16 - 22 August 2001
Issue No.547
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 August 2001 Issue No.547 |
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Candid camera
Lebanese authorities have produced video evidence to justify their crackdown on opponents of Syria's presence in the country. But discontent still lingers. Zeina Abu Rizk reports from Beirut
After a lengthy week of political turmoil in Lebanon, provoked by a massive army crackdown on Christian opponents of Syria's presence, the Lebanese authorities finally produced substantial evidence last Sunday to support their claims that a "coup" was plotted against the political establishment.
A video tape, distributed to the media by the army press office, shows Toufiq Hindi, an adviser to Samir Geagea, the imprisoned leader of the disbanded Christian Lebanese Forces, being questioned by State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum.
Simultaneously, the army issued a statement saying Hindi had confessed to contacts with Israeli officials, with the aim of promoting anti- Syrian activity in the country.
As broadcast by the local media, the video showed Hindi facing Addoum, and answering questions about his trip to Paris last April. He admitted having contacted an Israeli official, Odid Zaray, an information adviser to Uri Lubrani, who coordinated Israeli activities in Lebanon during its occupation of the south. Hindi said Zaray told him that it was important to launch anti- Syrian protests to coincide with an Israeli propaganda campaign. Hindi also said that Israel was preoccupied by Syria's influence on Hizbullah and the Palestinians in Lebanon.
The release of the video tape came after military troops rounded up scores of followers of exiled former army commander General Michel Aoun, as well as Lebanese Forces (LF) sympathisers, in a clamp-down on the two hard-line Christian factions. Police also brutally attacked young protesters who demonstrated against the arrests.
Army soldiers stormed private homes and offices to seize suspected activists, including the two most senior representatives of the two factions: Nadim Lteif, the local representative of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) -- headed by Aoun -- and Hindi.
The army also pursued supporters of the LF and FPM, with checkpoints sprouting in the North, particularly in the LF stronghold of Bsharii, birthplace of the party's jailed leader.
The exact number of detained was unclear, but estimates suggest around 250, many of whom were at a reception held for Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir during his return journey from the Chouf Mountains. The crowd let off a few shouts of "Syria out," before the prelate sternly warned that confrontational rhetoric was no way to solve political issues. Authorities said most of those detained were released after summary military trials which sentenced them to a week's detention for attacking security officials.
Undoubtedly, the video tape mollified a public opinion disgusted at the resort to repressive measures, even if suspicions remain as to the exact conditions in which the tape was filmed. The timing also seems significant. The release of the videotape on the eve of a parliamentary legislative session, which is expected to reflect the prevailing turmoil in the country, was clearly no coincidence, but appeared intended to defuse the tense political atmosphere, and avoid undesirable criticism. MPs avoided tackling the video tape contents during a parliamentary debate on Monday, concentrating instead on what they still consider arbitrary and illegal detentions.
But more controversy was to come. Following broadcasts, the state prosecutor assigned "the concerned security apparatuses" to investigate. Politicians have vigorously protested over the past few days that these bodies have already exceeded their legal remit.
Addoum, however, said he was determined to pursue Hindi's confessions because he was sure, "this could not be the only contact between Israel and some Lebanese groups."
After a long silence, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri finally made his position public on Sunday. Speaking on behalf of the premier, Justice Minister Samir Jisr said that preserving public freedom was a priority, but not to the detriment of state security.
This announcement masks considerable annoyance in the premier's camp. Hariri was furious that the decision authorising the detentions was taken in his absence, and without his knowledge. Both Hariri and Defence Minister Khalil Hrawi (to whom the Military Intelligence Service should answer) were on an official trip to Pakistan. It was Acting Defence Minister Elias Murr (Interior Minister and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's son-in-law) who gave the army permission to proceed with the crackdown.
Hariri's ignorance of the detentions reinforces the impression that the premier does not always handle security and political matters in the country. Rather, they appear to be handled to a greater degree by the president, and the security bodies on which Lahoud's regime greatly relies. Speculation has mounted that Hariri may resign in protest at infringements of the prime minister's prerogatives. But in the end, the prime minister and his government approved the military measures decided in the prime minister's absence, and the Cabinet met on Thursday to discuss the matter. Sources close to Hariri said the prime minister felt a plot was fomenting to force his resignation. They continued that the prime minister was aware of such intents and did not intend to yield.
Others saw events differently. Elias Murr, who was the first Lebanese official to comment on the detentions, explained that he had been informed on Tuesday 7 August that, "some people were expecting an Israeli strike," and that they planned to use the resulting regional upheaval "to make a move that could lead to the disruption of the military and security system."
Other reactions to the detentions have ranged widely. Authorising the army instead of the Internal Security Forces to undertake the detentions has been seen as significant. Opponents of the political establishment have, allegedly, attempted to provoke turmoil within the army. So the choice of the army instead of the Internal Security Forces to guarantee internal security may be aimed at reasserting army unity, and silencing rumors of dissent in Christian army units once loyal to former Army Commander Michel Aoun.
Speculation has also mounted that Lebanese and Syrian security services cooperated in undertaking the round-up. But sources close to Syria asserted that, although aware of the Lebanese authorities' intentions to take the appropriate measures in response to information about a possible coup, Syrian security services did not know that things would so develop and did not approve the whole procedure.
Whatever the reasons, politicians across the spectrum have accused the Lebanese authorities of turning the country into a police state and plotting to scuttle the first genuine postwar Christian- Druze reconciliation, achieved through the patriarch's trip to the Chouf, the home of the Druze. The military action fuelled speculation that the authorities were deliberately trying to undermine the achievements of the patriarch's visit.
Sfeir and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt both decried the security sweep, saying it overshadowed their efforts to extend dialogue beyond their own Maronite and Druze constituencies and achieve a broad national consensus.
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