JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: With Middle East peace talks deadlocked, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is in the region trying to jump-start the process. Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Albright sought to lay the groundwork for a possible three-way summit with the Palestinians. She will meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Tuesday in the West Bank. Since Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, its former militia allies have faced reprisals for collaboration. More from CNN's Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler.</s>BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are in custody, under investigation or on trial, some 1,700 former members of the South Lebanon Army, or SLA. The pro-Israeli militia force collapsed, precipitating a chaotic Israeli retreat from South Lebanon nearly two weeks ago. In the first wave of SLA trials in Beirut, 32 Lebanese pleaded guilty to charges of collaborating with Israel. The SLA was often referred to in Lebanon as Israel's human sandbags, absorbing the bulk of casualties. The SLA's high command built up a close military bond with their Israeli counterparts, so close that when they held a memorial service for fallen SLA fighters only two months before the Israeli retreat, some of Israel's general staff attended the ceremony. The former head of the SLA, General Antoine Lahd, who is based in Paris, already faces the death sentence after a previous Lebanese court judgment. Although no sentences have been handed down in the new trials, it's expected that lesser militiamen, those who were either press-ganged into fighting or badly needed income, might be treated relatively leniently. Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.
Israel's Former Militia Allies Face Retribution in Israel