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USCFL - Muhammad Mugraby : Lebanon, Syria and the Challenge of Human Rights Testimony: Muhammad Mugraby : Lebanon, Syria and the Challenge of Human Rights Date: November 6, 1997 Talk delivered at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Today Lebanon is experiencing a very strange phenomenon in its modern history. Althoughit used to be a free and democratic country, it is being rapidly transformed into aSoviet-style satellite of its Syrian neighbor, a Soviet-style police state that survivedthe disintegration of the original Soviet model. The agony of human rights in Lebanonmainly stems from the export of the Syrian model of human, or rather inhuman rights, intoLebanon, both directly through the Syrian army and Moukhabarat operating in the countryand indirectly via the forces of the Lebanese government which is a Syrian shadow.Furthermore, human rights in Lebanon have suffered from the importation of the Saudi modelin the person in of Mr. Rafik Hariri, the "billionaire" who runs a businessempire based in Saudi Arabia and who was appointed by the Syrians as prime minister.What is amazing is that most western democracies seem to have adjusted to thissorrowful state of affairs and carry on business as usual in Beirut with the shadows ofDamascus. In the forthcoming comments I propose to shed some light on this ongoing tragedyin a country that is truly unique in the significant contribution it has made to humancivilization across the ages.Historic FlashbackBeirut hosted the oldest law school known in history. The first major predecessor ofmodern civil law, the Justinian Code, was drafted at the Beirut Law School. For thatBeirut came to be known as the Mother of Laws: Berytus nutrix legum. The Phoenicians werepioneers in democracy on the basis of written constitutions which became models for theold World to copy. They introduced the institution of the senate. They infinitely enhancedthe power of language by inventing the alphabet. In modern times, Lebanon, a founding member of the United Nations, played a centralrole in the drafting of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights through its chief UNrepresentative at the time, Dr. Charles Malek. Dr. Malek, in partnership with Mrs. EleanorRoosevelt, was the prime force behind drafting the declaration and pushing it through thevarious UN committees, that he chaired at that time, to final conclusion. Between ancient and modern times Lebanon benefited greatly and equally from thehumanistic messages of Christianity and Islam and freely interacted with Judaism.Phoenician masons, led by the famous architect Hiram, were dispatched by King Hiram ofTyre to build the Temple in Jerusalem for King Solomon. According to tradition Jesusbrought his message of peace to Lebanon and performed some of his most famous miracles atthe southern town of Qana in the presence of his mother the Virgin Mary. The Maronitemonks and their church escaped the persecution of the official church in Byzantium intothe freedom of the Bikaa and Mount Lebanon where they have thrived ever since. The Shiitesfound in Lebanon freedom from the persecution of the Omayad Caliphs and were eventuallycalled upon to send their theology teachers to Iran to help convert it to Shiism. TheDruzes fled the persecution of the Egyptian Sultans to continue to practice their religionfreely in the mountains of Lebanon.Al Imam Al Aouzaii, one of the major Sunni Moslem theologians and a Lebanese, is one ofthe oldest known human rights advocates. He took a famous stand against the persecution ofChristians. Al Aouzai was only faithful to the commands of the Prophet Mohamad who hadmade one of the most famous human rights declarations of all times: "All beings arethe children of God and God loves most the child who is most helpful to his otherchildren." In Islam, God is never referred to as the lord of the Muslims. He isalways described as Rab Al Alameen, Lord of all the Worlds. With such a distinguished heritage featuring major contributions to humanity and deeproots in human civilization, how is it possible to ignore the human rights crisis inLebanon? Let me outline to you the magnitude of the human rights crisis that plagues mycountry.The Impact of SyriaLebanon is a country of 4,000 sq. miles in area. In this small area there are more thanten different universities and dozens of university campuses. The educational system istrilingual. An equal number of Lebanese students attends hundreds of other universitiesall over the World, but mostly in Western Europe and North America, entirelyself-financed. Tragically, most of the local graduates seek employment opportunitiesoutside Lebanon and most of the graduates from foreign universities never return. Thisrepresents a brain drain of enormous proportions. The reason is that these young graduatesdo not feel secure in their own country.Hundreds and thousands of college students and graduates have known arbitrarydetention, mostly at the hands of agents of the Lebanese Military Intelligence branch, butmany at the hands of Syrian Army Moukhabrat. This they get for trying to exercise theirright of free speech and association. Job opportunities in the Government are closedexcept to the select few who are loyal to the ruling establishment endorsed by the bigbrothers in Damascus who yield full control of Lebanon¹s destiny. Job discrimination isfurther deepened by the openly practiced confessional discrimination in the privatesector. These young men and women feel that they are not recognized either as human beingsor as citizens.Lebanon has paid a heavy price for being a member of the Arab League and a neighbor ofSyria, a country which has been ruled by various military regimes since the middle of thiscentury. The last of these regimes, the current government of General Hafiz Al Assad, hasproved