BEIRUT: Although 20 years have passed since the end of the Civil War, Lebanese lawmakers working to resolve the issue of displaced families are facing new obstacles.
Parliament’s Committee for the Displaced discussed Tuesday how to add several villages to the government’s list of 28 villages and towns whose residents were displaced and now live elsewhere in the country and abroad.
“Every now and then, the committee finds out that there are other villages where families were displaced, and they are not listed in the government’s database,” Zahle MP Shant Janjanian said.
Most of the towns and villages in the database are in the Chouf.
Janjanian, who chairs the Committee for the Displaced, said that years of delay in compensating displaced families following the Civil War has made the cost of reconstruction a greater financial burden for the government.
“What used to cost less than LL1 billion now costs the ministry more than LL150 billion,” said Janjanian, referring to the budget for the Ministry for the Displaced, which is tasked with aiding families who left their homes as a result of the 1975-90 Civil War. The ministry’s brief doesn’t cover the displaced of south Lebanon, who are under the jurisdiction of the Council for the South.
Inflation has made expenditures drastically higher over the years, the MP added.
According to the Central Bank, the inflation rate for the past two years has ranged between 6 and 7 percent.
“The government’s inability to allocate the necessary funds over the past two decades, and the political bickering, have failed to solve the problems of the displaced,” he added.
Janjanian said that agreements reached by the governments of both former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Prime Minsiter Najib Mikati have set aside a sum of approximately LL157 billion for the displaced for 2010-13.
Janjanian said that if the funds are funneled to the Central Fund for Displaced, the task of the Ministry for the Displaced could be concluded within three years.
Following the committee’s meeting at Nijmeh Square Tuesday, Janjanian told reporters that all members of the committee want to deliver the compensation needed by families and “end the issue” of the displaced.
Parliament’s Committee for the Displaced discussed Tuesday how to add several villages to the government’s list of 28 villages and towns whose residents were displaced and now live elsewhere in the country and abroad.
“Every now and then, the committee finds out that there are other villages where families were displaced, and they are not listed in the government’s database,” Zahle MP Shant Janjanian said.
Most of the towns and villages in the database are in the Chouf.
Janjanian, who chairs the Committee for the Displaced, said that years of delay in compensating displaced families following the Civil War has made the cost of reconstruction a greater financial burden for the government.
“What used to cost less than LL1 billion now costs the ministry more than LL150 billion,” said Janjanian, referring to the budget for the Ministry for the Displaced, which is tasked with aiding families who left their homes as a result of the 1975-90 Civil War. The ministry’s brief doesn’t cover the displaced of south Lebanon, who are under the jurisdiction of the Council for the South.
Inflation has made expenditures drastically higher over the years, the MP added.
According to the Central Bank, the inflation rate for the past two years has ranged between 6 and 7 percent.
“The government’s inability to allocate the necessary funds over the past two decades, and the political bickering, have failed to solve the problems of the displaced,” he added.
Janjanian said that agreements reached by the governments of both former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Prime Minsiter Najib Mikati have set aside a sum of approximately LL157 billion for the displaced for 2010-13.
Janjanian said that if the funds are funneled to the Central Fund for Displaced, the task of the Ministry for the Displaced could be concluded within three years.
Following the committee’s meeting at Nijmeh Square Tuesday, Janjanian told reporters that all members of the committee want to deliver the compensation needed by families and “end the issue” of the displaced.
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