Word: lebanon
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When a gang of criminals ambushed and murdered four Lebanese soldiers on Monday in the Bekaa Valley, they might have expected a certain amount of impunity. The valley - which lies just over Lebanon's Mediterranean mountain range and runs along the border with Syria - has long been a center of lawlessness in a country famed for its volatility. The Lebanese government - weakened by sectarian squabbling, rampant corruption, and interference by foreign powers - usually turns a blind eye to much of the drug cultivation and weapons smuggling that goes on there. But this time, the Lebanese army hit back. This week...
However, this latest battle for the Bekaa will probably be inconclusive. Stronger nations than Lebanon have failed to win their own wars on drugs. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable example of some of the changes that have been taking place in Lebanon ever since a new batch of non-partisan technocratic leaders took power last spring. Chosen as temporary compromise candidates to solve a political crisis that was turning violent, they are nevertheless proving remarkably active in trying to change Lebanon's culture of lawlessness. Instead of choosing sides in the great questions that have torn apart Lebanon...
...Hizballah, the anti-Israeli militia group and political party, and the American- backed government that Hizballah suspected of trying to disarm it. Though Suleiman was respected by all sides, the political compromise that put him in office did nothing to solve the underlying issue dividing the country: should Lebanon be at the front line in the Arab and Iranian war with Israel, or should it be a Western-oriented nation, accommodated to Israel and focused on trade and tourism? (See pictures of the Mahdi Scouts, the Hizballah youth movement...
...Arab leaders fear that they might also be charged with criminal acts against their people. It’s true that, during the Arab summit on Mar. 30, the Arab League demanded that Israeli officials be put on trial for atrocities they committed against the people in Palestine and Lebanon. But this act still does not excuse its exoneration of Bashir...
...grabbing its resources, particularly oil. Such a claim, free of substantial evidence to back it, seems to be taken from a James Bond movie and appears to be little more than conspiracy theory. Nor is it consistent with the Arab League’s recent decisions—when Lebanon demanded an international investigation and tribunal for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri earlier last month, Arab leaders welcomed the beginning of the tribunal at Lahay and the transfer of jurisdiction from the Lebanese justice department to the international judges. No mention was made of the ICC?...