AUSTRALIAN EVACUATION
Austin Gerassimos Mackell - Beirut
The first the Australian couple Christine and Mazhar Mallouhi knew of anything being wrong was last Wednesday morning when the Israeli’s bombed the airport. Mazhar was out for his morning walk when he saw fighter jets swinging in from the Mediterranean to deliver the blasts. Christine was in their house in Bchamoun, South Beirut, which was shaking with the blasts.
¨My son told me ´the airport is being bombed´¨ Christine related to me ¨And I said, ´well that’s not normal´¨
The couple, who are both writers, (Mazhar in Arabic and Christine in English) had not followed the news of Hezbollah’s deadly raid on the IDF, the two Israeli soldiers taken captive or the preliminary bombing raids in the south. They had been busy with work and with organizing the wedding of their son Tarek and his fiancé Shireen. They were planning a large ceremony in August with over one hundred and fifty people, twenty five of whom were to fly in from Australia. A reception complete with fireworks in a mountain country club just outside Beirut was to follow.
In the next few days they would witness out their windows the destruction of southern Beirut. The airport was hit again, this time buildings collapsed and the fuel tanks set ablaze – billowing black smoke into the sky. The Palestinian refugee camps and southern suburbs were bombed repeatedly. They had been told by the Australian embassy that they would be called when it was time to evacuate. However, fearful of being trapped in south Beirut and missing their boat they decided to move.
On their drive north their fears were validated. The airport road, the main road out of their neibourhood, had been bombed already so they decided to take another route, only to discover that it was currently being bombed. They turned back and braved the damaged and largely empty airport road and found a hotel in Hamra (West Beirut).
Well ahead of schedule, the marriage was performed in Shireen´s parent’s house with fifteen people present. Their son informed them of the ceremony only an hour before and Mazhar was forced to attend in shorts and sandals.
On the day of their evacuation they were crowded into the conference hall of the Crown plaza hotel in Hamra´s Main Street with roughly two hundred other Australian citizens.
Shareen Irani had been in Beirut learning hairdressing for the previous five months and was heartbroken at the idea of leaving her job, apartment friends and possessions behind. Her mother has told her that she is taking a mattress to Sydney airport to set up camp and wait for her there.
Andrew Sassine had only arrived four days before the bombing began planning on a two month holiday. He was considering continuing his holiday in Cyprus until he was told that there would be a luggage limit of eight kilograms (just over half the fifteen kilo weight limit given to Americans), including food for the journey which they were instructed to bring.
The Issa family, also holiday makers, had arrived in Beirut a month earlier to visit relatives and see the country in summer. They had been waiting for hours, being told repeatedly that each hour would be the last. Their frustration, palpable; Lillian is worried about her young daughter Ruby, whose asthma has flared up. Ruby coughs with a dry harshness that reminds me of a pack a day smoker.
They were filed into a convoy of four buses, and taken down to the Forum De Beirut, a larger conference center closer to the port which the British and Germans were using to coordinate their evacuation. Transferred to a British naval vessel, they joined roughly a thousand British citizens for their trip to Cyprus. The British navy will be supplying them with water and basic medical attention aboard the vessel. No embassy official could tell me what assistance if any they will be receiving from the Australian government once in Cyprus.
Only those due to be evacuated on a particular day will be informed of the details of their departure. It seems this policy has been instituted to prevent the already stretched embassy staff from being swamped by more people than they can offer spaces to. How long it will take for the remaining five to ten thousand evacuees to be moved is unclear. They are leaving in dribs and drabs transported by American, British and Canadian boats to Cyprus and possibly soon Turkey as well. Unless things accelerate it could be weeks before the process is complete.
The first the Australian couple Christine and Mazhar Mallouhi knew of anything being wrong was last Wednesday morning when the Israeli’s bombed the airport. Mazhar was out for his morning walk when he saw fighter jets swinging in from the Mediterranean to deliver the blasts. Christine was in their house in Bchamoun, South Beirut, which was shaking with the blasts.
¨My son told me ´the airport is being bombed´¨ Christine related to me ¨And I said, ´well that’s not normal´¨
The couple, who are both writers, (Mazhar in Arabic and Christine in English) had not followed the news of Hezbollah’s deadly raid on the IDF, the two Israeli soldiers taken captive or the preliminary bombing raids in the south. They had been busy with work and with organizing the wedding of their son Tarek and his fiancé Shireen. They were planning a large ceremony in August with over one hundred and fifty people, twenty five of whom were to fly in from Australia. A reception complete with fireworks in a mountain country club just outside Beirut was to follow.
In the next few days they would witness out their windows the destruction of southern Beirut. The airport was hit again, this time buildings collapsed and the fuel tanks set ablaze – billowing black smoke into the sky. The Palestinian refugee camps and southern suburbs were bombed repeatedly. They had been told by the Australian embassy that they would be called when it was time to evacuate. However, fearful of being trapped in south Beirut and missing their boat they decided to move.
On their drive north their fears were validated. The airport road, the main road out of their neibourhood, had been bombed already so they decided to take another route, only to discover that it was currently being bombed. They turned back and braved the damaged and largely empty airport road and found a hotel in Hamra (West Beirut).
Well ahead of schedule, the marriage was performed in Shireen´s parent’s house with fifteen people present. Their son informed them of the ceremony only an hour before and Mazhar was forced to attend in shorts and sandals.
On the day of their evacuation they were crowded into the conference hall of the Crown plaza hotel in Hamra´s Main Street with roughly two hundred other Australian citizens.
Shareen Irani had been in Beirut learning hairdressing for the previous five months and was heartbroken at the idea of leaving her job, apartment friends and possessions behind. Her mother has told her that she is taking a mattress to Sydney airport to set up camp and wait for her there.
Andrew Sassine had only arrived four days before the bombing began planning on a two month holiday. He was considering continuing his holiday in Cyprus until he was told that there would be a luggage limit of eight kilograms (just over half the fifteen kilo weight limit given to Americans), including food for the journey which they were instructed to bring.
The Issa family, also holiday makers, had arrived in Beirut a month earlier to visit relatives and see the country in summer. They had been waiting for hours, being told repeatedly that each hour would be the last. Their frustration, palpable; Lillian is worried about her young daughter Ruby, whose asthma has flared up. Ruby coughs with a dry harshness that reminds me of a pack a day smoker.
They were filed into a convoy of four buses, and taken down to the Forum De Beirut, a larger conference center closer to the port which the British and Germans were using to coordinate their evacuation. Transferred to a British naval vessel, they joined roughly a thousand British citizens for their trip to Cyprus. The British navy will be supplying them with water and basic medical attention aboard the vessel. No embassy official could tell me what assistance if any they will be receiving from the Australian government once in Cyprus.
Only those due to be evacuated on a particular day will be informed of the details of their departure. It seems this policy has been instituted to prevent the already stretched embassy staff from being swamped by more people than they can offer spaces to. How long it will take for the remaining five to ten thousand evacuees to be moved is unclear. They are leaving in dribs and drabs transported by American, British and Canadian boats to Cyprus and possibly soon Turkey as well. Unless things accelerate it could be weeks before the process is complete.
posted by Austin Gerassimos Mackell at 9:22 PM
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