Peace Keepers with a Difference

By GEORGE J. CHURCH

A year after the ghastly massacre of hundreds of Palestinians, heavily armed men still prowl the shanty town of Shatila on the southern fringes of Beirut. But instead of the feared fatigue uniforms of Phalangist militiamen, they wear spiffy red-and-gold scarves emblazoned with the Venetian Lion of St. Mark, and their presence inspires comfort rather than terror. They are Italian marines who keep strict watch from a ring of sentry posts and constantly patrol streets that are now as safe as any in Lebanon.

Which, needless to say, is a long way from being completely safe. Random shells fired by gunners in the Chouf Mountains explode in Shatila and virtually every other neighborhood, underscoring a cruel and dangerous irony facing not only the Italians but also the American, French and British troops in the Multi-National Force (MNF). By doing their job as peace keepers, the approximately 5,400 members of the MNF are being drawn with seeming inexorability into the country's increasingly chaotic civil war.

Simply by being there, though, the MNF has brought an unaccustomed measure of security to Beirut and its environs. That in turn has enabled Lebanese President Amin Gemayel to preserve the semblance of a central government by maintaining authority at least around the capital, and so far has probably prevented Lebanon from taking the final plunge into anarchy, partition or both. But that very fact has made the MNF a target for the many Lebanese factions determined to bring down Gemayel. Already, five U.S. Marines, 17 French troops and one Italian have been killed; 43 Americans, 41 French and 27 Italians have been wounded. As American naval shelling and French aerial strikes against guerrilla positions in the Chouf Mountains last week illustrated, Washington and Paris will not let their troops become sitting ducks.

But the MNF was sent to Lebanon in the hope that it would never have to fight, and what role it might play in a continuing civil "war is maddeningly vague. Properly speaking, it is not a unified "force" at all but a collection of four national contingents operating under separate commands that cooperate only to the extent of keeping one another informed, more or less, about what they are doing. The U.S. Marines have a liaison officer at the headquarters of each of the other three contingents, and military men from all four nations maintain links with Gemayel's Lebanese Army through officers at the Presidential Palace in Baabda. But that is just about it. The Americans have been pressing for coordinated planning to deal with a deepening emergency, so far with little result.

Nor does the MNF have a clear mandate. Ambassadors of the four countries delivered separate letters to Lebanese Foreign Minister Elie Salem, acceding to his government's request to send troops. Though the letters spoke of assisting the government in restoring its authority in the Beirut area, the four contingents interpret their instructions differently. The U.S. Marines, for example, have been the only ones to train Lebanese soldiers regularly in such skills as hand-to-hand fighting and helicopter assaults. Says a British officer: "We have defined our operations according to what each of us does best." The present division of labor:

The French, 2,000 members of the Foreign Legion and infantry, remain particularly attached to a land France administered under a League of Nations mandate until 1943 and where, to this day, French remains the second language. They have stationed themselves in Beirut proper, maintaining highly visible patrols in vehicles and on foot through the city. Partly because of their high exposure, and also because they have undertaken extensive disposal of unexploded bombs from previous fighting, they have suffered the heaviest casualties. Operating from the ambassador's former residence, which was heavily damaged in last year's war, they live comfortably, enjoying three warm meals a day, with a choice of imported beer or Lebanese wine with dinner.

The Italians, 2,100 strong and posted in Beirut's southern suburbs, protect the scenes of last year's massacre and also the Bourj-el-Barajneh refugee camp. Highly motorized, like the French, they maintain regular patrols, and also provide more assistance to civilians in their area than do the other contingents. Two Italian mobile clinics make daily tours of the refugee camps, ministering to the health needs of the Palestinians.

The British, 100 members of the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards, joined the MNF in February, five months after the other forces. They move about very visibly in their little Ferret armored scout cars, stopping frequently to chat with residents. The British missions have become known as "the ice cream patrols" for the cones that friendly inhabitants often offer.

The Americans, 1,200 Marines, took up positions around Beirut Airport, originally facing Israeli occupation lines. Now the Israelis have withdrawn to positions farther south, and the Marines' encampment is highly exposed to shelling from the Chouf; they cannot prevent frequent closings of the airport. Primarily a fight-on-foot force, they have hunkered down behind sandbags and no longer patrol beyond the airport. The Americans lead a more spartan and lonely existence than their European counterparts: only one hot meal a day, a lot of field rations, and a restrictive policy on recreation in and around Beirut.

The role of the French, Italian and British forces in Lebanon is becoming a political issue back home, just as it is in the U.S. The Italian coalition of Prime Minister Bettino Craxi is uneasily united in its commitment to the MNF, but the country's large Communist Party has begun a major campaign to bring the troops home. In France, the conservative opposition demanded a hit-back-or-get-out policy before Socialist President Franc,ois Mitterrand last week ordered retaliation against attacks on the French troops. In Britain, the opposition Labor Party is grumbling that the MNF should be used strictly for peace keeping rather than to keep Gemayel in power, although the angriest words on the subject have come from a nationalistic faction of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives. Still, like the Reagan Administration, the French, Italian and British governments express determination to maintain their forces in Lebanon as long as they are needed. --By George J. Church. Reported by Roberto Suro/Beirut

With reporting by Roberto Suro This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.