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). 
 
¶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