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It
is said that Mahmoud Darwish, writing in the aftermath of the
PLO's exit from Beirut in August 1982 wrote:
"The
world is closing on us, pushing us through the last passage and we
tear off our limbs to pass through.
Where
shall we go after the last frontiers, where should the birds fly
after the last sky?"
In
his poetic piece the Bard understood only too well the plight of
his people and the pitiful pathetic pilgrimage that they were to
undertake out of Lebanon and into yet another wilderness.
However,
what thought was left for the Lebanese? What concern has
been expressed or globally voiced of their equally sad and tragic
demise?
What
was once in biblical terms the land of milk and honey has now
become the rancid and ravaged terrain of a city that once rejoiced
in being the Paris of the East to now being the pariah of the
Middle East.
In
all of this, Syria's ominous presence stands in the forefront.
The occupational forces are everywhere, blatantly, visibly and
even invisibly acting in their covert conspiratorial cadres
through agencies infiltrating and suppressing society generally.
No-one,
irrespective of age, health or in any condition, or for that
matter any occupation has mobility without spending time at
barricades, manned by rude and deliberately humiliating Syrian
soldiers. If they are not in uniform then they wear the
badge of "Assad" identified by their pig-like manner.
In
the Lebanon of today, Syria is the banality of evil.
Recently the Right Reverend Rector of St Joseph's University in
Beirut, Father Selim Abou SJ, in giving his oration on the
celebration of its patron saint on 19 March 2002, spoke of the
parlous state in which Lebanese society, both physically,
spiritually and emotionally, had devolved as a result of the
Syrian occupation.
Regrettably,
whilst the focus of the world, with some justification, centres on
the Israeli - Palestinian conflict and had for some time had as
its focal point the Afghanistan situation, the neglect of the
Lebanese and their occupation and subjugation has been a pathetic
betrayal of a human rights crisis of equal proportion to any other
area where devastation and civil war have wreaked havoc.
One
asks: why have none of the innumerable members of the foreign
press covering the conflicts in the Middle East not done a story
about the brutalised Lebanese civilians who have suffered as a
result of human rights abuses? Why is it that the vanquished
of the Levant are ignored? In his oration, Reverend Father
Abou SJ spoke of the Lebanese society which is now imbued with the
ideal of human rights manifesting itself in robust protests where
intellectuals, students and political parties and organisations
are expressing their discontent with the tyrannical regime that is
in place as a result of the patronage of the Syrian government.
In
this ferment and amidst this maelstrom of malaise there has been
discerned, and has come to the fore, a reconciliation which one
would never have imagined ten years ago. It is not only the
Christians who, under the leadership of Dr Samir Geagea, General
Michel Aoun, Mr Dori Chamoun and Sheikh Gemayel who are united,
but also members of the Druze and other Islamic groups who no
longer will tilt their head to the Syrian master.
There
is no doubt that Lebanon is hemmed in on all sides, to the south
and to the north it faces oppression and occupation. It has
been the target of relentless bombing and the recipient of
invasive forces who have raped and brutalised her society by their
repeated incursions into her sovereignty and the domination and
subordination of her will.
One
wonders whether the current war of attrition will be successful as
raised by the Syrians when compared to the campaign between the
Israelis and the Palestinians. In this regard and to this
end there has been a painstaking mobilisation of secular and
religious Lebanese opinion which is under way and which is slowly
overtaking the factional facades that have existed to Lebanon's
detriment. In August 2001, as a result of student protests
and a justifiable expression of dissent at the manner in which the
Syrian forces were attempting to suppress the Lebanese populace,
prominent human rights activists were arrested and subsequently
tried before what pass as abysmal excuses for ‘Courts’ and
even more abysmal excuses as judges and prosecutors working in
those ‘Courts’. They are military tribunals trying civilians
– an outrage in any civilised society.
On
21 March 2002 the following activists were given gaol sentences in
respect of verdicts of guilt which were both popularly and
unanimously decried as miscarriages of justice:
(a)
Tawfik Hindi, an adviser to the Lebanese Forces leader Dr Samir
Geagea;
(b)
Habib Younes; and
(c)
Antoine Bassil, journalists
were
each sentenced to terms of three and four years, respectively, for
allegedly collaborating with the enemy (Israel). They were
all stripped of their civil rights.
A
further death sentence in absentia was passed on Ghassan Touma, a
former Lebanese Forces security chief, and Etienne Saqur, a leader
of the Guardians of the Cedars Militia. They were also
stripped of their civil rights.
Luckily,
because they were outside the statute of limitations, were Salman
Samaha, the Head of the Students' Division of the Lebanese Forces
and Elie Keyrouz, an anti-Syrian activist.
Inevitably,
Amnesty International urged the Lebanese authorities to order an
independent and impartial probe into charges of torture and
confessions obtained under duress, which were not used in Court
but were relied upon to achieve convictions.
What
was comforting, and what was very discernible in the outcry after
the verdicts were passed, was the unified stance taken by all
responsible peoples within the Lebanon and in particular prominent
politicians such as Boutros Harb, the Member for Batroun, and also
Nayla Mouawad, the Member for Zghorta and widow of the former
President, His Excellency Rene Mouawad, who each denounced the
convictions as politically based and aimed at justifying the
August raids of 2001. They were also critical in
discrediting the verdicts as nothing more than a shameless attack
on the Christian opposition.
From
this regrettable reflex of a reactionary regime there has sprung,
and has continued to grow, a unified Christian compact as a key
feature of the opposition within Lebanon to the government and its
Syrian backers.
Cedarwatch
both decries and denounces the Syrian regime and will do so at
each and every opportunity made available to it.
What
is equally perplexing and disturbing is that in Lebanon the
suffering of civilians is not only disregarded but now has reached
the level where it is not proportionate to the scale or intensity
of the military operations that were a hallmark feature of the
Lebanese Civil War.
In
recent times it has become a feature of the world we live in that
after military insurrections have passed, the civilian casualties
long outlast the military campaign. Lebanon is but a feature
of this modern phenomenon. Looking at the two-week war
between India and Pakistan over the independence of Bangladesh in
1971, which was regarded as a modest affair, it produced
10,000,000 refugees.
Equally,
the insurrections that have occurred between armed units in Africa
have only involved several thousand troops, but have resulted in
several million refugees.
The
effect of civil war on the civilian life in Lebanon is a factor
that has largely gone unnoticed and has been swept aside because
it is both convenient and accommodating to ensure Syria's silence
and its inactivity in the Middle East thereby assuaging the
concern of other powers who are happy to sacrifice Lebanon to keep
the Syrians appeased.
Syria's
occupation has effectively dulled, if not blurred or obliterated,
the distinction between war and peace. For instance, in
Lebanon one can neither say that there is a state of war nor is
there a state of peace. Equally applicable is the state that
exists in Iraq since the formal end of the Gulf War. Whilst
that country is still the target of bombing raids, one could
hardly say it was at war.
Equally
disconcerting is the perplexing position into which Lebanon has
been placed. She has become a target and an all too
unfortunate legacy of the twentieth century. The global
machinery of mass propaganda which Lebanon has endured in a period
of confrontation between incompatible and passion-laden ideologies
have brought into her life a crusading element comparable to that
seen in religious conflicts of the past where she has been
ravaged, ransacked and repeatedly raped to the point where she
knows no better than the disturbed existence into which she has
been thrust and is continually engaged in.
Lebanon
did not and will not find peace with the end of armed conflict.
Like Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Angola, Kashmir and Colombia, she, as a
State has virtually ceased to exist and has no power over her own
territory. The occupying force that Syria represents is all
pervasive and utterly emasculating.
What
this means is that Lebanon cannot survive while internal stability
and the avoidance of military conflict are denied to her.
She cannot put in place effective mechanisms for negotiation and
settlement. While-ever the States that surround her are
beset by rivalries and frictions and are engaged in armed
conflict, she cannot be allowed to rest.
In
this scenario, States with thriving, stable economies and a
relatively equitable distribution of goods among their inhabitants
are less likely to be shaky, either socially or politically than
poor, highly inegalitarian and economically unstable ones such as
Lebanon.
In
the ultimate, all of this as a revelation that it is sought to be
relied upon, must heighten the concern and tug at the
heart-strings, of each and every concerned person and in
particular all Lebanese throughout the world.
While-ever
Syria maintains economic and social inequality within Lebanon it
will forever reduce the chance of peace. There can be no
legitimacy given to the present Lebanese government, in the eyes
of the majority of Lebanon's inhabitants or any responsible
outsider.
Equally,
no government, and in particular the Lebanese government, can take
for granted the existence of an unarmed civilian population or the
fact that public order will allow itself to be dictated to by
oppressive and dictatorial governments who neither observe law and
order nor are considerate of society and its right to exist in
peace and harmony.
In
short, the usurper of one's sovereignty can never feel free but
will always be looking over their shoulder, wondering when, how
and from where the inevitable attack will come.
Granted
that Lebanon's languishing in the wilderness is seemingly
indefinite, the hope that has sprung forth from the reconciliation
of the Christian groups and their unification in their opposition
to the Syrian forces, with other prominent Lebanese members of
society from the Druze and Islamic communities offers,
optimistically that the freedom that was once cherished will soon
be restored.
It
is both unfortunate, but nevertheless a reality, that Lebanon must
endure the dislocation of its community for some time yet.
The repetitive, repressive measures carried out by the Syrian
armed forces at the behest of the Lebanese government acting in
the forefront does not auger for a return to normalcy.
Embattled
and imprisoned, but defiant, Dr Samir Geagea, along with his
comrades in exile, General Aoun and others throughout the world,
are symbols of the resistance that must never be allowed to
waiver, nor their sacrifice taken for granted. Equally, the
solidarity of the Church in Lebanon is both an uplifting and a
very reassuring response to what inevitably must seem a lost cause
which has been globally ignored for so long.
Cedarwatch
rejoices in the reconciliation and asks that each and every
concerned Lebanese be swift in their support and equally terse in
their condemnation of the Syrian presence.
Like
the poet, Darwish, we may well think that the world is closing in
on us and that we have nowhere else to go but one thing is
certain, neither the love for our beloved nation will ever die nor
our thirst for freedom be ever quenched until and unless we have
seen the Syrian invaders leaving by the same road along which they
came.
Stephen
J Stanton
Convenor – Cedarwatch
Human Rights for Lebanon
April 13, 2002.
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