Press Advisory

Dispatches from Beirut: http://tadamon.resist.ca

16 July 2006, Montreal/Beirut - Tadamon! has launched a weblog from Beirut to document the deteriorating situation in the country. The weblog will provide an outlet for the two Tadamon! delegates remaining in Beirut, as well as a variety of Lebanese voices, to detail the events unfolding around them. Members of the Montreal-based group remain available for interview from Beirut and can also help facilitate interviews with Lebanese contacts.

Delegation members report that the situation is worsening by the hour. All main routes out of the country - land, sea and air - have been cut. Power stations have been bombed and electricity is infrequently available in the capital. Over 100 civilian deaths are being reported. Hospitals in the south are declaring themselves unable to cope. Refugees are flooding into central Beirut from the southern suburbs of the city and sheltering in schools and public parks, alongside those who have made it through from the south. Beirut citizens have established a crisis working group to provide shelter, food and other supplies to the refugees.

Tadamon!, which means "solidarity" in Arabic, is a Montreal grassroots initiative to build ties with social justice movements in Lebanon. The summer 2006 delegation, which has been active in Beirut since mid-June, was meeting with social justice and cultural organisations, participating in popular campaigns, helping to coordinate solidarity projects with Montreal, and creating radio reports on social justice issues in the country. Since the beginning of the bombardment, one delegation member has left and the two remaining delegates have joined in the emergency response.

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For interviews from Beirut:

Sawsan Kalache 011 961 3 755 260 or saw...@resist.ca (French, Arabic, English)
Stefan Christoff 011 961 70 132 498 or chri...@resist.ca (English)

NOTE: If you cannot get through, please keep trying. You can also email your request and contact number: send to the addresses above and copy your query to tada...@resist.ca AND p...@riseup.net.

In Montreal: Ahmad Mustafa 514-571-7806 (French, Arabic, English)