First stone laid at razed refugee camp in Lebanon

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Rebuilding of a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon formally began on Monday, 18 months after an army onslaught on Islamist militants reduced the homes of its 30,000 residents to ruins.

The foundation stone of a new Nahr al-Bared camp was laid at a ceremony organised by the Lebanese government and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

Delays in raising funds, clearing unexploded munitions and removing rubble had held up the launch, fuelling scepticism among refugees that the camp would ever be rebuilt.

"This is a symbol that we are quite determined to see this camp reconstructed," Salvatore Lombardo, UNRWA's director in Lebanon, told Reuters shortly before the ceremony.

"It's also an answer to 5,000 people who will have a chance in the next 12 to 16 months to come back to their houses."

But refugees may have to wait at least a month before actual building begins. The ground must be checked again for unexploded ordnance and the Lebanese government, which has expropriated the land, must issue a permit to construct, Lombardo said.

"We hope these legalities will take no more than 30 days. We will then sign a contract with a selected construction company."

Lebanese individuals originally owned the land on which Nahr al-Bared sprang up to house some of the 770,000 Palestinians forced from their homeland when Israel was created in 1948.

Donors have given or promised UNRWA $52 million (37.7 million pounds) for Nahr al-Bared's reconstruction -- enough to rebuild the first one or two of eight sectors of what was once a squalid, overcrowded township near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

MONTHS OF FIGHTING

More than 400 people were killed in 15 weeks of fighting that erupted in May 2007 between the army and the Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group.

Bombardment completely destroyed the camp and the occupants are now living as best they can in temporary UNRWA accommodation, in garages or with relatives.

Lombardo said UNRWA expected contributions from Gulf Arab countries to materialise soon, helping to meet the estimated reconstruction cost of more than $200 million.

Reconstruction plans call for a healthier living space for refugees to relieve congestion and provide better services.

The Lebanese government will also maintain control to ensure Islamist militants do not infiltrate back into the camp, where security was previously left to armed Palestinian factions, as remains the case in Lebanon's other 11 refugee camps.

"Lebanon now wants to regain its authority and its sovereignty over every inch of its territory," Khalil Makkawi, head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, said last month. "This camp, once rebuilt, will be under the full authority of the Lebanese government. No more arms or gangs."

Many refugees from Nahr al-Bared and an adjacent spillover area known as the "new camp," where people are trying to revive econ activity, complain that army checkpoints are strangling what was once a trading hub.

Lombardo said Prime Minister Fouad Siniora had expressed an intention to improve the situation at a recent meeting with camp delegates that army and police officers had also attended.

"But this has not yet been translated into a significant change on the ground," the UNRWA official added.

(Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Kevin Liffey)