Adonis Diaries

Testimonials 30 years after civil war: Just about the withdrawal of the Syrian troops

Note: Investigations of the society thirty years after the start of the war

From The issue of the daily Al Balad, April 8, 2005

This chapter sheds the lights on the status of the Lebanese Republic, 30 years after the start of the civil war in 1975.  The chapter will comprise eye witness accounts and investigative reporting on the state of society, the political parties’ positions and civil organizations development and the hopes of the new generation for the future and the feasibility of any drastic changes.

Thirty years after the civil war, and just about the withdrawal of the Syrian troops from Lebanon, a discussion among a few former civil war militia fighters gathered for a night out. The house is in Dahieh and the discussion relates to the current string of night car-bombings occurring every four days in the Christian cantons, car-bombing that did not target citizens, but a few foreigner workers living around died and some were injured. 
These car bombings came in the aftermath of the two mass demonstrations, the first by Hezbollah on March 8, and the second counter demonstration following on March 14, 2005: the demonstrators raised the slogans of freedom, independence and self determination to Lebanon.

The man sympathizing with Hezbollah is convinced that the Christian opposition coalition is behind these bombings so that it could sustain rallying the population against Syria and the Shiaa sect, and ultimately to corner Hezbollah into disarming according to the UN resolution 1559. 

An elder man talks about the daily sit-in of some groups in tents erected in the Martyrs’ Square after the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri.  He claims that a few opposition groups are raising the picture of the Lebanese traitor to Israel Akl Hashem who was assassinated by Hezbollah during the occupation of Israel in south Lebanon, and that these people are being paid by the USA Embassy to continue their sit-in indefinitely.

.A man trying to convey the image of a cool and rational person expresses his displeasure with the opposition demonstration that expressed discrimination and hatred against the Syrian people in general, which could lead Lebanon into the unknown.

Another man in his thirties believes that the Christians are planning to recapture their lost political power so that they re-monopolize the economy and sign a peace treaty with Israel as they attempted in 1983 during former President Amine Gemayyel.  He resumes that if the Christian fail, they will definitely legitimize the de-facto canton separation.  He is willing to take arms again, if need be, in order to prevent the Christian take over of power.

A young man coming from Beirut asks them whether they are for the freedom and independence of Lebanon from the Syrian tutelage; and the answers were affirmatives unanimously. He goes on “against whom do you want to raise your arms?”  “Against those who want to disarm Hezbollah” is the reply of the rational man. 

People used to say that the Sunni city of Sidon is the door to the South ,but as you advance a little deeper in the South you realize that this door had shifted of location. The South did not seriously mourn the assassinated former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and the main concern of the population is where you stand: for or against the disarmament of Hezbollah.  Many of the former communists are members or sympathizers of Hezbollah and they are still excited to fight Israel and resist Israel plans in Lebanon.