Murder in the University

By William E. Smith

Terrorists increase pressure on the U.S. to leave Lebanon

Hardly a government in the Arab world does not contain at least one Cabinet minister who is a graduate of the 117-year-old American University of Beirut. Despite nearly a decade of civil war and continuing turmoil, the university has remained a bulwark of learning and an island of relative tranquillity in a scarred and anguished city. Last week it also became a monument to the senseless terror that besets all Lebanon. Its president, Malcolm Kerr, 52, whose life had been devoted to Arab culture and education, was shot dead by two unknown gunmen, apparently for no reason except that he was an American.

Shortly afterward, an anonymous caller telephoned the French news agency Agence France-Presse and said that the assassination of Kerr had been carried out by members of the Islamic Jihad, the same Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group that is believed to have bombed the U.S. and French military headquarters in Beirut last October as well as the Israeli headquarters in Tyre. The caller said that Kerr was "the victim of the American military presence in Beirut," and vowed that "not a single American or Frenchman will remain on this soil."

The caller also said that the Islamic Jihad had been responsible for the Beirut kidnaping of the Saudi consul general, Hussein Farrash, a day earlier. Farrash, 45, had been abducted by seven gunmen who intercepted his limousine as he was driving to work. According to the anonymous message, the diplomat would be tried according to Islamic law, executed, and his body would be "thrown out."

The attack against a Saudi added a new and troubling element to the violent Lebanese equation. The Syrians, who occupy the area of the Bekaa Valley that serves as a base for the pro-Iranian fanatics, have allowed the extremists fairly free rein. But Saudi Arabia bankrolls Syria to the tune of $1 billion a year, and Saudi diplomats have frequently acted as mediators in intra-Arab disputes. In tacit recognition of their status, Saudi diplomats had been exempt from the terror that has made victims of both Arabs and non-Arabs in Beirut. As the week passed, there was no further word on Farrash's fate.

In targeting Kerr for assassination, the killers chose a man who had spent much of his life promoting trust and friendship between the West and the Arab world. Kerr was born in Beirut, the son of an American biochemistry professor at the university. He studied there and at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. Later he taught political science for 20 years at the University of California at Los Angeles. But Kerr always dreamed of returning to

Lebanon to lead the institution that had been so much a part of his heritage, and in late 1982 he got his wish when he was named president of the American University. His immediate predecessor, Acting President David Dodge, had been kidnaped by Muslim extremists in July, with the evident backing of both Syria and Iran. Dodge was finally released in July 1983, thanks largely to efforts by Syrian President Hafez Assad's brother Rifaat, head of the Syrian internal security forces.

At first, the university provided Kerr with a bodyguard. But, arguing that such protection was not appropriate, Kerr dispensed with it. One morning last week the two gunmen entered the administration building unchallenged, made their way to the third floor and waited. At 9: 10 a.m., as Kerr stepped out of the elevator and be gan to walk toward his office, one of the terrorists shot him twice in the head with a gun fitted with a silencer. The gunmen escaped, and at a nearby hospital, Kerr was pronounced dead.

News of the assassination spread quickly. Lebanon's President, Amin Gemayel, expressed his condolences to U.S. Ambassador Reginald Bartholomew. Former Prime Minister Saeb Salam, a leader in the effort to unite the country's warring factions, called the murder "a flagrant disregard for values and an illustration of how seriously security has deteriorated." Particularly vulnerable at the moment are individual Americans and Frenchmen, partly because the terrorists are finding it increasingly difficult to penetrate the military bases and thus are turning their guns on relatively unprotected civilian targets. Two weeks ago gunmen on a motorbike shot and slightly wounded the wife of a French diplomat in broad daylight. As usual, the terrorists escaped.

In at least one important respect, the motives of the pro-Iranian terrorists coincide precisely with those of Syrian President Assad: both want to press the Multi-National Force to leave Lebanon. When Donald Rumsfeld, President Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, met with Assad in Damascus two weeks ago, the Syrian leader repeated his demands that the U.S. Marines as well as other MNF troops leave Beirut, Israeli forces withdraw from southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese-Israeli agreement of last May 17 be set aside. U.S. diplomats believe Assad is deliberately stalling, in the hope that the pressure on Reagan to remove the Marines from Lebanon will intensify as the U.S. election campaign heats up.

