Foreigners are running all over Beirut. I'm not talking about the Khalijee. They are doing just fine sitting in the downtown, in hotels, and making a few appearances in the neighborhoods.
Western visitors are running all over town. I don't call them tourists, because plenty are not. Some are summer Arabic students, some are backpackers, others are doing internships at the Daily Star, others are foreign freelance journalists, some are tourists (but it is harder to notice them because they do not regularly stop in areas frequented by locals), and some wear high and tight haircuts that bring to mind careers in less pleasant areas of the Middle East.
They are an interesting addition to the normal Beirut mix, yet reminiscent of the sorts of people I assisted in evacuating the country in 2006. Some claim that foreigners are a good sign. 2006 reveals that such opinions are merely that... opinions.
On another note...
Karadzic
Conspiracy theories are welcome in the Middle East. In the West, conspiracy theories sell books (JFK, UFOs, Hitler's bunker, Jimmy Hoffa), but the predominant frame is believed. In the Middle East, the conspiracy theories command more attention.
Former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic attests that the United States promised him a deal, but they are now possibly interested in murdering him.
In Lebanon, there is always talk of assassinations, foreign intrigue, American "meddling," and immoral realpolitik deals. Often, as is perhaps true in Karadzic's case, this is just talk.
However, what strikes me as highly intriguing is how the warlords of 1975-1990 ended that war filled with massacres, atrocities, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity without a single major international charge.
Obviously, no international tribunal, like the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) currently prosecuting Karadzic, existed to prosecute Lebanese crimes. The International Court of Justice existed, but did not prosecute such cases. The International Criminal Court was not formed until 2002.
The Lebanese civil war ended during the Cold War. One might argue that the United States and the Soviet Union were much more interested in global political maneuvering than in prosecuting Third World crimes, some of which these powers are implicated in. Also, the Soviet Union was collapsing, while the United States was seeking Middle Eastern allies to confront Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
The Arab League took and takes no interest in prosecuting criminal behaviors.
In 2001, a case was brought before Belgian courts under a new law to try Ariel Sharon for the Sabra and Shatila massacre. It was later overruled in 2002. However, to my knowledge, no one has ever tried to prosecute the crimes of the Lebanese civil war that involved Lebanese/Palestinian/Syrian actors.
South Africa, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, and other countries in which trauma occured during the 1980s, all had Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. Lebanon received Syrian overlordship.
The Serbians, who were recently mired in war and committing atrocities, are on the way to being admitted into the European Union. Croatia, just as active a participant in that war, is almost qualified for entry. Slovenia, the country which first broke away from Yugoslavia and helped begin the conflict, is one of the most successful countries in the EU. Romania, a country destroyed by Ceaucescu and without the human capital available in Lebanon, is an EU member. Albania, the country that suffered from the most oppressive form of authoritarianism, is rapidly improving, and can dream of EU membership.
In Lebanon, the memories and hatred remain, the warriors are members of parliament (not just the leaders, but also the henchmen, like Tony Zahra of the Barbara checkpoint), and those injured by the conflict continue to suffer under the whims of those who injured them in the 1980s.
There are plenty of people in Lebanon who support the Serb radicalist cause, and generally for misguided reasons: anti-Americanism, anti-Muslim sentiment, pro-Orthodox Christianity unity (which is the most ridiculous given that Orthodox Christianity never condones murder).
There are others in Lebanon who argue against tribunals. Like Karadzic and some Serb radicals, they argue that international tribunals are politicized. Tribunals go after heroes of the anti-American resistance, while they let others go free. Tribunals give America everything it wants, but deny local citizens their dignity, sovereignty, and justice.
Tell that to the Bosnian Muslims. Tell that to the families of assassinated Lebanese whose families have not received justice. Just because one murderer is not caught does not mean that 20 other murderers should be let off. Just because one crime against humanity is not tried does not mean that all crimes should not be tried.
Lebanon needs to make sure that, domestically, murderers are tried. That sounds obvious to others outside of Lebanon, but you will be surprised by how many people here (including those you think are your allies) agree that murderers should be set free for political reasons.
Middle East Sectarianism
It seems Egypt, too, is suffering from sectarianism.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
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4 comments:
Yeah, right - Karadzic was offered a deal. That's why he ran and hid for twelve years and then finally faced his accusers only after being cornered like a rat in a country that, until recently, spurned the ICTY as a matter of policy (that's Serbia for the factually challenged). Some deal that must have been.
Also, it is bit misdirected to assume that the ICTY has given Bosnia an advantage over Lebanon in its postwar recovery. Far from being a truth commission, it is has succeeded only in bringing in a random sampling of war criminals from all sides (and, to its detriment, a disproportionate number of Serbs) and has failed to erase the root causes of the war. This is what Lebanon would have gotten out of a large-scale UN tribunal, and it only would have strengthened the group victimology that already pervades so much of Lebo political discourse (in the same way it has for the Serbs in Bosnia). In other words, same situation you have already.
Though I do agree with the largest part of the post, one thing I found inevitable to mention - as I am currently researching the links between the Balkans & Middle Eastern conflicts/especially Bosnia & Lebanon and being a Serb in love with Lebanon. Being on the track to the European Union unfortunately does not mean that reconciliation with the past has happened in the country. As much as I believe international tribunals were a necessity in these conflicts and that war crimes must be prosecuted, there are a lot of lessons learned which we must not forget. International community has vastly made mistakes (due to ignorance/lack of interest/too many interests) in both regions. One of them was ICTY, which I strongly support, but which did, as Cavemanovich mentioned, disproportionately prosecuted Serbs and, so to say, killed all the anti war crimes efforts of the civil society in Serbia - it was difficult for us to say that ICTY is an important post conflict institution when Naser Oric and Ramush Haradinaj walked out freely. On the other side, Serbian politicians are always talking about ICTY as a prerequisite for accession of Serbia to the European Union and not of its reconciliation importance. While the international community keeps making mistakes which are already troubled regions often pushing deeper into conflicts, the only thing we can try to do is to solve these issues internally - our own political will and our own strong civil society remain crucial for the process.
What do you know about Romania to claim that it does not have Lebanon's human capital ?
I didn't mean to denigrate Romania. There are plenty of brilliant people there. The Romanian diasporic community is quite accomplished, as well.
However, Lebanon has access to a greater number of PhDs and business people both internally and in its Diaspora. My apologies for not providing the statistics. I read it in a UN report I do not have available to me at the moment.
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