Democratic Palestine : 37 (ص 20)
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- Democratic Palestine : 37 (ص 20)
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From War to War
«My brother in the eastern area, I can
guarantee that I am not going to declare
war on you, but I cannot guarantee that
the war is not going to explode
again...We have learned from past
experience that wars simply explode
without anyone declaring them. »
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Salim Hoss,
(Associated Press, December 18th).
With the Hrawi government's failure
to move against General Aoun’s stronghold
in East Beirut, fighting broke out in
the eastern areas on January 3lst.
Aoun’s separatism, and the de facto
partition this caused, generated a new
war, this time in the heart of the Chris-
tian community.
The current situation shows that parti-
tion is the crucial problem facing the
people of Lebanon. Between war and
partition, citizens are killed, homes
destroyed, families separated, and the
future is something to be feared.
Aoun’s isolation
The fighting in East Beirut has its
roots in Aoun’s continued refusal to
accept the Taif accord and President
Hrawi’s legitimacy. The other major
power in East Beirut, Samir Geagea’s
Lebanese Forces, had accepted
Hrawi’s presidency, and proposed a
federated state of sectarian cantons
rather than either partition or the
unified, reformed political system laid
out in the Taif accord. In view of his
increasing overall isolation, Aoun
could tolerate no dissent in the so-cal-
led Christian camp. The whole coun-
try, even his supporters, had begun to
realize that it is Aoun and his actions
that are blocking the drive for peace
and reconciliation.
In this situation, Aoun provoked the
latest round of fighting by ordering the
Lebanese Forces to disband, ridicul-
ously charging Geagea of waging «war
against the army with American bles-
sing to enforce implementation of the
humiliating (Taif) agreement» (Al
Safir, February 9th).
18.
Geagea defied Aoun’s order, vowing
that he would «respond to each shell
with 10 shells,» not to «allow those
blinded by the lust for power to
slaughter the Lebanese Forces» (The
Economist, February 3-9). In the ensu-
ing fighting, over 600 people were kil-
led and 2,000 wounded, in the first
half of February. Artillery fire hit hos-
pitals, schools and churches in addition
to homes. Several hospitals warned
that they would not be able to con-
tinue functioning for more than two or
three days as water, blood and oxygen
supplies were being exhausted.
Thousands have left their homes and
fled to safer areas in West Beirut and
nothern Lebanon, where the legitimate
authorities have maintained stability.
The new round of fighting in East
Beirut is the worst since February of
last year, when Aoun moved against
the Lebanese Forces to exert his
authority over the Christian areas.
In view of the new round of death
and destruction he has unleashed, the
mad general can no longer maintain
the image of the «saviour of the
Lebanese Christians» which he had
worked to cultivate in the local and
international media. Even in the right-
ist Christian camp, there are few
Lebanese who continued to fall for his
lies about the «war of liberation»,
because Aoun has become «nothing
but a television show,» in the words of
Prime Minister Hoss (AP, January
29th).
In the light of the unanimous popu-
lar support for the Taif accord and the
government of national reconciliation,
the dictatorial general and his sectarian
campaign have been reduced to absur-
dity. Accordingly, he even declared
war on the press, declaring «from now
on, critical tongues shall be cut off...
They (journalists) have committed
many crimes in the name of freedom,
which has become chaos» (Al Safir,
January 18th). The media had defied
his ban on referring to Elias Hrawi as
president of Lebanon or Salim Hoss as
prime minister. Aoun then shut down
Al Diyar and Al Bayrak newspapers,
along with Akhbar Al Yom newsletter,
all published in East Beirut, for a
week.
More fragmentation
Adding to the picture of infighting
was a new round of violence which
broke out on December 23rd, between
Nabih Berri’s Amal movement and
Hezbollah, in Iqlim Al Toffah, bet-
ween Sidon and Jezzine in South Leba-
non. As a result of this inter-Shiite
fighting, at least 98 people have been
killed and 290 wounded. The two sides
are vying for control of Lebanon’s
Shiite Moslem community, and both
ignored the ceasefire called by the
Algerian mediator, Mohammed Taher,
on January 29th, despite having
expressed readiness to withdraw their
fighters to the pre-conflict lines.
Other obstacles to stability
Since coming to power, President
Hrawi has taken a series of measures
to pave the way for restoring Leba-
non’s unity and stability, and further
isolate Aoun. In this framework, he
paid a visit to Damascus on January
21st, seeking a mechanism to guaran-
tee implementation of the Taif accord.
This was his first trip outside Lebanon
since his election in November, and
the first leg of a planned tour to the
states of the Arab tripartite committee
which brokered the Taif agreement
(Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco),
aiming to revive their efforts to sup-
port his government. In Damascus,
Hrawi agreed with President Assad on
a security plan for the western part of
Beirut, the airport road and the coast.
In addition to a gradual withdrawal of
Syrian troops from West Beirut to the
southern outskirts of the city, the plan
would ban militias from the city, aim-
ing to create an atmosphere of security
Democratic Palestine, February 1990 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 37
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