Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The fuse that split Lbano

Very wise, crestfallen, dressed in olive green and wearing UN blue, a group of Spanish soldiers on leave in the streets of Marjayoun, small town in southern Lebanon, a few meters from the barrier that separates this country of Israel, talked last week's armed and very cautiously. "We're only about 20 permits for the people." Someone else had between shopping and strolling.

A few days earlier, on January 12, ministers from the opposition had pushed back the Lebanese government to the crisis, if not already, submitting his resignation en bloc of Saad Hariri Executive. Orders in the United Nations International Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose command in Marjayoun is in Spanish hands, were of extreme caution and safety.

Just over a week later, the tension built up in recent days has erupted in the streets of Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon ... And the match has only just begun to darken after the election as the new head of government of Nagib Mikati, Sunni and Hariri, but the candidate of the coalition of parties led by Hezbollah.

How did you come to this point? The abandonment of the ministers: The output of the Government on January 12, the ministers of the opposition bloc, that is, parties in the coalition around March 8 (born in 2005, a month after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, father and former head of government) led by Hezbollah, said, according to their arguments, the rejection of the UN Special Tribunal to investigate Hariri's death.

Across the parliamentary spectrum lies the pro-Western March 14 alliance led by Saad Hariri. In a speech broadcast on January 16, and held as usual encouragement of the international presence in the country, "the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Saad Hariri blamed, current head of government," false witness support "in the judicial process followed by the death of his father.

Nasrallah, in line with its earlier pronouncements, blamed Israel of being behind the court and even be responsible for the assassination in 2005. Two days later, the court announced it was ready opinion about this crime, a fact which launched the first protests in neighborhoods of West Beirut, with clear presence of supporters of Hezbollah and Amal, and multiplied the presence of an already high-although a testimonial both soldiers and tanks, in the Lebanese capital.

Hamra Street, the heart of the Muslim part of Beirut, bustling and lively until late at night, felt the blow and began to pack something more of silence at sundown. Why Hezbollah rejected the court ruling? Although the first argument pointing to Syrian involvement in the killing of Rafik Hariri (Lebanon magnate symbol of the country's reconstruction after the civil war and prime minister until October 2004), the tail of the opinion, the content is not been released yet, put the spotlight on members of Hezbollah (the party's pro-Syrian militia, born as a resistance movement against Israel in the early 80's, is considered a terrorist by the EU and the USA).

The revolt after Hariri's death in 2005 ended with the Syrian military presence in Lebanon during the civil war started. Just Hariri had opened the door for Syrian forces eventually abandon the territory. His resignation as prime minister was motivated by his opposition to a new pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's mandate as president of the country.

Sign change in government. The breakup of the coalition of forces has plunged the Government and opened the door to Hezbollah's choice of candidate, Nagib Mikati as prime minister with the support of a majority in Parliament and the recent accolade historical Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

After meeting with President Michel Suleiman, Mikati, who are new to the leadership of government, has announced that it will relieve Hariri. The candidate's entry into government by extension Hezbollah strikes a sharp rebuke to Washington's pressure, which supports the work of Hariri international tribunal.

The labyrinth of confessions. In one of the streets of the emerging area known as Gemmayzeh Lebanese in the Christian neighborhood of Beirut, east of the city, a citizen, versed in capturing the outsider who kicks his city asked in perfect French: "Do you like Lebanon? not pretty. More so is Spain.

I am a Christian Maronite, but there are also Shiites, Sunnis, Druze ... And all this has led to many wars. " The Lebanese Constitution born of the independence of the French protectorate in 1943, requires sharing power among the various religious faiths, in times of stability, forming an enchanting backdrop for your neighbor's eye, but led just as the country to the abyss in many occasions.

A cast that pulls a 1932 census never updated and given to Christians and Muslims 40% 60% (the latter divided between Sunni, Shiite and Druze). The chair rests, therefore, a Maronite Christian Michel Suleiman who has now begun consultations to form new government after the crisis of January 12.

This executive should have, according to the Constitution, a Sunni prime minister. The man who occupies that position in office is Saad Hariri, Hezbollah if the bid proceeds would also Sunni Mikati. The chair of Parliament is held by a Shiite. Nabih Berri, leader of Amal, the party allied with Hezbollah (also Shi'ite) holds that position now.

And the Palestinians. Amid the push and not pull of Lebanese political leaders, some 270,000 Palestinians, according to the latest census of the United Nations agency that assists (UNRWA) and the American University of Beirut, barely survive in a dozen fields in the country since exile at the end of the 40 due to the Israeli occupation.

A source of instability governed by the Palestinian popular committees and abandoned by the little sympathy they arouse in the Lebanese population.

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