Sunday Times 2
Fall-out from the West Asian conflicts for Lebanon
When one sees images of refugees being sent back to Syria in hundreds of trucks across the Beqaa valley, one wonders how a small state could sustain these problems, imposed from across its borders. A country cannot change its geographical position and its neighbours, settled over centuries and neither can history be altered. Especially in a region like the Middle East, where one political crisis succeeds another it is geopolitically natural that all neighbours get engulfed in a problem created by one country; based on ethnicity, religion, language or territorial claims. It aggravates with interference by bigger neighbours or world powers. This article is only to briefly analyse the factors leading Lebanon to become the playground of its neighbouring countries to play their war games, a country which was called the Switzerland of the Middle East. The Syrian refugee crisis is the most current political quagmire in which Lebanon has got entangled.
People watch Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as he appears on a screen during a live broadcast to speak to his supporters at an event marking Resistance and Liberation Day in Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hassan Abdallah/File photo
The Syrian War overflows to Lebanon. Since the Syrian civil war broke out to oust Assad in March 2011, refugees fled to Lebanon and its neighbouring countries. In December 2012, it was quoted that 160,000 refugees were taken by Lebanon. The number of these refugees, in 2017 was estimated to be over one million. Some of them fled to Lebanon in fear of anti-government rebels, the ISIS, and some to escape Assad’s forces. They were temporarily accommodated in Lebanon on humanitarian grounds. At different times since their arrival when Lebanon could not handle such vast numbers they were returned to Syria; the latest was on August 14, 2017 and consisted of rebel fighters. According to reports they were sent back on an understanding reached by the Hezbollah backed Labour party of Lebanon and the Syrian militia group ‘Saraya Ahl-al-Sham’ affiliated to the Syrian rebels, known as the Free-Syria movement, fighting Bashar-al-Assad.
Interestingly, Hezbollah, which is a creation of the 1982 Lebanon War, to fight the Israelis during that period, became a part of the Lebanese Government subsequently. At present they have spread their tentacles to other areas of the Middle-East. In Syria they support anti-Assad forces. They have their origins in the Shiite sect of Lebanon and are opposed by the Saudi-government, but supported by the Iranians. When the Lebanese political parties were unable to elect a President for two years, from May 2014 till October 2016, they offered to coalesce with the Labour party of Lebanon, and have some representatives in the National Assembly after elections. There are a number of such rebel outgrowths of militia affiliated to varied political parties, which is a phenomenon created by Lebanon getting dragged into settling problems of neighbours; for example Katheibs are the militia of the Maronite Christians, and Amals belong to the Amal party of Nabih Berri. They arose due to the exigencies of the governance of the country. Such internal political issues arose from the 1940s, but the solutions became worse than the problem. For example, in 1945, one year after independence there erupted a civil war on the sharing of power among the three communities, Christians, Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, asked for help from the US which sent marines, and there has been foreign intervention since.
In 1947 with the Balfour Declaration and creation of the State of Israel south of Lebanon there have been at least three major Israeli invasions of Lebanon. The Palestinian Arabs since then, have moved out of the territory and some of the displaced are settled in camps in Lebanon. Shabra, Shatila, and Bourj-el Barajneh, to name three. In fact thousands among them were killed by the Israeli backed Katheib forces, belonging to the Maronite Christians, in September 1982.
With the Isreali-Arab confrontation since the end of World War 2, in the late 1940s, Lebanon stayed on the side of their allies in the west. In June 1967 Lebanon stayed non-committal at the Arab-Isreali war due to US urging, but the Palestinians in Lebanon used the territory to launch attacks on the Israelis. Palestinian-Lebanese relations soured and the Katheibs of the Christian Phalangists attacked a bus carrying Palestinians, in the Ayn-el-Rammaneh district killing 27 people and the Syrians moved into help Palestine in June 1975. Other Arab countries approve of the Syrian presence in Lebanon as a deterrent. By October 1976 Lebanon had become a country where wars of others were fought, and was politically unstable. In 1978 Israel invaded South Lebanon, in reprisal for Palestinian attacks, leaving the South Lebanese army in charge of the strip of land dividing Israel and Lebanon.
