Lebanese
Militants Vow To Take
Battle Outside Camp
By Robert Fisk
15 August, 2007
The
Independent
It was a familiar routine. Just
as the Lebanese army boasted of another "victory" amid the
wreckage of the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian camp - its al-Qa'ida-style
rebels still holding out against the state authority - one of the Islamists'
spokesmen announced in an audiotape that some of the gunmen had escaped
and were planning a "black day" for the government.
This is grim news indeed
for a country facing a presidential election crisis and whose administration
is being militarily supported by the United States as part of its "war
on terror".
The tape emerged only hours
after the US said it had placed Fatah al-Islam on its now 43-strong
list of "terrorist" organisations which would have their funds
frozen in the US and would not be permitted to enter America. Fighting
to the death amid the ruins of the camp, it is highly doubtful that
the gunmen there have bank accounts on Wall Street or that any have
applied for visas to the US. But that's the way the "war on terror"
works. Each side ratchets up the odds and kills more human beings.
A symbol of just how serious
the situation has become in Lebanon lies in the statistics. Of the 200
or so people who have died since the camp battle broke out in May, 136
were Lebanese soldiers. That's only 32 short of the entire British Army
death toll in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
The siege has now put one
of Lebanon's major power stations out of action after the insurgents
fired rockets at it. The result is widespread power cuts.
The constitutional crisis
is almost as grave. The pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, insists
he will not sanction presidential elections next month on the grounds
that the Fouad Siniora government contains no Shias (they walked out
last year) and thus he must hand power to the army. And as every Lebanese
knows, giving power to the army is a long tradition in Middle East dictatorships.
There is a growing and widespread
belief that General Michel Suleiman, the head of the Lebanese army,
may be asked to lead his country. General Suleiman, a Christian Maronite
who has shown considerable tact in his handling of the army's battles.
In a part of the world where generals like giving orders, he miraculously
announced two months ago that the army would remain united while the
people of Lebanon had to make their own decisions. He is popular in
a country that lives on the side of a very deep chasm. In a series of
ferocious street riots last January, his soldiers managed to prevent
widespread civil conflict without killing a single one of their own
citizens.
The head of the Lebanese
army has to be a Maronite under the secular system of government, but
the Maronites have proved themselves hopelessly divided. Their pro-Syrian
party is led by another army officer, the former general Michel Aoun,
who condemned Hizbollah as "terrorists" when he thought he
was president in 1989, but who is now allied to the "Party of God"
in the hope of becoming president himself.
It is Lebanon's fate to make
its politics almost as obscure to itself as to foreigners, but the word
in Beirut is that General Suleiman has surprisingly good contacts in
Damascus - whose acolytes he is supposedly fighting - and is also backed
by the US. Mr Lahoud himself is a former army commander. Lebanon may
need plenty of the latter to fight Fatah el-Islam.
In the audiotape, Abu Jandel
al-Dimashqi of the Tawhid and Jihad Struggle in Syria movement announced
the death in battle of the deputy leader of the group in the camp, Abu
Hereira, adding: "Let the government of the traitor Siniora know
some of Fatah el-Islam's heroes have left the camp and are among you.
Wait for a black day."
He condemned the refusal
of the fighter's fellow villagers to bury him in his birthplace of Mishmish.
But three soldiers from the village have been killed since May, and
graveyards have to be carefully selected.
The tape makes for uncomfortable
listening. George Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy of France - who is visiting
him - added their own petrol to the fire at the weekend, announcing
there must be no "unconstitutional acts" in Lebanon. Election
day is 25 September. Write it into your diary.
© 2007 Independent News
and Media Limited
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