BEIRUT, 13 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - Leaders of the Lebanese pro-government ‘March 14’ group warned that the country was sliding towards Iraq-style sectarian violence after at least three people were killed in explosions that hit two buses travelling through a Christian-majority mountain town outside Beirut. “This was a new form of terrorism for Lebanon. We are all afraid that it will push Lebanon towards the kind of violence that we see in Iraq,” Michel Khoury, a member of the Christian Phalangist Party and of the March 14 committee, told IRIN. Read more about Pro-government group urges peace after deadly bombing
BEIRUT, 14 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - The girl was a veiled Sunni Muslim but waved the flag of the Lebanese Forces, once one of the country’s most powerful Christian militias. She was marking the second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination with a call for the downfall of the Shia-led opposition, camping out less than 100 metres away. “We are not afraid of Hassan Nasrallah,” said Elena Karaman, referring to the leader of the Islamist movement Hezbollah, which fought Israel in a month-long war last summer and has been demanding the resignation of the Western-backed Lebanese government. Read more about Razor wire and soldiers keep factions apart
On the streets of Beirut, a vernacular of graffiti, political posters, cloth banners and stenciled portraits of leaders and martyrs — and the effacement thereof, whether intentionally or through natural causes — produces a lively debate. Various individuals and groups effectively claim existence, label their territories, as well as write and re-write their histories — Lebanon has no one history. I refer to this as a “debate” because of this back and forth, of placement and replacement, which lies in stark contrast to the monologue that rises above buildings and highways, the one-way beaming of high-priced messages as represented by billboards and advertising space. Read more about Brand America: Of False Promises and Snake Oil
PARIS, Jan 25 (IPS) - Representatives of 50 industrial countries and international institutions have pledged 7.6 billion dollars to a recovery plan for Lebanon at a donor conference in Paris Thursday. The fresh aid certainly buys time for the embattled government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, but it remains doubtful if it can buy it peace. “This is not a one-shot event to support one particular government,” Siniora told the press, emphasising that the aid should benefit all Lebanese, regardless of their political or religious affiliations. French President Jacques Chirac, who hosted the conference, said that “all political forces and all actors in the region should be involved in the recovery plan.” Read more about Donors Buy Government Time, Not Peace
On January 23, 2007, the Lebanese opposition shut down the entire country, pummeling heavy black smoke over its skies and sending the entire country into an economic standstill. It was and is a top-down “democratic” movement, nonviolent in its intent, but with empty demands; this primarily because of a fundamental flaw in the system that requires any opposition to build coalitions of national unity, thus forced to share power with former and current thieves and murderers, and making higher demands a form of political suicide. The day’s event leaves one with a feeling of the surreal and a sense of absurdity. And how does one begin to recount the surreal, the absurd? Read more about Is a Military Government our only Choice?
BEIRUT, Jan. 15 (IPS) - Anti-government demonstrations held in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 have sparked debate about democracy in Lebanon. Protestors, largely Hezbollah supporters, have been calling on Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to give more cabinet posts to the opposition, or resign. Siniora has warned that the demonstrations are threatening democracy, but many demonstrators say they are actually working to strengthen it. Siniora’s government was formed in 2005 after massive demonstrations over the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Read more about Which Way Lies Democracy
CAIRO (IPS) - Following the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, almost four years after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Middle East stands at a crossroads. The execution of Saddam may well create more problems than it could possibly solve. Despite the formation of a permanent national government, Iraq has been reduced to a state of chaos and sectarian violence. The execution is unlikely to bring stability to the country, or credibility to the government. That is after the situation in the country hit an all-time low this year. Read more about The Year of Living Dangerously in the Middle East
The people of this region are being abandoned by the world to escalating chaos. The political crisis in Lebanon is a manifestation of this chaos, linked more broadly to the catastrophe in Iraq, and the butchery in Palestine. Despite empty gestures, fake goodwill and worn out slogans from a parade of prominent visitors to Jericho, Gaza and some regional capitals, there is no reason at all for hope. Hypocrisy and double standards have reached new levels of shamelessness. Members of the so-called “international community” refused to take any position on the inclusion in October of an openly fascist party in the Israeli government, on the grounds that this is a purely internal matter. Read more about Mounting crises in escalating chaos
(IPS) - The assassination of Pierre Gemayel in Beirut on Tuesday has interrupted an 18-month relative safety for anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and intellectuals, and signals the kick-off of a series of events aiming at totally destabilising the ailing national government and dividing the Christian community in the country — and possibly plunging the entire region into chaos.
The murder of the minister of industry, shot in his car while returning from a suburban church, is very much in line with the recent killings of 15 political leaders and journalists, which culminated with the death of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. Read more about Chaos Appears On the Horizon
IPS - The assassination of Christian Maronite leader Pierre Gemayel does more than strike a blow to a fragile Lebanese government just trying to survive: it raises fears of sectarian violence with painful memories of a devastating 15-year civil war still fresh. And, on a regional scale, it does nothing to advance new thinking to involve Syria and Iran in search for an end to spiralling violence in Iraq. If normalcy can be restored in Lebanon after the shock, anger and unease in the aftermath of the slaying, it may be thanks to a sense of national identity. Read more about Assassination Leaves Government Gasping
