Who Benefits
From Al-Hariri's Death?
By Ahmed Janabi
16 February 2005
Aljazeera
Brutal assassinations continue to be the
signposts of Lebanon's political history despite the passage of 15-odd
years since the end of the civil war.Between 1989, when the Taif Accords
were signed, and 2005, armed militias that once called the shots, have
largely disappeared from Lebanon's cities, towns and villages. Yet the
phenomenon of political assassination shows no sign of ending.
Rashid Karami,
Bashir al-Jumail, Dani Shamun, Rene Muawad, Kamal Jumblatt, Hasan Khalid,
Abbas al-Musawi and Rafiq al-Hariri - the list of Lebanese politicians
and officials who have fallen prey to the assassin's bullet or bomb
in the last three decades is a long one indeed.
The same technique
that was used to kill president Muawad in October 1988 was used in last
Monday's attack which killed present-day Lebanon's most prominent political
figure Rafiq al-Hariri, the man regarded as the leader of Lebanon's
reconstruction revolution after the civil war.
As in all the previous
cases, al-Hariri's death is seen by many Lebanese politicians as a bid
to destabilise their country.
Bushra al-Khalil,
a Lebanese lawyer and political activist, told Aljazeera.net the plot
against al-Hariri's life targeted Syria. "If we look at the way
the assassination has been conducted, it is very sophisticated, I knew
al-Hariri's security measures - no local system could have breached
them. "The question is, who stands to benefit from his death? Syria's
enemies. I think al-Hariri's death is part of the plan to divide the
region into tiny helpless sectarian states. This plan has started in
Iraq and it will continue to hit all other Arab countries."
Al-Khalil said the
killing was an attempt to force Syria to leave Lebanon before hitting
it and commencing the region's carve-up.
Al-Hariri
was the guardian of stable Arab-Western relations. His success had pulled
the rug from under the feet of the traditional godfathers of such relationships"
"If we look
at who all have been adding fuel to the fire in the recent past, we
will find sectarian leaders and promoters of sectarian division such
as Walid Jumblatt and Amin al-Jumail, who had killed a lot of Lebanese
people during the war just because they were not from their sects."
Al-Khalil considers
the killing of al-Hariri as the most dangerous and destabilising incident
since the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.
"Al-Hariri
was the guardian of stable Arab-Western relations. His success in this
area had pulled the rug from under the feet of the traditional godfathers
of such relationships.
According to al-Khalil,
opposition leaders who have been pouring out their anger at Syria and
claiming that al-Hariri was one of them and he was killed because he
opposed Syria, are dissembling.
"Al-Hariri
did not agree with them. He was grateful to Syria. He was a real pan-Arab
figure who would not tolerate harm to come to any Arab country,"
she said.
Al-Hariri had said
before his death that he knew there were people working to discredit
his Arabism and nationalism.
Striking a similar note, Imad Fawzi al-Shuaibi, head of Strategic Studies
Centre, Damascus, told Aljazeera the former Lebanese prime minister
was not an enemy of Syria.
"Obviously
al-Hariri's assassination was a blow against Syria and Lebanon. He was
not an enemy of Syria. He was a historic and traditional friend and
ally of Syria.
"He did have
disagreements with Syria lately, but he did not call for the withdrawal
of Syrian forces from Lebanon, or stir up hostility towards Syria or
demand an end to Syria's role in Lebanon. He only had a different point
of view" al-Shuaibi said.
In his opinion,
the huge crowds that bid farewell to al-Hariri on Wednesday were not
demonstrating their support for the Lebanese opposition, but rather
were expressing their gratitude to, and admiration for, al-Hariri."
Al-Shuaibi's views
seem to be diametrically opposed to those of former Lebanese president
Amin al-Jumail, who said the thousands of Lebanese citizens who attended
al-Hariri's funeral wanted to express their desire for "independence".
"This is a Lebanese plea to the whole world, an attempt to get
all countries to take note of Lebanon's misfortune - the violations
of freedom and democracy going on in the country.
"This is a
very important expression of people's emotions. They are disgusted with
the current [political] dispensation and the Syrian presence in Lebanon.
They want to deliver a message to the whole world that the Lebanese
authorities do not represent them and do not share their emotions.
"Now they are
all together in calling for Lebanon's liberty and independence",
al-Jumail said.