Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BEIRUT381
2006-02-09 16:45:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beirut
Cable title:  

MGLE01: ASSISTING DENMARK AND OTHERS WEATHER

Tags:  KDEM PHUM ASEC PREL LE DK 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1640
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHLB #0381/01 0401645
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 091645Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIRUT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1915
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIRUT 000381 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FORABRAMS/DORAN/WERNER/SINGH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2016
TAGS: KDEM PHUM ASEC PREL LE DK
SUBJECT: MGLE01: ASSISTING DENMARK AND OTHERS WEATHER
ATTACKS FROM CARTOONS OF PROPHET

REF: STATE 20453

Classified By: DCM Christopher W. Murray. Reason: Sections 1.4 (b) an
d (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIRUT 000381

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FORABRAMS/DORAN/WERNER/SINGH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2016
TAGS: KDEM PHUM ASEC PREL LE DK
SUBJECT: MGLE01: ASSISTING DENMARK AND OTHERS WEATHER
ATTACKS FROM CARTOONS OF PROPHET

REF: STATE 20453

Classified By: DCM Christopher W. Murray. Reason: Sections 1.4 (b) an
d (d).


1. (C) Summary: The building housing the Danish Consulate
and the Austrian Embassy in Beirut was attacked during
demonstrations on Sunday, February 5. At this time, Danish
officials are operating out of the French Embassy in Beirut
and the Austrian officials are being housed in the EU
Commission delegation's headquarters. Danish and EU
representatives have expressed their appreciation for
informal U.S. offers of assistance, but have not given us any
indication that they would take up such offers. Nearly all
of Denmark's 400 nationals resident in Lebanon are remaining
in the country. The Danish MFA representative sent to Beirut
has also thanked us for the Ambassador's interventions with
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Prior to receipt of reftel, DCM met on February 7
with Soren Vohtz, Deputy Director of the Danish MFA's EU
Coordination Office. Vohtz had arrived in Beirut on
Saturday, February 4, after the Danes received word from the
Lebanese security services that the demonstration planned for
Sunday, February 5, would be targeting the Danish Consulate
here. He remains in Beirut at least through this week,
representing the Danish government, whose Consulate in Beirut
has been staffed by locally engaged employees.


3. (C) Vohtz was primarily interested in the U.S. assessment
of the political situation in Lebanon. We observed that the
February 5 demonstration and subsdequent burning of the
building housing the Danish Consulate was far more an issue
of internal Lebanese sectarian and political conflict than
action targeted against Denmark for the publication of the
caricatures. Vohtze replied that our analysis on this and
other political trends tracked closely with what he had been
hearing from other (presumably mostly EU) contacts.


4. (C) DCM conveyed our concerns about the Danish
Consulate's situation here, noting that the Ambassador had
contacted Lebanese PM Siniora on February 5 (the day of the

demonstration) regarding the Vienna Convention and host
country obligations to protect diplomatic premises. DCM also
noted the informal offer of assistance to the Danish Mission
here, transmitted from the Operations Center on the evening
of February 5. Vohtz expressed his appreciation for both
efforts. We informed Vohtz that the Ambassador had paid
calls on the Greek Orthodox and Maronite bishops of Beirut;
Vohtz seemed interested in this and implied that he may do
the same. Vohtz commented that the Danish Ambassador,
resident in Damascus, had paid calls on Sunni and Shia
clerics during a visit to Beirut last week.


5. (C) Vohtz said that he had recently spoken with the
owner of the building that housed the Danish Consulate. He
said the owner had been friendly, which included a remark to
him that, "this (the violence) did not happen because of
Denmark." By contrast, the building's administrator has been
difficult to deal with.


6. (C) Vohtz commented that physically, the premises of the
Danish Consulate were unharmed, but that smoke damage made
the offices completely unusable at this time. All papers had
been protected in safes and were intact. He said that it was
some "low-tech" security precautions that had saved the
Consulate from being entered. Among these were fire doors
\QVGp9%jstration, that
stopped people who had tried to break in through these
windows. In addition, the building elevator was set not to
stop at the floor of the Consulate's offices.


7. (C) Vohtz said the Austrians, whose Embassy is located
in the same building, had requested from the Lebanese
authorities additional security for the February 5
demonstration, but that the extra security had obviously not
been sufficient. DCM spoke with Austrian Ambassador Georg
Mautner on February 8. Mautner confirmed that when he
learned of the demonstration on February 7 (the Danes, Dutch,
and perhaps others had been alerted two days earlier),he
asked for added security around the ten story building that
houses his Embassy, the Danes, and commercial offices.
Mautner said that his concerns were not taken seriously by
the Lebanese security services, who could have done far more
to monitor access of people and vehicles, and inspect, for
example, the many buses that were streaming into Beirut from

BEIRUT 00000381 002 OF 002


north Lebanon. Mautner said that the Austrian Embassy, on
the eighth floor of the building (the Danes are on the fourth
floor) was not penetrated. Strong doors and reinforced glass
had stopped those who had tried to enter the Austrian
Embassy. Once smoke from the fires set by Molotov cocktails
had spread through the building, he said, those trying to
enter gave up their efforts. He said the entire interior of
the building is badly damaged, and the only means in and out
of the Austrian Embassy is via the exterior fire escape
stairs. These stairs, he said, are too narrow to move
furniture or other sizable items. He did not expect the
building to be ready for re-occupancy for at least a year.
For now, the Austrians are operating out of the EU Commission
Delegation's offices, but Mautner indicated that situation
could not continue indefinitely.


8. (C) Vohtz said that the Danes will file a formal protest
with both the Syrian and Lebanese authorities, which will
include a request for compensation. He said the tone of the
Syrian complaint will be tougher than the Lebanese complaint,
given that, "the Syrians in Damascus did nothing to protect
the Embassy."


9. (SBU) Finally, Vohtz commented that the Danish MFA has
full confidence in the Danish national resident in Beirut who
serves as the Danish Consul, Birgitta Harb. He said that
very few Danes have chosen to evacuate Lebanon, as most of
them seem to be deeply embedded into the local community.



FELTMAN