BEIRUT — Every day as I drive to my office at the Daily Star newspaper in downtown Beirut, the pictures of the dead and wounded stare at me from posters and banners throughout the city, attesting to the pain and suffering of the Lebanese people, but also to their heroism and determination. The pictures are of those people who were the targets of vicious bomb attacks in the past 14 months, starting with Marwan Hamade in October last year, then Rafik Hariri and Basil Fleihan last February, and since then Samir Kassir, George Hawi, Mai Shidiak and now Gebran Tueini.
Hamade and Shidiak survived with terrible injuries, but the others were killed, along with some 25 other people who died in a total of 11 bombings during that period. A UN-mandated international investigation is underway to identify those who killed Hariri and his party and it may also shed light on the other criminal acts. Many in Lebanon blame Syria for the attacks, while the Syrians repeatedly reaffirm their innocence. Other possible culprits are frequently mentioned. Soon enough the investigation will reveal the identity of the phantom bombers who have terrorized Lebanon for the past 14 months.
Last week, the Tueini murder regalvanized the spirit of the Lebanese people to push ahead to find the killers and to hold them accountable before the law. This marks the third phase of the dynamic that started in late summer last year, when some brave Lebanese leaders such as Kassir, Tueini, Walid Junblatt and others publicly defied the ultimately successful Syrian decision to extend the term of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud against the wishes of most Lebanese people. The second phase was the spontaneous mass mobilization that followed the killing of Hariri, which in the spring parliamentary elections this year resulted in a small majority for those who opposed Syria’s role in Lebanon.
The third phase now has launched renewed political moves on the domestic and international levels, fraught with both peril and promise. The promise is that the public anger will be channeled in a constructive, sustained, democratic and peaceful process that will bolster the investigation and ultimately lead to catching and trying in a fair court of law those who are responsible for these crimes. Ultimately, this could lead to an important breakthrough for the entire Arab world, perhaps bringing to an end the ugly modern era of political cultures defined by chronic intimidation and political violence.
The peril is that this process will put so much pressure on the fragile Lebanese domestic political system that it will once again fracture, leading to either chronic instability and immobilization, or recurring internal violence.
The heroism I see in the Lebanese people reflects their ability to endure this sort of criminality, yet persevere in their determination to live in freedom and dignity, and, more importantly, to affirm the rule of law. This has been manifested this week by two parallel developments, one collective, and the other personal.
The collective action has been the quick moves by the Lebanese government headed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which is backed by the new parliamentary majority, to assert itself in the face of the continuing killings. It asked that the investigation into the Hariri murder be expanded to include the other bombings, and also called for an international tribunal to try suspects named in the investigation. This was quickly followed up by a meeting of political forces at the Bristol Hotel Monday which issued a statement, “The Freedom Intifada,” calling for a constitutional mechanism to remove the president from office and to rebuild a legitimate, independent and efficient Lebanese security and judicial structure.
The participants in the meeting, which included MPs and ministers from the Future Movement, Progressive Socialist Party, Lebanese Forces and Phalange Party, insisted that the Taif Accord that ended the Lebanese civil war 15 years ago “should be the only reference to reflect the agreement of the Lebanese over building their national government.”
Equally importantly, the statement said that peaceful dialogue should define interaction with the important movements that have rejected dismissing the president or openly accusing the Syrians of the string of bombings, notably Hizbullah, Amal, and the Free Patriotic Movement.
Lebanon has already witnessed serious tensions from these developments, including the decision of the five cabinet ministers representing Hizbullah and Amal to suspend their participation in cabinet meetings. President Lahoud has threatened to boycott cabinet meetings if these ministers stay away, thus opening the prospect of a stalemated government at a time when the country needs exactly the opposite.
These are trying times for Lebanon, which once again confronts the terrible specter of being the terrain on which regional and international forces fight out their ideological battles. The difference today, however, is the enduring message and example of those courageous and principled Lebanese whose lives were shattered or ended in the strong of recent bombings, and who look down upon us all from the posters and banners throughout their city.
That message was best expressed in recent days by the actions of a single person, the father of the murdered Gebran Tueini, the noted journalist, public servant and intellectual Ghassan Tueini — a giant of a man who exemplifies the best of the Lebanese and Arab character. He proclaimed, even during his son’s funeral, that the Lebanese people should not seek revenge for his son’s murder, but justice, and should respond to political violence only with a steadfast commitment to the rule of law and constitutionalism.
There may be other bombings, deaths and injuries in the months ahead, until the perpetrators of these crimes are identified and brought to justice. But I am certain that Lebanon ultimately will emerge from this traumatic period in better shape, and as a beacon for the entire Arab world. For along with the posters and banners of some of its dead and maimed leading citizens, Lebanon’s cities, citizenry and the very core of its human spirit are fortified anew by its powerful will to live in freedom and dignity — forever governed by law, tempered by mercy, and enriched by its democratic pluralism.
That is what human heroism on a national scale is all about. That is what I and millions of others witness, honor and are humbled and inspired by every day, when we walk and drive past the pictures of Marwan Hamade, Rafik Hariri, Basil Fleihan, Samir Kassir, George Hawi, Mai Shidiak and Gebran Tueini.
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.
Copyright ©2005 Rami G. Khouri
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Released: 21 December 2005
Word Count: 1,068
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