I was working as a nurse at the Gaza Hospital in Sabra Camp during the massacre in 1982. A terrible crime occurred at Sabra and Shatila. Some 100,000 people were massacred in cold blood. Those killed were unarmed civilians. Ariel Sharon, the current prime minister of Israel, was the commander of the Israeli Defense Forces at the time of the massacre.

For a place at the heart of a threatened war between Lebanon and Israel, the Wazzani Springs could not have looked more peaceful yesterday. In fact, disconcertingly peaceful, for the engineering work of the past month has been reversed. The carefully soldered sections of pipe linking the newly-restored pumping house to the river have been dismantled. The hole in the building the pipe previously passed through has been filled and covered with stone cladding. The pile of rocks and boulders bulldozed most of the way across the river to form a partial dam has been removed, allowing the Hasbani to flow freely once again.

There were no workers at the site, apart from two men cementing the first floor walls of the pumping house. The only sound, other than children swimming in the Hasbani River, was the steady hum of the two Israeli pumps conveying water from the springs to the village of Ghajar on the eastern bank.

Had Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's latest threats to "deal with" Lebanon's plan to pump water from the Wazzani Springs persuaded the Government to drop the project? Not according to Ali Wehbe, the owner of the Ward construction company contracted by the Council of the South to carry out the works. He said that an engineer had recommended removing the partial dam to prevent flooding in winter. The dam was originally made to create a 3-meter deep pool from which the water was to be drawn.

The pipe that ran between the river and the pumping house will be reconnected when the new pump arrives Tuesday, Wehbe added.

Qabalan Qabalan, the president of the Council of the South, confirmed that there had been no change to the specifications for the scheme, adding that work on the pumping house and river should be completed by Tuesday.

"We have conducted this project for the purpose of pumping 10,000 cubic meters per day from the Wazzani," Qabalan told The Daily Star. "Nothing has changed. ."

A source said that President Emile Lahoud and Speaker Nabih Berri are scheduled to formally inaugurate the project on or around October 15th. Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud reiterated yesterday Lebanon's right to use Wazzani water according to international law, "no less, no more." He rejected as "unfounded" Israel's claims that Lebanon was diverting the Hasbani River, which flows into Israel 3 kilometers south of Wazzani.

In contrast to the lack of activity at Wazzani, laborers toiled beneath a blazing sun on the border road between Kfar Kila and Adaisseh, laying sections of pipe. Israeli soldiers watched the proceedings from a military vehicle parked on the other side of the border fence. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Sharon accused Lebanon of deliberately denying Israel water. "Israel will not allow the Hasbani to be diverted," he said. "I want to be very clear on this. And we are ready to deal with this." Sharon also warned that Lebanon would suffer greatly if Israel chose to retaliate for any attack by Hezbollah. "If there is damage done to Israel, the ones who will be harmed by it, even if we wish it weren't so, will be the Lebanese and Lebanon itself," he said. "There will not be a situation where Northern Israel is attacked and they continue to live in peace in Lebanon." He said that Israel to ontinue to rely on "American mediation" to "deter" Hezbollah.

The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) denounced yesterday what it called unprecedented interference in a parliamentary by-election, made "in an attempt by certain 'responsible official parties' to change the final results" by manipulating the judiciary. LADE said "using laws ... to achieve obvious political goals" was a very serious development, adding that "using the judicial authority to serve political objectives undermines the independence and credibility of the judiciary and the Constitutional Council and... endangers... the freedom of the media."

LADE, a nonpartisan, nonreligious association formed in 1996 by a group of academics, students, professionals and activists, said it was surprised by the need to issue a statement on the June 2002 Metn by-election. It added that such grave violations perpetrated by the Interior Ministry should lead to the resignation of the official in charge. "But this did not happen. On the contrary, the authorities still do not acknowledge the results and will do anything to annul the results of the Metn by-election."

The statement cited a circular issued by Interior Minister Elias Murr stating that the use of a voting curtain was optional. LADE also urged the Constitutional Council to resist all pressure and interference by the authorities and to assert its neutrality by protecting the rights of the voters.