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Besieged By Sectarian Violence

By Sarine Sabounjian, Lebanon

Lebanon - one of the most astonishing and bizarre countries in the world - seems trapped in making world headline news. As I write this, a fragile peace has been broken by a conflict between two sects of a same religion - the Sunites and Shiites - pro-government forces (supporting Prime Minister Fouad Siniora) and opposition forces (followers of Hezbollah and General Michel Aoun) respectively. This time the scene is the grounds of the Arab University of Beirut. Education to stimulate tolerance and understanding is apparently not a priority at this institution.

Not even six months have passed since the roads, airport, and highways in Lebanon were blocked off by the Israelis. Yet on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, schools, many shops and businesses are closed. It is dreadful to see a whole country paralyzed like this.

On what might have been a beautiful day in Beirut, people woke up to the sounds of violence and sirens. Normal life was stopped when at 5:30 a.m. tires covered with oil were set on fire. Angry noise could be heard on the TV as well as disparate political party representatives argued over who and what caused the outbreak of violence. Passengers arriving on planes at the Beirut airport were obliged to walk to their destinations because the roads were blocked. Ironically it was the brave soldiers in the Lebanese army who represent every religion and tribal sect who set out to preserve order and extinguish the fires. But behind their backs young men threw rocks to satisfy a desire to get in the action and add fuel to the fire.

Lebanon is divided in the most deadly way. Even the ‘I love life" campaign seems to divide the country.

"We love life with dignity; I love life in colors; We want to live with dignity; We want to live with security; We want to live in Lebanon; We want to live without debt; We want to live with our heads raised."

(This was a campaign originally established by pro-government activists and was later adopted by the opposition - Hezbollah and Aoun activists)

New slogans written in red and white letters have been posted around Lebanon and they are creating quite a stir pitting people from the pro-government and opposition groups against each other. Written in French, English and Arabic, "We want to live" and "I love life" billboards this time are signed by the Lebanese opposition. This is Hezbollah's campaign. They want to define what kind of life the Lebanese people should live by.

The campaign aims to respond to the US-funded campaign of the government supporters. However, no one defines exactly what kind of life the US is leading us towards. Hezbollah's slogans create disorder. They are divisive and they create enmity between sectarian groups. There is no debate. There is no dialogue - concepts the U.S. claims to be teaching Middle Easterners.

The Aoun party pushes for a multi-representational discussion about the kind of life the Lebanese people want to live. What exactly would that be? "A life with dignity, security, and economic prosperity," says one Aoun party representative. "A life that provides Lebanese youth with work, and allows them to live in Lebanon and not emigrate - a life without debts, a life for [the Lebanese people] to live together."

The question remains - will the Lebanese people be forever cursed living beside the Israelis and eternally embroiled in oil wars? "History is only repreating itself," said Mayssoun Sukarieh, a native of Beirut and a frequent contributor to Electronic Lebanon. "These conflicts date back to the 1975 civil war - it's Muslim against Muslim, Christian against Christian, all of them against each other. It is quite impossible to stop the beating hearts full of hatred of the people."

While Lebanese security forces have kept the violence at bay -imposing curfews and closing schools and universities - life is expected to return to "normal" in a few days. Nonetheless, Lebanon is at a serious crossroad. Will the country plunge into sectarian civil war or will the various sects come together and have constructive dialogue. The people of Lebanon are waiting and hoping that the historical conflicts will end very soon.

Some reactions to the turmoil in Lebanon...

How do the young leaders react to the spontaneous violence?

"Lebanon has become a battlefield for the U.S. and Iranian governments," said 26 year old Dalya Mitri. A pro-government supporter, Mitri said, "The opposition is trying to use methods of the loyalists, by adopting their banners, their slogans, their ways of communication, to show that there are no differences between the demands of the government. They refuse to believe that there are new projects that, if adopted, can improve the Lebanonese state.

Mona Imad, a 29 yrs old, Pro-Government advocate believes that "As long as the leaders of the political parties cannot agree on a solution, Lebanon will remain in this awful situation. All parties should be more flexible and find a middle solution to avoid civil war. Uncertainty, instability, insecurity, and intercommunity conflicts, are symptoms of danger. While people feel safer in their own community, staying in one place suffocates freedom. We cannot be afraid to go around our beautiful country. We cannot be cut off from each other by a lack of communication because we are afraid. If that happens I have only the leaders to blame"

"Fuck them all," said 33 year old pro-government supporter Guy Kreidy. "Federation is the absolute solution! Each sect is separated socially and economically"

"There is no solution without dialogue between the political leaders," argued 23 year old opposition supporter Bassem Ghosn. "They should sit and talk, agree on something. A conflict between the leaders incites the conflict between the followers. Nobody wants a civil war and the Lebanese people do not deserve it. [Yet] there are some people on all the sides who want to create chaos and make things worse - like the chaos at the university. It is clear that someone wants Lebanon in a constant critical situation"

Tarek Chaar is a 25 year old pro-government supporter who believes,"There are two major problems in our country - first there are a lot of sects and political parties, and second nobody introduces themselves as Lebanese. The solution is to cancel the sects so we would be simply Lebanese"