Information on regulations or practice requiring all Lebanese males between the ages of 18 and 38 inhabiting the "Security Zone" to serve two years in the South Lebanese Army, 1989-1990 [LBN7392]

Please find attached a copy of the responses to information requests 1866 and 2825, which add to the documents already consulted by the requester.

Also attached, please find a copy of the article "Militia won't heed Syrian-backed Beirut" (Los Angeles Times, 3 January 1991) and pages 87-89 of Libanon - Dossier fuer Hilfswerkvertreter/Innen (Switzerland: Office central suisse d'aide aux réfugiés, March 1990). The first article gives figures that suggest the composition of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) does not reflect the ethnic or religious composition of the region it operates in (population is 30 percent Christian, while the SLA is reported to be 50 percent Christian). The second report states that two thirds of the SLA are Christian and one third Shiite, adding that militiamen earn a salary of approximately US$130 a month, described as "very good" (sehr gut) for the place, while relatives of SLA militiamen have the right to work in Israel. The Swiss report indicates on page 87 that a number of village-militias cooperate with the the SLA.

More recent additional or corroborating information could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC.