USCFL - Lebanon: A Hostage Country

With its strong Christian population, its fashionable cafes, and its internationally-renowned financial district center, the Beirut of the 1960’s represented a metaphor for a promising Lebanon in an otherwise tribal, traditionally conservative Middle East. Widely referred to as the Switzerland of the region at the time, Lebanon was a bubble of prosperity in an Arab sea of social, economic and political backwardness. But the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) intrusion into Lebanese soil during the late sixties, the bloody 1975-1990 civil war, the PLO-prompted 1982 Israeli invasion, and the emergence of the radical Muslim Shi’ ite movement Hizbullah, among other developments, have seriously affected the prospects of a bright future for this Levantine nation.

Today, however, the event that is most deeply and visibly blocking Lebanon’s political and economic development is Syria’s overt occupation of the country. Syrian forces entered Lebanon to "preserve the peace" in June 1976. Since then, the Syrian presence has contributed to anything but that—unless one is ready to consider Syrian-sponsored anti-Israel terror across the border and the promotion of domestic anti-Christian sentiment part of that "peaceful mandate."

Syria’s unwelcome stay in the country has severely damaged Lebanon’s independence in virtually every sphere of life. Economically, for instance, 1 million Syrian workers find jobs in Lebanon; at the expense, of course, of Lebanese nationals. Politically, Syrian infiltration is notorious: the Lebanese government is essentially a Syrian puppet. Since 1982, just one president (Elias Hraoui) has made it to the end of his term; thanks to his collaboration with the Syrian regime. Militarily, around 25,000 Syrian soldiers dwell on Lenanese soil. In addition, Syrian secret agents roam the streets of Beirut day and night, eavesdropping on conversations in search of a rebellious word. Sometimes, the activities of Syrian intelligence agents turn public. A salient case—reported in local newspapers—took place in August 2001 when 150 Syrian agent-provocateurs infiltrated a crowd at a rally against Syrian occupation beating and arresting the demonstrators. According to media reports, ambulances carrying the wounded to nearby hospitals were initially denied access.

Unwanted Syrian intervention has been also manifesting itself in a field which is connected to, expectedly, one of Syria’s trademark specialties: terrorism. Hence, Hizbullah gets its Iranian-supplied weapons via Damascus airport. Al-Qaida operatives have been recently finding refuge in Lebanon, even recruiting followers in the Palestinian refugee camps, with president Bashar al-Assad’s tacit approval. Even before September 11 a group linked to Osama Bin-Laden—called Al-Takfeer Wa Al-Hejra—was undergoing training in the northern part of the country, particularly in the Dinniyeh Mountains. What’s more, the terrorists that are, or have at some point been, sheltered by Syrian-controlled Lebanon are as dangerous as notorious. To mention just a few: Ibrahim Hamid (a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing), Muneer Maqdah (a member of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death by Jordan for planning terrorist attacks in the kingdom), Abu Muhjen (responsible for the assassination of four Lebanese judges in 1997 and for launching a rocket-propelled grenade against the Russian embassy in Beirut) and, last but not least, Imad Mugniyah (a prominent Hizbullah militant involved in bombings in Argentina, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United States—he appears in the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists in the globe).

While much international attention has been devoted to China’s occupation of Tibet, the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, the ups and downs of Palestinian-Israeli dynamics, and to a host of other intractable conflicts, Lebanon’s tragic history of political rape by a stronger neighbor has for the most part been sidelined. And here there is something worth recalling. The family of nations was obsessed with Israel’s presence in the south of Lebanon and consequently celebrated Israel’s withdrawal when it finally took effect in May 2000. Israel’s withdrawal—in full compliance with United Nations resolutions 425 and 520—is not the end of the story, however. Resolution 520 calls all foreign parties to leave Lebanon’s territory and respect its territorial integrity as a sovereign nation.

Syria’s occupation of Lebanon is an open, public violation of resolution 520. This fact prompts a simple question: how much more pain would the Lebanese people have to endure before the world community unequivocally urges Syria to comply with international law and the most elementary norms of civilized behavior?

The writers, respectively a Lebanese international lawyer and an Argentinean journalist, are Senior Fellows at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

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Article:	Lebanon: A Hostage Country
Author:	Serge Selwan and Julian Schvindlerman
Date:	April 2002