Teenage students in jeans and gaily colored T-shirts sang pop songs and read poetry Saturday in a special day of music and drama in honor of their university`s four kidnaped foreign professors.
At the same time, Iranian-backed Islamic fundamentalists staged a show of strength in Beirut`s southern suburbs to welcome the first Iranian ambassador to Lebanon in four years.
”This is why my husband stayed in Lebanon and why Lebanon is so important to us,” said Virginia Steen, wife of kidnaped American Alann Steen, as the students sang ballads by Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, and Simon and Garfunkel as well as a composition of their own dedicated to the four hostages and their wives.
It was a touching display by the students, and there was not a dry eye on the campus when they invited Ferial Polhill, wife of American hostage Robert Polhill, to join them in singing ”My Way,” Polhill`s favorite song.
Just a few miles away 3,500 members of the fundamentalist Hezbollah took to the streets chanting ”Death to America” as the newly appointed Iranian Ambassador Ahmed Dastmalchian drove into Beirut from Damascus in a heavily guarded convoy.
Both events in their own way challenged Syria and its recent takeover of West Beirut. Syria`s relations with its ally Iran have deteriorated quickly since Syrian soldiers shot dead 23 Hezbollahis on Feb. 24, backing their pledge to shoot recalcitrant militiamen on sight.
Iran has since made it clear that it opposes the Syrian deployment, and the surprise announcement Friday that Iran was to send an ambassador to Lebanon was taken as a direct challenge to Syrian President Hafez Assad`s bid to transform West Beirut into a zone of exclusively Syrian influence.
Lebanon broke diplomatic relations with Iran in 1983 after the suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Marine headquarters, but restored them at a low level eight months later. Until now Iran has controlled the affairs of its proxy militia in Lebanon through its embassy in Damascus.
Heavily armed Syrian patrols drove past as the bearded but unarmed Shiite fundamentalists, accompanied by hundreds of black-cloaked women, greeted the new envoy by waving banners of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and shouting ”God is great!”
Sheep were slaughtered in tribute as Dastmalchian walked to a podium to address the crowd.
He told the crowd: ”I come from the land of the new Islamic dawn, where the earth was shaken under the feet of the arrogant oppressers and the legend of the American hegemony was destroyed, to a forward outpost of Islamic resisters fighting international Zionists and the forces of blasphemy in the East and West.”
In a sharp criticism of Syria, he said, ”The elements whose hands committed this unjustified ugly crime (killing the 23 Hezbollahis) should have realized that it serves the interests of American imperialism and Israel.”
Syria`s security operation has not been extended to Beirut`s Shiite-controlled southern suburbs, where the Hezbollahis have their power base, but the Syrians do control the main coastal road on which the rally focused.
The Beirut University students had organized their sing-in ”just to remind the world that our teachers are still detained, and that we are continuing to fight for them,” said student spokesman Roula Ajouz, 19.
”George Shultz called us animals, which isn`t fair,” she said.
”Today we hope to show the world that with peace, love, music and art we can achieve our goal of releasing our teachers.”
But the student event also served as a reminder that the deployment Feb. 22 of about 8,000 Syrian troops in West Beirut had raised hopes that there would be some movement on the case of the 23 foreign hostages, including American educators Steen, Polhill and Jesse Turner and their Indian colleague, Mithileshwar Singh. The four were abducted Jan. 24.
The Syrians have since reneged on a pledge to extend their operation to the southern suburbs, where it is believed the foreigners are held, and have been in no hurry to act on the hostage issue.
”All of you stand up and call. Call for the release of the kidnaped four — Polhill, Turner, Singh and Steen,” sang the students from their open- air stage on their pleasant, leafy West Beirut campus, a stark contrast to the overcrowded sprawling suburbs where Islamic fundamentalism has taken firm root among the poverty-stricken Shiite refugees. ”But we have Hezbollahis here too, you know,” whispered a young teacher. ”They distribute leaflets telling students not to eat in the cafeteria, which they call a place of corruption, and telling male and female students not to talk to each other. Some of them are here today, watching us.”
University faculty members believe student adherents of Iranian-style fundamentalism tipped off their leaders to the presence of the Americans on the campus. The four kidnaped teachers had kept a low profile and never went out, believing they were safe until they were dragged away by four men in police uniforms.
It was at first assumed that the kidnapers had disguised themselves as policemen to trick their way onto the campus, but they have now been identified as actual policemen who were either sympathetic to or bribed by the terrorists, according to university and militia sources.
A group calling itself Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the kidnapings and threatened to kill the four if Israel did not release 400 prisoners by Feb. 9. But it called off the
”execution” minutes before the deadline expired.
Political observers believe the growing rift between Tehran and Damascus over the Syrian deployment will only dim prospects for all the foreign hostages.
”In addition to the reasons why they were originally being held, they will become bargaining chips in the power struggle between Damsascus and Tehran,” said a Moslem politician.
The triumphant arrival of the Iranian ambassador was being interpreted in Beirut as a clear message from Tehran to its followers that Syrian military muscle will not be allowed to diminish Iran`s growing influence in Lebanon.
So the students who gathered at the campus did not seriously expect their peace-and-love effort to have any impact on the power struggle over the lives of their teachers and other hostages.
But Mrs. Steen told the crowd: ”We must keep trying and maybe it will work. We will fight and we shall not surrender until our husbands are released.”
