Posts Tagged ‘Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon’
Testimonials of Lebanon civil war: How the city of Tripoli fared during the war?
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 22, 2008
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: How the city of Tripoli (Lebanon) fared during the war?
From The issue of the daily Al Balad, April 25, 2005
The northern city port of Tripoli (Lebanon) has been an Arab nationalist stronghold before the civil war.
The majority of its inhabitants are Moslem Sunnis and have more trade relation with Syria than the rest of Lebanon.. Dramatic events will allow the Islamists to take control for a long period.
Tripoli kept its loyalty to the Palestinian Resistance Movement, even allowing Arafat to return to Tripoli in 1983 after the Palestinian military forces were evacuated from Beirut in 1982, under the pressure of the Israeli occupying forces that encircled Beirut.
When the war started, Suleiman Frangieh was President of the Republic and from the neighboring town of Zgorta. Frangieh has shown hostility to the armed Palestinian factions in Lebanon and appointed General Rifai Prime Minister. A mass opposition to that appointment brought back Rashid Karami, a Tripoli traditional and conservative leader, to the premiership.
During this constitutional upheaval, fighting started in Kubat Majdlaya between the “Marada” of the Frangieh militia and the Moslem movement of 24 of November.
Mass relocation movements of Christians from Tripoli to Zgorta and from the Christian villages of Ehden, Bchari and Hadath Jebeh to Tripoli were common sights.
When the Lebanese army split up because Karami refused to allow the army to get involved, many Moslems relocated from the villages of Deddeh and Ras Maskat in the Koura region back to Tripoli.
In July 1978, the Maronite Phalanges Party assassinated Tony Frangieh, the son of former president Sulieman Frangieh, who was a staunch supporter of the Assad Syrian regime, along with 33 residents in Ehden. The counter-offensive forced the Falangist and their supporters to evacuate to the neighboring region to Betroun, and eventually toward East Beirut.
Tripoli experienced the heaviest fighting and destruction when Arafat returned to Tripoli in the autumn of 1983.
Arafat attempted to regain his power bases in Lebanon from the North. The Islamist Movement of Saeed Shaaban supported Arafat, whereas most Leftist parties supported the Syrian troops to force Arafat out of the city and back to Tunisia, and succeeded after hundreds of civilians were killed and severely injured..
This mini war called the “Abu Amar war” ended with the evacuation of Arafat and his 5,000 fighters and 100 families after 48 days of fighting. This localized war left 900 dead and 1500 wounded, half of these casualties were Lebanese citizens.
Although the Islamists lost the support of the Palestinian fighters, they still managed to evacuate the supporters of all the leftist parties from Tripoli.
A period of strict application of the Koran rules were enforced; they cracked down on alcoholic consumption, betting activities, and appointed Emirs in various parts of the city. Khalil Ekawe, with a war name of “Abu Arab” and formerly a leftist activist, was one of these Emirs who administered the Bab Tebani area. Ekawe fought the Alawit, a Shiaa faction that support the Syrian regime, in the area of Jabal Mohsen.
However, in the autumn of 1985, the Syrian troops, backed by the Lebanese party called the Syrian National Social Party, had the upper hand and put an end to the Islamists control and administration of the city.
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: How East Saida fared?
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 22, 2008
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: How East Saida fared?
The issue of the daily Al Balad, April 24, 2005
Salem is the son of an army soldier, and his family relocated to various regions of Lebanon during his father assignments. Thus, Salem acquired many local dialects and could converse easily with people wherever he was.
Salem’s father is from a Christian village in East Sidon and his mother is from the Chouf region. It was a rather large family of six brothers and two sisters and will expand greatly later on.
Between the years 1975-77, nothing happened in their hometown. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 upset the stability of the community by creating new militias that resisted Israel incursion, and encouraging other militias to take advantage and moving in to regions they had no foot hold; that was also the case with the Chouf region.
In the case of villages in East Saida, many of Christian majority, the Israeli forces allowed the “Lebanese forces” to enter in these villages. Atrocities were committed. As Israel troops vacated Saida, counter-offensives dislodged the “Lebanese forces” and forced the Christian communities to seek refuge in East Beirut.
The family had to move to the shantytown of Ruwisat Jdidi in East Beirut and thus, began the vicissitudes of Salem as a fighting member of the “Lebanese Forces”: Salem needed to earn a living to help his extended family. He fought many battles; once, when defending the television station LBC, on Junieh Highway at the time, against other Christian factions that wanted that piece of the pie he was wounded, hospitalized for four months. After eight months of recuperation he rejoined the militia.
Salem was confined into several barracks of Don Bosco, an old missionary school, in the region of Byblos and the monastery of Mar Chalita in Gosta. Life in the barracks was comfortable with plenty of excellent food.
The family relocated again to Ftuh Kesurwan and Salem had difficulty with the mentality of the people there because they had not much respect for ladies as in his original region.
Salem is forty years now and lost track of his war time companions as if Earth has swallowed them all. Many have emigrated and those who remained are trying to scratch a living with menial jobs.
He does not know if anyone secured a job with the government as they were promised. Salem borrowed money and bought a truck to haul all kind of stuffs for a living.
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: How the city of Khiam fared?
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 22, 2008
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: How the city of Khiam fared?
Another town that suffered greatly in this war is the city of Khiam, a mixed town of Christians and Moslems. Khiam is well renowned for the prison in South East Lebanon where the Israeli forces and their Lebanese allies tortured the Lebanese citizens, not to their liking or resisting their occupation.
