INTERVIEW: Kuntar is Hezbollah loyalist after release

By Weedah Hamzah Jul 23, 2008, 2:06 GMT

Abey, Lebanon - Five days after his release from an Israeli jail as part of a swap between the Jewish state and the Lebanese Shiite movement, Hezbollah, Samir Kuntar seemed more determined to become a member of the 'Islamic resistance in Lebanon.'

'What I want now is to become a struggler in the Lebanese Islamic resistance,' as Hezbollah is known, Kuntar said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Surrounded by his family members, including nieces and nephews, Kuntar, wearing blue jeans and a blue stripped shirt, seemed more relaxed than when he was released on July 17.

'Two things brought me happiness in the past few days: One is my release from the Zionist jail and the other is the gift I received from Hezbollah, which is the machine gun of the resistance,' he said proudly at his family home in the Druze town of Abey, 35 kilometres southeast of Beirut.

Kuntar, who turned 46 on Tuesday, received what the machine gun as a birthday gift from the command of the Lebanese Shiite movement.

Kuntar was serving five life sentences in Israel for killing a policeman, and a scientist and his four-year-old daughter in 1979. He was released along with four Hezbollah members, in exchange for two dead Israeli soldiers, whom Hezbollah snatched during a cross-border attack on July 12, 2006.

Last week's swap, which in Lebanon was considered a victory for Hezbollah against Israel, was achieved through a UN-appointed German mediation after lengthy negotiations that took almost two years and closed 'the prisoners dossier' between Hezbollah and Israel.

Kuntar praised the Germans for their effective role in securing the swap. 'It was not just pure coincidence that the UN Secretary General (Ban Ki-moon) has appointed a German to mediate in this swap,' he said, noting that Germans secured previous swaps between the movement and Israel in 1996 and 2004.

'Despite the differences in our political views with the Germans, they have carried a good job on this humanitarian issue,' Kuntar told dpa.

Kuntar, who said he has received several assassination threats from Israel, stressed that he does not fear for his life, adding he won't give in easily to the 'Zionist enemy.'

'I am taking extra precautions because I do not want to give my martyrdom to the Israelis easily,' he said.

Several Hezbollah bodyguards equipped with earpieces and weapons were guarding Kuntar as he sat on his family's porch for an interview.

For the people of this village, who are mainly followers of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, having Hezbollah gunmen in their town, is not a common sight.

In May, followers of Jumblatt and Hezbollah gunmen were engaged in fierce clashes in the areas of Chouyfat, Aitat and Chimlan, which is only 10 kilometres away from Abey.

Kuntar told dpa that Hezbollah's Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasarllah personally ordered the heavy security.

Abey residents said since Kuntar's arrival, Israeli warplanes have been hovering over the town daily.

But the threats and the planes, seemed not to bother Kuntar, who has vowed to put the 30 years he spent in an Israeli jail behind him, and instead focus on the continued armed resistance against Israel.

He stressed that his praise for Hezbollah was not only because it had secured his release, but because the group has proven to be the most effective resistance against Israel.

Besides his focus on Hezbollah, Kuntar was working on reintegrating into family life, by spending time talking to his nephews and nieces, who keep asking him questions about his days in the prison. At the time of his capture in 1979, Kuntar was operating with the secular Palestine Liberation Front, one of a number of Palestinian revolutionary groups.

'They ask me questions how I was tortured and how I managed to take a BA in sociology inside the jail,' Kuntar said.

But one question seemed to really bother the released prisoner, which is the issue of the small child killed during his attack in 1979.

Israeli reports have indicated that Kuntar crushed the girl's head with his gun during the attack.

According to Israeli reports Kuntar and the other attackers took Danny Haran and 4-year-old Einat Haran hostage as police reinforcements arrived on the scene.

The reports added that Kuntar then shot Danny Haran at close-range and threw his body into the sea. He then bashed Einat's head on rocks and with the butt of his rifle, killing her instantly.

'These are purely Israeli accusations which are totally baseless. If you look at all the judicial reports at the time, you see there was no mention of the incident, and that the girl had died from gunfire,' he said.

'You can look into the report published on April 23 a day after the attack in the Israeli paper Maarev there was no mention of this horrible story which the Israelis have fabricated, to make me look like a murderer and not a resistance fighter,' he said.