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What’s
happening in Lebanon? |
Posted By Emma Sabry
More than 65 people have been killed
in Lebanon in almost three days of
heavy fighting described as the
country’s worst internal violence
since the 1975-90 civil war. The
clashes broke out Sunday between army
soldiers and rebels from a Palestinian
refugee camp – Nahr El-Bared –
north of Tripoli. Lebanese defense
officials say the fighting broke out
when security forces tried to arrest
suspects in a bank robbery. They claim
that the rebels, allegedly linked to
al-Qaeda, then attacked the army posts
at the entrances of the camp, sparking
the clashes.
About 300 members of the Palestinian
group, Fatah al-Islam, are believed to
be in the Nahr El-Bared refugee camp,
which is home to about 40,000 of the
400,000 Palestinian refugees to whom
Lebanon gave shelter in the wake of
the creation of Israel in 1948. The
camp is one of about 12 others that
cannot be accessed by the Lebanese
army under a 1969 Arab accord.
Two or more generations of
Palestinians have grown up in such
camps and they know no other home. The
recent clashes added to their misery.
Since the rebels live in densely
packed houses, innocent casualties
have been targeted. Several wounded
civilians have been trapped inside the
camp since the fighting began.
According to Lebanese army and
Palestinian sources, 30 troops and 17
rebels have been killed along with 17
Palestinian refugees and one Lebanese
civilian.
Aid convoys have been unable to
deliver relief supplies to the
civilians inside the camp. Residents
say they are suffering from a lack of
electricity and shortages of water,
food and medical supplies. "There
are many wounded...We're under siege.
There is a shortage of bread, medicine
and electricity....There are children
under the rubble" of damaged
buildings, Sana Abu Faraj, a resident
of the camp said.
There are different theories about the
real reasons behind the latest
clashes. Fighters based inside the
Nahr al-Bared camp have been under
scrutiny by Lebanese authorities, who
allegedly accuse them of being
responsible for two bombings in a
Christian area of Beirut in February.
Authorities also blamed Fatah al-Islam
for two other bomb attacks that shook
Beirut on Sunday and Monday. But the
group’s spokesman denied any
involvement.
Some analysts say the recent clashes
could be a ploy by the Western-backed
Lebanese government to push its
efforts to set up an international
tribunal to try suspects in the 2005
assassination of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafiq Hariri, which has been
blamed on Syrian officials by an
uncompleted UN probe. Syria denies any
involvement in Hariri’s murder, and
dismisses claims by some members of
Lebanon’s anti-Syrian parliamentary
majority that it wants to block the
formation of the tribunal.
Lebanese officials claim that Fatah
al-Islam has been used by the Syrian
intelligence as a tool to derail UN
moves to establish the Hariri
tribunal.
But, like all Palestinian resistance
groups, Damascus distanced itself from
Nahr El-Bared fighters. Syria’s
Foreign Minister Walid Moualem
reiterated that his country opposed
Fatah al-Islam and wanted to arrest
all its leaders. "Our forces have
been after them, even through
Interpol," he said in a lecture
at Damascus University. "We
reject this organization. It does not
serve the Palestinian cause and it is
not after liberating Palestine."
Whatever the reasons behind the recent
clashes, Lebanon certainly doesn’t
need another wave of violence. The
fighting showed how fragile security
remains in Lebanon, which has been
wrecked by Israel’s war against the
resistance movement Hezbollah last
year in which more than 1,200 mostly
Lebanese civilians died. Beirut has
also been hit by a series of unsolved
assassinations following Hariri’s
assassination which led to the
withdrawal of all Syrian troops from
the country.
Correspondents say the embattled
Lebanese government, itself embroiled
in a long-running political dispute
between pro-government groups and
opposition parties, including
Hezbollah, risks sparking a backlash
among Palestinians in other refugee
camps in Lebanon. If the military
moves into Nahr el-Bared by force, it
could trigger widespread anger around
the Arab world, particularly at a time
when Israel is attacking the
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, Palestinian Liberation
Organization representative Abbas Zaki
told Lebanese Prime Minister Fuoad
Siniora that Palestinian refugee camps
in Lebanon shouldn’t be “the spark
that starts a civil war."
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party,
denied any link with Fatah al-Islam.
"Fatah al-Islam has no link with
the Fatah movement. There is
absolutely no connection and they have
no right to use the name Fatah,"
said Fahmi Zaarir.
Despite distancing themselves from
Fatah al-Islam, Palestinian leaders
are angered by the death and injury of
several civilians by Lebanese army
shelling. The Lebanon head of the
mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement
warned that continued shelling could
trigger an uprising by refugees who
live mostly in abject poverty in camps
across the country. "No
Palestinian, Mr Palestinian faction in
Lebanon will accept seeing the
Palestinian people slaughtered in a
collective punishment as is happening
in Nahr Al-Bared," Sultan Abul
Aynayn told AFP.
"We are one people with the
Lebanese, but we will not let our
Palestinian brothers be
slaughtered," said Khalil Khaled,
50, as he joined a demonstration in
the Beddawi refugee camp, near Nahr
El-Bared.
It isn’t clear whether a truce
announced by Fatah al-Islam earlier
Tuesday could hold, as the Lebanese
government vowed to crush the group,
which it described as a “dangerous
phenomenon”.
The actions of Fatah al-Islam cannot
be justified. As guests or as members
of the Lebanese society, they owe a
duty to the government. Most
importantly, the actions of this small
group should not represent the views
of the majority of Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon.
The embattled Lebanese government has
the right to restore order, but the
use of force might not be the wisest
action since many innocent civilians
could also be targeted. The solution
clearly lies in mediation. The
Lebanese must not be lured into
causing bloodshed on the scale of the
1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre.
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