In 1977, the Israeli tanks were stationed in Marjeyun and Klaiaa facing Khiam. The tanks entered the village without any resistance and shelled it all night long.
Yussef Ghezawi fled eastward toward the Arkoub region where the Palestinian Resistance had its bases. The Palestinian Fedayyin did not shoot at the Israeli tanks during their maneuver toward Khiam, but waited until the Israeli took the town to fire a few rounds.
Yussef and his friend walked 100 kilometers: They fed from fruit trees on the way until they reached town of Mashghara. They resumed their trip to Nabatyeh and to West Beirut.
Ghezawi once sneaked in, back to his hometown of Khiam, to visit his family and never attempted that dangerous trip again.
Yussuf family left Khiam before the major Israeli invasion of that area in 1978 , which ended with mass slaughter in Khiam and many other towns. His elder sister died leaving 5 children. His strong and well built grand mother did not survive her grief for being forced away from her hometown.
Yussef graduated from the teachers’ academy in 1978 and eventually was assigned a teaching job in Beirut.
The inhabitants of Khiam took refuge in the Bekaa, East and West Beirut, according to their religions and many ended up in Australia, Europe and Latin America.
Yusseh and his family moved in to Shiyyah, on the demarcation line and lived in an empty and crumbling building. The buildings had no doors, but enlarged holes were opened to enter and exit from one building to the next. Once, Yussef witnessed a military truck burning and no one daring to rescue the surviving persons because of the snipers.
Yussef was pursuing his studies in drawing and photography in the Lebanese university when Israel reached the suburbs of Beirut. Israel occupying troops encircled the Capital Beirut and entered it after heavy shelling and air raids. When Yussef returned to his place, he found the building on the ground, totally destroyed, as well as all his drawings and art library.
When Israel allowed the people to return to Khiam, the town was completely transformed. All the trees were cut down and the town looked like a ghost town, the iron from the windows were stolen and wild grass invading every empty space.
Jubran Suleiman was a fighter from South Lebanon. He joined the “Amal” militia and fought against the Communists and then against the “Lebanese Forces” as they attempted to enter the Southern suburbs of West Beirut in Dahieh, a stronghold of the Shiaa refugees from South Lebanon and members of Amal and Hezbollah militias.
When the Israeli forces entered the region of Hayy Sellum, Jubran acted as an idiot so that he was left free of detention. He then participated in resistance attacks against the Israeli invaders and was imprisoned with six others. He was set free with two of his inmates with the help of a Lebanese guard whom the Israeli killed later for this cooperation.
In the town of Arabsaleem, an officer of the Lahd renegade Lebanese army (allied to Israel forces) asked Jubran if he belonged to the “Amal” militia and then told him: ”Moussa Sader (the cleric founder of Amal) has all my respect”.
On arriving at a military “Amal” center, Jubran immediately submitted his car for a check in order to make sure it was not connected to a detonating charge by the Israelis.
Note: Taken from the issue of the daily Al Balad, April 23, 2005
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: The case of Michel Abu Najm
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 22, 2008
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: The case of Michel Abu Najm
From the issue of the daily Al Balad April 21, 2005
Michel Abu Najm was 4 years old when the civil war started. His Christian family is from Riyak close to Zahle and the pictures of Khomeini were predominant in his elementary school. What follow is an excerpt of his impressions and how his family political positions and upbringings affected his views.
Michel used to call Pierre Gemmael and his sons Amin and Bashir uncles, every time he saw their pictures in houses during their visits to families. He got very fond of a picture of Bashir carrying a machine gun and smiling.
Family chatting in these surrounding left him with indelible images of the Druze as rough fighters wearing their traditional head caps, a knife in a hand and a Kalashnikov on a shoulder surrounding Christian villages in the region of Chouf.
A book written in French showed pictures of slaughtered Christian families by the Druze. His father used to recall with pride the image of a Christian girl holding a Doshka gun placed on a jeep that was trailing behind it a Somali fighter who volunteered his services to the Palestinian cause.
Michel was fond of soldiers and saluted the Syrian forces when he saw them, not being able to discriminate among soldiers; his mother would remonstrate him for being friendly with the Syrian soldiers, but his grand father would reply that she should leave her son’s candor intact.
They moved to East Beirut, and after learning to discriminate between the 155 mm shells of the Lebanese army and the 240 mm of the Syrian artillery, the entire family hurried back to their hometown after a couple of shells fell very close to where they lived in Beirut.
In his town, the members of the Lebanese base Syrian National Social Party were the main power after the Phalange party members were driven out of town. He learned later that the meaning of Syria in the Syrian national social party ideology is not support for the Baath party in Syria, but the concept that Syria is one nation comprising Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
His family hated Elie Hobeika who split the “Lebanese Forces” and led a faction that supported the Syrian politics in Lebanon.
Later on, he became a fan of General Aoun and the Lebanese army as they stopped an offensive by the Palestinians and Jumblatt’s fighters in Souk Gharb in Aley.
After the downfall of Prime Minister Aoun, Michel’s views changed; The Lebanese army and the Lebanese flag had no meaning to him any more.
One day, someone with a Syrian accent ordered them to open the door of their house His mother hid her children and his father snatched his gun and looked out the window; they discovered the priest in front of the door who has come to bless the house, and it was his assistant of Syrian origin who called on them.
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