Earlier this month the various Lebanese factions seemed ready to accept a formal ceasefire. This would have permitted the Lebanese government, whose present power does not even extend beyond the Beirut city limits, to expand its control to a wider area. Such a development could eventually lead to a withdrawal of the Marines and the other peacekeeping forces. At the last moment, however, Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt, who receives strong support from Syria, raised new objections and effectively scuttled the tentative agreement.

Syria was generally blamed for the failure. The Saudis, who were also involved in the negotiations, would welcome an easing of tensions in Lebanon, but are at present preoccupied with problems of their own. Last week they signed a $4.1 billion contract with the French to buy an air-defense system that will include mobile, low-altitude Shahine and Crotale surface-to-air missiles. The Saudis, who have usually purchased American weapons in the past but are diversifying their arms purchases, are fearful that the Iran-Iraq war might spill over and begin to affect them directly.

The failure of efforts to break the Lebanese political impasse has produced a disappointment in Beirut that is almost palpable. Says former Prime Minister Salam: "People had so much hope in the Americans when they first came. Now they are disillusioned." As sporadic fighting broke out again, there were fears that the informal cease-fire that has generally prevailed since Sept. 26 was breaking down. Druze gunners again shelled Christian-dominated East Beirut and the Marine positions around Beirut International Airport. This in turn provoked a response from the 5-in. guns of the battleship New Jersey and the destroyer Tattnall. Then, following reports that the Iranian-trained terrorists were preparing for kamikaze missions against American naval vessels off Lebanon, the U.S. placed its forces there on alert and rushed Stinger antiaircraft missiles to the area.

In southern Lebanon, Israelis mourned the death of their best Lebanese friend, Major Saad Haddad, 45, who died of cancer two weeks ago after a long illness. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and other senior officials took time off from their other duties to fly by helicopter to the Lebanese village of Marjayoun to attend the funeral of the man who had been their close ally and in effect their proconsul in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, King Hussein of Jordan reconvened his parliament after a recess of ten years and renewed his invitation to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to join with him in forming a united front for future negotiations with Israel over the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A closer link between Hussein and Arafat, who only last month reconciled his differences with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, would further isolate Syria, whose only real friends in the Arab world are Libya and South Yemen. Syrian agents, in an apparent effort to unnerve Hussein, are thought to have been behind the shooting of several Jordanian diplomats in Europe and Asia over the past year. In spite of this, Hussein seems determined to press ahead. To strengthen the

King's resolve, the Reagan Administration has renewed efforts to ask Congress to authorize $220 million for training and equipping an estimated 8,000-man Jordanian force that could be used as a deterrent in the event of a crisis in the Persian Gulf.

The King also called for a reconciliation between Egypt and the other Arab states, and last week there were signs that this process was well under way. At the meeting of the fourth Islamic Conference Organization in Casablanca, attended by delegates from 42 countries, including 25 heads of state, the liveliest issue was not even on the formal agenda: the readmission of Egypt, whose membership was suspended after the late Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

The Egyptian case was pressed by a number of black African and Asian nations, including Guinea, Senegal, Malaysia and Pakistan, and they reportedly gained the support of 32 delegations. Libya, Syria and South Yemen boycotted the closing session, at which the invitation to Egypt was announced, but most delegates seemed delighted. Said a Pakistani: "Sadat is dead, and there's a new man in power who would desperately like to re-establish Egypt's position within the Islamic community." In the meantime, Egyptian officials declared that they hoped to meet with Jordan and the P.L.O. to seek a new approach for negotiating the return of the occupied territories.

Among Egypt's strongest supporters at Casablanca was Yasser Arafat, who demonstrated that, despite the adversities he has suffered during the past year, he has retained the backing of most Islamic states. Lebanon was scarcely mentioned, if only because delegates found it difficult to say anything constructive. Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, in calling again on the Israelis to withdraw from Lebanon, claimed to be "optimistic" about the ability of the Lebanese "to achieve national unity," but he said it without particular conviction. --By William E. Smith.

Reported by John Borrell/Beirut and Thomas A. Sancton/Casablanca

With reporting by John Borrell, Thomas A. Sancton