Murder polarizes Lebanon
Shiite ministers walk out of government to protest a possible UN
investigation.
By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
BEIRUT, LEBANON - The murder of Gibran Tueni, an outspoken Lebanese
critic of Syria, has plunged Lebanon into a political crisis that is
threatening to topple the government and aggravate an already fraught
sectarian climate.
The crisis is pitting Lebanon's Shiites, who remain deeply suspicious
of Western influence in internal affairs, against other sects who seek
international support against the alleged destabilizing tactics of
Syria.
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"It's an extremely critical and dangerous period," says Amal
Saad-Ghorayeb, assistant professor of politics at Beirut's Lebanese
American University. "There is a political civil war in Lebanon, much
colder than the civil war of the past because it's being played out
politically and on the streets."
The latest tensions in Lebanon came as the UN Security Council prepared
to discuss Tuesday the second progress report of a UN commission
investigating the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The document, submitted to the Security Council Monday, reaffirmed its
earlier findings that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were
involved in Hariri's murder.
Earlier this month, Lebanon requested that the UN extend the
commission's mandate, which expires Thursday, for six more months.
Detlev Mehlis, the outgoing chief investigator who has led the probe
since June, has said that an inquiry of this complexity could take
months, if not years.
But the UN may soon have more than one Lebanese investigation on its
hands if it accedes to a fresh plea to launch an inquiry into the
Monday assassination of Mr. Tueni, a journalist and a parliamentarian.
Many Lebanese blame Syria for his death, although Damascus has denied
any involvement.
The Lebanese government voted Monday evening to ask the UN to expand
the Hariri probe to include the murder of Tueni and other victims of a
yearlong assassination campaign. However, five Shiite ministers in the
24-member cabinet walked out of the meeting, saying they were
suspending their participation in the government.
"We object to the principle of internationalizing all Lebanese files
and abandoning [Lebanon's] sovereignty," said Mohammed Fneish, the
energy minister and one of two Hizbullah members in the cabinet.
Following Syria's troop pullout from its neighbor in April, Lebanon has
begun to splinter along the old sectarian fault lines. The rift is
deepest between the Shiites, the largest sect in Lebanon, and other
communities, mainly the Sunnis, Christians and Druze. The increasing
influence of the West, in particular from the US and the UN, in
Lebanese affairs has alarmed the powerful Hizbullah organization, which
has emerged de facto as the voice of most Lebanese Shiites.
Hizbullah suspects that Washington intends to use Lebanon as a tool to
press its agenda, which includes squeezing Syria, disarming Hizbullah's
military wing, and coercing Lebanon into a peace agreement with Israel.
In the eyes of many non-Shiite Lebanese, Iran-supported Hizbullah is
out of step with the national consensus, and serves the interests of
Damascus. But such views underestimate the power that Hizbullah has
become, says Timur Goksel, university lecturer in Beirut and former UN
official.
"I don't see Hizbullah as a weak party in this relationship [with
Syria] at all," he says. "They really have become a major element in
Lebanese politics and they are probably more influential on Syria than
Syria is on them."
That influence could play a critical role in determining whether the
government will stand or fall in the coming days. "Not a single
government can be formed without the Shiites," says Hussein Naboulsi,
spokesman for Hizbullah, "and Hizbullah represents the big majority of
Shiites."
The tussle over the future direction of Lebanon is likely to strain
even further the already fragile communal relations, says
Saad-Ghorayeb, the professor of politics and Hizbullah expert.
"Tueni's assassination, in my opinion, is far more polarizing that
Hariri's assassination," she says, "and the political implications of
this and the way it's going to be played out in the days to come are
really going to be destabilizing."
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