Armed Violence in Beirut

It's just after midnight here in Beirut and I can now hear heavy gunfire again for the first time in about an hour. It is very hard to tell exactly where it is coming from, as the sounds echo off different buildings, and as far as the distance is concerned, well, I frankly don't know how loud gunfire should sound when it is very nearby. An enormous sounding bomb just went off within earshot. Across the city today, fighting has broken out between people loyal to the Saudi and American backed governing coalition and those supporting the Iranian and Syrian backed opposition.

I have been living in Beirut since September 2007 and by no stretch of the imagination am an expert of Lebanese politics or history but I want to offer my nut-shell understanding of the situation right now for those of you completely unfamiliar with the context. I realize that some people may disagree with my interpretation of these events, in part out of an (unintended) political bias on my part or an (unfortunate) misunderstanding of the actual historical facts. I welcome anyone and everyone's corrections, comments, and additions to this admittedly incomplete and fairly narrow narrative.

Sporadic fighting started yesterday in the capital, after people loyal to the Shia parties, Hezbollah and Amal, engaged in acts of civil disobedience around the city. Most significantly, at the time, they shut down the main road to the airport with barricades, burning tires, and mounds of dirt. It has been virtually impossible for anyone to get to or from the airport since. There were a handful of flights yesterday and maybe one or two today (we can see the flights coming in from the Sea) but many passengers who did arrive yesterday (including a Lebanese pop star), were stuck in the airport for several hours. Anyway, the civil disobedience was, most immediately, a response to the government's recent decision to shut down Hezbollah's private phone network, an infrastructure that the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah described today as essential to the Resistance's security. In addition, the government (primarily in the form of Walid Jumblat) announced a few days ago that they had discovered a hidden surveillance camera at the airport, belonging to Hezbollah. The government fired the head of security at the airport, who they claim to be a Hezbollah operative but who Nasrallah claimed today to be an ordinary Shia.

Anyway, these disputes are rooted in a deep web of Lebanese history, stretching all the way back to the Taif Accords, which resolved (or, perhaps did not resolve) the 1975-1990 Civil War. Basically, since December 2006, Hezbollah, Amal, and the Free Patriotic Movement have been abstaining from the Lebanese government in protest to the current balance of power between Christians, Shia, and Sunni. When Emile Lahoud's term as president of Lebanon was set to expire in 2007, this opposition movement refused to attend the Parliamentary sessions necessary to elect a new president. According to an agreement reached after the Civil War, Lebanon's president is always a Christian; its prime minister a Sunni; and its speaker of parliament, a Shia. Because the Christians are split between the so-called March 14th governing coalition and the March 8th opposition (the dates refer to demonstrations in 2005 after Prime Minister Hariri was assassinated, the former of which pushed Syria to end their longstanding occupation of the country), the president could tip the balance of power in one direction or another. But because the opposition will not seat their MPs during any of the several attempts to elect a president, a quorum cannot be reached, and therefore there is still no president of Lebanon.

Nevertheless, everyone seems to have agreed upon the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, Michel Suleiman, as the appropriate next president of Lebanon. The military is the most widely respected institution in Lebanon, one that has prided itself on its non-partisanship. So Hezbollah and company's opposition to the election has very little to do with the president-to-be himself and far more to do with the makeup of the president's cabinet. To put it simply, Hezbollah and Amal want to have greater Shia representation in the cabinet and some sort of veto power over the government.

In addition to all this, and perhaps more importantly, UN resolution 1701, which ended the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, calls for the disarming of Hezbollah. Hezbollah has erected a relatively thick network of weaponry and security infrastructure since the Civil War to guard the country against repeated attacks and invasions by Israel. Although Israel's continual violations of 1701 are perhaps far more egregious, Hezbollah is still admittedly in possession of a fairly large stockpile of weapons.

--interruption: after about 45 minutes of heavy gunfire within earshot of our apartment, I am now hearing very little gunfire and instead cheering coming from the streets to the south of us in Hamra--

Anyway, the government, perhaps under pressure from the US, is determined to disarm Hezbollah--to end the "state within a state" status that Hezbollah currently enjoys.

The declaration of the government this week to shut down Hezbollah's phone system is seen at least by Nasrallah as part, and the beginning, of this operation. This move, in fact, Nasrallah argued today, is an act of war by the government. And while, he claims, Hezbollah does not want war, they "have a right to defend ourselves against [whomever] declares war against us."

So anyway, about an hour after that speech this afternoon, B and I left our apartment on the American University of Beirut's (AUB) campus to get some groceries in Hamra, the West Beirut neighborhood bordering us just to the south. Although predominantly Sunni, Hamra has a history of non-sectarianism or at least peaceful co-existence. In the eight months that we've been here, nothing extraordinary or violent has happened in this part of the city. We've often commented that we feel safe walking around Hamra at any time of the day or night. So we felt ok about heading a few blocks into the neighborhood for groceries.

The streets were eerily empty. What is usually an annoyingly congested Bliss Street, was just about entirely devoid of traffic. When we got to our grocery store, we found it, and just about everything else in the neighborhood completely closed. Just at that time, then, we started hearing gunfire that sounded fairly close. Then it got louder and heavier and definitely closer. Luckily, we had run into a friend of ours who lived a couple blocks away. We hurried, sometimes running, sometimes just walking very quickly, to her apartment, got in the door and quickly went upstairs. Gunfire in Beirut is not entirely uncommon. Before and after political leaders give speeches, their supporters often fire their handguns and kalashnikovs into the air as an expression of solidarity. So we thought that there was a good chance that this pro-Hariri neighborhood could very well be celebrating the beginning of Saad Hariri's (the son of slain former PM Rafic Hariri) speech, which was scheduled for sometime this evening. But there was something different about this gunfire. On the one hand, it was far more sporadic than usual. And on the other, it was accompanied by extremely loud explosions, what our friend identified as rocket propelled grenade (RPG) fire.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we were strongly advised to go home before nightfall, which was quickly approaching. So at a lull in the fire, we got the hell out of there and hurried back to the virtually fortressed AUB campus.

We're staying here until things significantly calm down and we are assured by campus security that it is safe to go out again. But on campus, although we can hear the gunfire outside, we are (knock on wood) very safe.

I'll write more tomorrow. But in the meantime, you can read more about this conflict on www.naharnet.com, www.nowlebanon.com, and www.dailystar.com.lb. Each of these sites has its strengths and flaws.