PM Transcripts

D J A II Ai LIA 1
E. O. E. Proof Only 20 September 1983
THE PRIME MINISTER MIADE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT AT TILE
LEBANESE RALrLY OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT HOUSE THIS AFTERNOON:
I want to thank you for being here to express your very very
deep concern at the time of tragedy in your country. I want
to assure you that the Australian Government is conscious of
the tragedy which is happening in Lebanon and it is happening
because of the existence in your country of foreign forces
there and it is the clear position of the Australian Government
that all those foreign forces should be removed from the Lebanon.
The Australian Government, both in direct submissions to the
countries concerned and at the United Nations, will continue
to put that position, so that the people of Lebanon can have
brought to an end the tragedy which has cost the lives of
thousands and thousands of your fellow citizens.
The people of the Lebanon are the people who have suffered most
in the tragedy of the Middle East and they are suffering not
simply because of internal problems that you have but most
particularly because other countries anJ other forces are trying
to fight their battles in your country.
They should leave your country and allow the people of the
Lebanon to live in peace so they can develop in peace the eccnomy
of Lebanon so that all Lebanese all young Lebanese people
in particular face the opportunity of growing and living in
a country at peace.
Now the capacity of Australia is limited in what we can do,
but as I have told your representatives, your Ambassador, the
reDresentatives of your Church, and the representatives of
your conmunity organisations, I give you the pledge that
everything that the Australian Government can do, will be done.