End
This Tragedy Now
By Fouad Siniora
11 August, 2006
Washington
Post
BEIRUT:
A military solution to Israel's savage war on Lebanon and the Lebanese
people is both morally unacceptable and totally unrealistic. We in Lebanon
call upon the international community and citizens everywhere to support
my country's sovereignty and end this folly now. We also insist that
Israel be made to respect international humanitarian law, including
the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, which it has repeatedly and
willfully violated.
As the world watches, Israel
has besieged and ravaged our country, created a humanitarian and environmental
disaster, and shattered our infrastructure and economy, putting an intolerable
strain on our social and economic systems. Fuel, food and medical equipment
are in short supply; homes, factories and warehouses have been destroyed;
roads severed, bridges smashed and airports disabled.
The damage to infrastructure
alone is running into the billions of dollars, as are the losses to
owners of private property, and the long-term direct and indirect costs
due to lost revenue in tourism, agriculture and industrial sectors are
expected to be many more billions. Lebanon's well-known achievements
in 15 years of postwar development have been wiped out in a matter of
days by Israel's deadly military might.
For all this carnage and
death, and on behalf of all Lebanese, we demand an international inquiry
into Israel's criminal actions in Lebanon and insist that Israel pay
compensation for its wanton destruction.
Israel seems to think that
its attacks will sow discord among the Lebanese. This will never happen.
Israel should know that the Lebanese people will remain steadfast and
united in the face of this latest Israeli aggression -- its seventh
invasion -- just as they were during nearly two decades of brutal occupation.
The people's will to resist grows ever stronger with each village demolished
and each massacre committed.
On July 25, at the international
conference for Lebanon in Rome, I proposed a comprehensive seven-point
plan to end the war. It was well received by the conference and got
the unanimous and full backing of the Lebanese Council of Ministers,
in which Hezbollah is represented, as well as of the speaker of parliament
and a majority of parliamentary blocs. Representatives of diverse segments
of Lebanese civil society have come out strongly in favor, as has the
Islamic-Christian Summit, representing all the religious confessions,
ensuring a broad national consensus and preserving our delicate social
equilibrium.
The plan, which also received
the full support of the 56 member states of the Organization of the
Islamic Conference, included an immediate, unconditional and comprehensive
cease-fire and called for:
· The release of Lebanese
and Israeli prisoners and detainees through the International Committee
of the Red Cross.
· The withdrawal of
the Israeli army behind the "blue line."
· A commitment from
the U.N. Security Council to place the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba
Hills areas under U.N. jurisdiction until border delineation and Lebanese
sovereignty over them are fully settled. Further, Israel must surrender
all maps of remaining land mines in southern Lebanon to the United Nations.
· Extension of the
Lebanese government's authority over its territory through its legitimate
armed forces, with no weapons or authority other than that of the Lebanese
state, as stipulated in the Taif accord. We have indicated that the
Lebanese armed forces are ready and able to deploy in southern Lebanon,
alongside the U.N. forces there, the moment Israel pulls back to the
international border.
· The supplementing
of the U.N. international force operating in southern Lebanon and its
enhancement in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operation, as
needed, to undertake urgent humanitarian and relief work and guarantee
stability and security in the south so that those who fled their homes
can return.
. Action by the United Nations
on the necessary measures to once again put into effect the 1949 armistice
agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel and to ensure adherence to its
provisions, as well as to explore possible amendments to or development
of those provisions as necessary.
· The commitment of
the international community to support Lebanon on all levels, including
relief, reconstruction and development needs.
As part of this comprehensive
plan, and empowered by strong domestic political support and the unanimous
backing of the cabinet, the Lebanese government decided to deploy the
Lebanese armed forces in southern Lebanon as the sole domestic military
force in the area, alongside U.N. forces there, the moment Israel pulls
back to the international border.
Israel responded by slaughtering
more civilians in the biblical town of Qana. Such horrible scenes have
been repeated daily for nearly four weeks and continue even as I write
these words.
The resolution to this war
must respect international law and U.N. resolutions, not just those
selected by Israel, a state that deserves its reputation as a pariah
because of its consistent disdain for and rejection of international
law and the wishes of the international community for over half a century.
Lebanon calls, once again,
on the United Nations to bring about an immediate cease-fire to relieve
the beleaguered people of Lebanon. Only then can the root causes of
this war -- Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories and its perennial
threat to Lebanon's security, as well as Lebanon's struggle to regain
full sovereignty over all its territory -- be addressed.
I believe that a political
resolution rooted in international law and based on these seven points
will lead to long-term stability. If Israel would realize that the peoples
of the Middle East cannot be cowed into submission, that they aspire
only to live in freedom and dignity, it could also be a stepping stone
to a final solution of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict, which has plagued
our region for 60 years.
The 2002 Arab summit in Beirut,
which called for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace based on the
principle of land for peace, showed the way forward. A political solution
cannot, however, be implemented as long as Israel continues to occupy
Arab land in Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights
and as long as it wages war on innocent people in Lebanon and Palestine.
As Jawaharlal Nehru said, "the only alternative to coexistence
is co-destruction."
Enough destruction, dispossession,
desperation, displacement and death! Lebanon must be allowed to reclaim
its position in this troubled region as a beacon of freedom and democracy
where justice and the rule of law prevail, and as a refuge for the oppressed
where moderation, tolerance and enlightenment triumph.
The writer is prime minister
of Lebanon.
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