Middle East - Anthony Ham [341]
For more information, visit the IDMC website at www.internal-displacement.org or UNRWA at www.un.org/unrwa/english.
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To add to the confusion, in 1987 the National Assembly government finally fell apart and split in two, with a Muslim government to the west of Beirut and a Christian administration to the east. Fighting along the Green Line continued to rage as Christian leaders attempted to drive Syria from Lebanon, angering Syria still more by accepting arms from Iraq, Syria’s gravest enemy. It wasn’t until 1989 that a road to peace finally seemed viable, with the drafting of the Taif Accord.
The Road to Peace
The Taif Accord, the product of a committee consisting of the Saudi and Moroccan kings and the Algerian president, proposed a comprehensive ceasefire and a meeting of Lebanon’s fractured parliament to discuss a new government charter, which would redress the Christian-Muslim balance of power. The accord was formally ratified on 5 November 1989, and constitutional amendments included the expansion of the National Assembly from 99 to 128 seats, equally divided between Christians and Muslims.
Despite some resultant in-fighting, in August 1990 the National Assembly voted to accept the terms of the Taif Accord. With the exception of the still-occupied south, the country saw peace for the first time in 15 years, and the civil war officially ended on 13 October 1990.
Syria’s continued presence in Lebanon beyond the civil war was justified with reference to Lebanon’s weak national army and the government’s inability to carry out Taif Accord reforms, including dismantling militias, alone. In 1990, Syria formalised its dominance over Lebanon with the Treaty of Brotherhood, Co-operation and Coordination, followed in 1992 by a defence pact. In May 1991, most militias – except Hezbollah, whose existence was justified by continuing Israeli occupation – were officially dissolved. In line with Taif Accord conditions, Syria began its military pull-out in March 1992, taking another 13 years to complete the job. The last Westerners kidnapped by Hezbollah were released in 1992.
Post-War Reconstruction
From 1993 onward the Lebanese army and life was slowly rebuilt and Rafiq Hariri, a Lebanese-born multimillionaire and entrepreneur, became prime minister.
Meanwhile, however, the south remained impoverished and the ground for Israeli-Hezbollah offensives. In 1993 Israel launched ‘Operation Accountability’ and in 1996 ‘Operation Grapes of Wrath’ in response to Hezbollah and Palestinian attacks, the latter a land-sea-air offensive that devastated newly rebuilt structures, destroyed Beirut’s power station, and killed around 106 civilians in the beleaguered southern village of Qana.
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WHO IS HEZBOLLAH?
The vicious 1983 suicide attacks on international forces heralded the first public appearance of Islamic Jihad, the armed wing of the radical, Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah. Though relatively new, the group would soon prove a key figure in the civil war.
Historically, the Shiites had always been Lebanon’s poor, concentrated in the south and having borne the brunt of Israeli retaliation against Palestinian guerrillas. As a minority group, they had little say in the country’s government and had been displaced in vast numbers without adequate central aid.
With Syrian approval, Iranian revolutionary guards began to preach to the disaffected, who proved fertile ground for its message of overthrowing Western imperialism and the anti-Muslim Phalange. Alongside suicide bombings, its ruthless armed wing also resorted to hostage-taking, including CIA bureau chief William Buckley, who was tortured and killed; Associated Press bureau chief Terry Anderson; and UK envoy Terry Waite, who were held for