This trend continues, and tit-for-tat, strategies by Arabs against Israel, were being staged from Lebanon. The next major war started in 1982 by Israel against the Palestinians, resulting in massacres and also the assassination of President Bachir Gemayel in September, and the ouster of Palestinians bases. The US embassy in Beirut was attacked and 13 were killed. Only in 1985 did Israel withdraw. Sri Lanka had to evacuate around 20,000 workers from Lebanon. We did not have an embassy but a temporary presence at the British embassy. That is how Sri Lanka gets caught, quite unawares in the Middle-East crises, from time to time due our bread-winners working there
After the assassination of Bachir, Amine Gemayel succeeded his brother, and appointed a military government where Christians clashed with Muslims and the country got divided on religious lines, with Michel Aoun administering the East from East Beirut and his Muslim rival Salim al-Hoss ruling from West Beirut. It is at this stage Syria attacked the Presidential Palace at Baabda in October 1990 to help Muslims and General Aoun fled. In 1990 there was an attempt to dissolve all militia organisations, but the Hezbollah refused. The Lebanese army defeated the Palestine Liberation Organisation and took over Sidon to stabilise peace, but the violence continued unabated. In 1996, Israel bombed Hezbollah bases in an operation code named ‘Grapes of Wrath ’and attacked Beqaa Valley, Southern Lebanon, and Southern Beirut. The UN base was also hit and the US, France, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, set up a committee to monitor a truce among the warring parties, but was not fully successful. The Hezbollah advanced to vacant areas and Israel. Even the UN advises Syria and Israel to leave Lebanon in peace but that does not happen. By 2004 internal squabbles took place with Christians siding Israel and Muslims siding Syria.
The president at the time was Emile Lahoud and his term was extended as neither side was willing to have elections. Prime Minister Rafic Hariri resigned and was killed in February 2005 in a car bomb obviously allegedly by Syrians, and four Syrian generals were charged subsequently. This had political overtones and the Hezbollah and Amal militia who were in Government resigned in 2006, and the UN set up a tribunal to investigate Hariri’s killing. To meet the demand from all sides, parliament elected Michael Suleiman, a former army chief as President, and Fouad Siniora as Prime Minister, in May 2008. The new Government extended the hand of friendship to Syria, by starting diplomatic relations with the latter country; commentators say it is since both countries gained independence together in 1944. Meanwhile the International Court in the Hague, investigated the Hariri killing.
It is interesting that the Hague court freed four Lebanese generals kept in custody since 2005 after arresting a former Syrian intelligence chief instead in 2009. May be an example of how even experts of international repute in justice make errors of judgement, when fed with wrong evidence. However, Hezbollah accuses Isreal of being in league with the investigation. The ‘unity government’ as they call it, formed in 2008 collapsed in January 2011, when Hezbollah ministers resigned. But in June 2011 Najib Mikati a former Prime Minister of a caretaker government formed a cabinet dominated by Hezbollah. The killing of important leaders continues and in October 2012 Security Chief, Wissam al-Hassan was killed once again in a car-bomb and it was blamed on Syria. The escalation of violence is due to the Syrian crisis, and in 2013 the European Union listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. When assassinations spilled over to Europe, senior Hezbollah leaders too got killed and there was destabilisation in Lebanon.
President Suleiman’s term expired in May 2014 and Lebanon was without a president till October 2016, when Michel Aoun was elected, and Saad Hariri the son of Rafiq Hariri formed the Government as prime minister,. There is a semblance of stability in the air as Aoun declared “Lebanon should be protected, from regional fires. It remains a priority to prevent any sparks from reaching Lebanon”. A wish we hope will be fulfilled.
Like Sri Lanka Lebanon is a small state bordering the Mediterranean having an ancient history. Lebanon’s modern period begins with the granting of independence in 1944 by the French who had the mandate to rule since the First World War. Its geographical extent is 10,230 square kilometres, bordering Syria on the east and the north, Israel on the south and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. Its capital is Beirut. It is a multi-religious nation and also multi-lingual, with a high literacy and education is key to their material success.
The population is 6.1 million around one-fourth of the population of Sri Lanka. The GDP is high, 47.54 billion US dollars. The emblem of the nation is the cedar tree mentioned in the bible, and psalms speaks for the ancient history of the land, about which the Lebanese are proud of. It is infact ancient going back to biblical times and beyond. The cedar trees are legendary and some are probably 10,000 years old. That is why the people of Lebanon think themselves resistant to adversities like the cedars of Lebanon.
(The writer worked as a Foreign Service Officer in Lebanon.)