married to Lebanese. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is transferring refugees, such as those from Sudan, out of Beirut. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) meanwhile is helping migrant workers, many of whom are African, to travel to transit camps in Syria and then onward to their countries of origin. But some of the Liberians fit into neither category and could slip between the cracks. IRIN has been documenting the plight of Chaar, 25, and his family through daily phone conversations that are published in narrative form. Their situation is deteriorating daily as they face persistent hunger, the threat of eviction and a grinding fear of air strikes or an escalation of the ground war. The following is Part 9 of an ongoing diary of the family’s life in Beirut. 3 August 2006 - The baby, Levi, is still sick - diarrhoea and all sorts of things. We don’t know what is happening to him. He cries and screams a lot. We tried to take him to a clinic … a government hospital, trying to get him some treatment. There is a Lebanese card - they told me please get the medical card for the kid but we are unable to get that. We went to the pharmacy to get Panadol syrup for babies and more than that we pray for him. We got a little milk, a small chance, yesterday and he’s drinking his milk. Yesterday I sold my watch for 50 dollars. It was a gift from a friend of mine, a long, long time ago. Because of what has been happening I have sold almost everything that I have. My mom, all my family we are all sitting together in one house. At the sound of the planes they panic, they shout. What is worst is that the medication (for the older family members) has been finished. There’s no way to get the medication and we cannot afford it. We don’t know what will happen between now and tomorrow morning. We don’t know if there will be any attacks. We hear the planes and after the bombardment we get scared. Yesterday I had a call from a journalist from Liberia. He was trying to connect me with the consul general of Jordan. [The consul] told me, “Saide, when I get back to Jordan I will try all my best to help the Liberians in Beirut.” There’s no chance of leaving the country yet. cs/ss