9 - 15 August 2001
Issue No.546
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 August 2001 Issue No.546 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Towards national reconciliation
A visit by the Maronite patriarch to the Druze-controlled Chouf is being hailed as the beginning of genuine national reconciliation. Zeina Abu Rizk reports from Beirut
In the first such move in almost two centuries, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir paid a three-day visit last weekend to the Chouf mountain -- the home of Lebanon's Druze community in the southern part of Mount Lebanon.
The gesture appears to signal the beginning of a true national reconciliation some 11 years after the end of the civil war. But the visit was not an isolated event, representing instead the culmination of a Maronite-Druze rapprochement that has begun to take shape during recent months.
Celebrating the return of Christian refugees to their homes and villages in the Chouf -- a region that witnessed one of the bloodiest chapters of the civil war -- the patriarch repeatedly emphasised the importance of "coexistence" as a means to guarantee Lebanon's survival.
Sfeir's tour of southern Mount Lebanon included an emotional reception in Mukhtara, the home of Druze leader and MP for the Chouf district, Walid Jumblatt. The patriarch also made a stop at Jezzine, a Christian town in the country's south.
On Sunday, the patriarch held a mass at Deir Al-Qamar that was attended by Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and at least 2,000 people. Sfeir ended his trip with a winding trek along the back roads of the Chouf, visiting Maronite towns in Aley before returning to his summer residence in Diman, in the country's north.
Beyond the proclaimed "return" slogan, the patriarch's trip served as an occasion to assert that although a post-war reconciliation had largely taken place, it has yet to be completed.
Calling for the establishment of "excellent relations" with Syria, Sfeir insisted that "managing our own affairs is what the esteemed leader Walid Jumblatt is calling for, and this is what I, and every sane and patriotic person in the country are calling for, as well," he added.
Throughout his visit, the patriarch showered praise on Jumblatt, referring to the Druze politician on several occasions as a key figures in Lebanese politics. With such complements, the patriarch showed his appreciation for positions taken by the Chouf MP, who on several occasions expressed opposition to the Syrian presence in Lebanon -- an issue that Sfeir has been championing for more than a year.
Both Sfeir and Jumblatt vehemently denied that their displays of warmth marked the beginning of a separate alliance between their two communities. Rejecting that kind of alliance "in which any agreement between two sects is against another," Jumblatt instead asserted that Lebanon "requires a comprehensive national unity that takes each region's characteristics into account." He added, "I hope that we can turn a new page in our relations, for the sake of Lebanon's unity and coexistence."
Commenting on the Lebanese-Syrian relationship, Jumblatt said, "Mounting Israeli threats require respecting strategic security and military relations with Syria. But this does not eliminate the need to reform [the relationship] in order to rid it of tension, toadyism and tutelage."
Jumblatt also called on Sfeir to tour the areas of Lebanon's south which were liberated from Israeli occupation early last summer. "There remains the south, the entire south, its resistance, its people. The decision and timing are up to you, but the entire south awaits you. Lebanon's unity and stability cannot be complete until the south is embraced after its liberation."
Sfeir responded to Jumblatt's call during an open-air mass, when he alluded in his sermon to the suffering experienced by families due to the Israeli occupation, and of subsequently loosing their main breadwinners to prison on collaboration charges.
"How we would have loved to visit [families in the liberated areas] had we not known that among them, many had chosen self-exile, and others were sent to prison on collaborating charges.
"No one was left in their homes, except the mothers and children, who suffer from fear, deprivation and scorn," Sfeir said.
On several occasions, Sfeir had called for leniency towards former members of the Israeli-backed South Lebanese Army. He is also among those in favour of deploying the Lebanese army to the south to maintain security at the border with Israel. As long as these two conditions are not fulfilled, and while the presence of Hizbullah guerrillas dominates the liberated zone, the patriarch is unlikely to pay an official visit to the south. This is despite assertions from sources close to the Maronite clergy that he intends to make such a trip by the end of summer.
Sfeir's decision to limit his visit to the south to the village of Jezzine was criticised by a number of politicians, and was believed to have particularly annoyed Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri. Sources close to Berri, a Shi'ite and a prominent political leader of the south, believe that Sfeir should have either excluded Jezzine from his itinerary or included other areas in the south to which Christian refugees were able to return after years of displacement. Such places include villages east of the coastal city of Sidon.
Commenting on Sfeir's trip, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said, "We hope the visit speeds up the process of returning the displaced, and closing this file."
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page