to be most durable. As military officers are the least capable governmentadministrators, the agriculture-based Syrian economy suffered tremendously. The military establishment became the sole power base for the Syrian rulers andsuddenly it was consuming the lion's share of the national budget in the name of preparingfor war against Israel. Military service took away many of the prime years of Syrianyouths except for those who were capable of paying the huge financial ransom for exclusionfrom the draft. The educational system was nationalized and completely Arabized as to thelanguage of instruction. The rule of law completely disappeared and the bar associationwas decimated. The Syrian rulers sought to guarantee their own security by denyingsecurity to every other Syrian. Arbitrary arrests and detentions became the rule ratherthan the exception and dissent was dealt with mercilessly. To make a long story short, the best and the brightest young Syrians, who were notthrown in jail for long years or indefinitely, left the country, never to return except asvisitors with foreign passports. The managers and businessmen who were able to alludedetention left never to return on Syrian identification papers. Syria had to import foodinstead of exporting it. Its infant production industry was crippled. Its emergingservices sector was destroyed.Eventually a new business class surfaced in Syria. This class consisted of relatives ofMr. Assad and his associates. Corruption became official business.This is the kind of "human rights" culture that started descending on Lebanonfrom the day the country was forced to become a launching ground for a militaryconfrontation with Israel that was not its own, culminating with the infamous "CairoAgreement" signed in 1969 under heavy Syrian pressure. This agreement created avirtual state within a state for the Palestinian armed organizations on Lebaneseterritory. In 1976 the Syrian Army marched into Lebanon under the banner of curbing thePalestinians and preventing them from taking over the country. But the Syrians did notdissuade the PLO from continuing the confrontation with Israel that eventually provokedthe Israeli Army into invading Lebanon in 1978 and again in 1982. The second Israeliincursion resulted in kicking the Palestinians out of Lebanon and sending the PLOleadership into Tunisian exile, but not the Syrians who stayed on. They first played deadthen they resumed active interference in Lebanese affairs.This Syrian "culture" triumphed with the total Syrian take-over of Lebanon onOctober 13, 1990, when Syrian soldiers marched into the ruins of the Lebanese presidentialpalace at Baabda. Since that fateful day Lebanon has been run as a fully owned subsidiaryof the Syrian regime. The pictures of Mr. Assad and his two sons greet passengers at theBeirut International Airport much as they do at the Damascus Airport. Every governmentdecision of any significance, including all major appointments, must first be cleared inDamascus. Not only the Lebanese Government, but also the Lebanese economy, felleffectively under the same Syrian management that reduced Syria to a police state, ruinedits economy and impoverished its people.The Economic ConsequencesNo scientific or reliable statistics are available, but the real per capita income ofthe average Lebanese is thought to be down to one quarter of what it was in 1974. In 1974the Lebanese pound traded at 2.25 to the dollar. Today it trades at 1530 to the dollarwith heavy central bank support. Government spending, however, not only kept pace with itsformer level but large numbers of new political appointees were added to the state payrollwhich led to an astronomical deficit of 60% of the budgeted spending and 75% of actualtotal spending. The deficit is financed by high yield treasury bonds. Today the country'spublic debt is over $16 billion which is almost three times the estimated GNP.Worse, the country's top leaders are all appointees of the Syrian regime, and they arean unqualified bunch. For example the president never went to college and the primeminister's only qualification is that he is an accomplished contractor in Saudi Arabia.The power base of both "leaders" is Mr. Assad's blessings. As to the primeminister, one can also take into consideration his reported wealth which he is not ashamedto portray conspicuously in a country where many humans are living on the edge ofsubsistence. The cabinet includes a number of ministers who are suspected of havingcommitted gross human rights violations, such as the 1982 massacre at Sabra, and variousacts of assassination and looting. Many are construction contractors and almost all aremillionaires with questionable sources for their wealth. Such leaders have no credibilitywhatsoever and openly and frequently travel to Damascus for "consultations" withtheir Syrian handlers.The impact of all this on the Lebanese economy has been disastrous in spite of thecushion of the income earned outside Lebanon by many Lebanese with foreign commercialactivities, employment or other means. The standard of living of the average Lebanesefamily took a nose dive. More Lebanese children are underfed, underclothed and notreceiving any education than at any time in modern Lebanese history. But human rights werefar worse affected.The Rule of Law in EclipseTo start with, a Lebanese equivalent to the Syrian special security courts had to becreated. So the old established institution of the military court under the Ministry ofDefense was given the task. Suddenly the calendar of that court swelled and its case loadrose to over twenty thousand a year. Although the military court is supposed, in theory,to observe the rules of criminal procedure, it does not do so in practice. The militarycourt is constituted mostly of military officers with no legal education or training. Thesystem is dominated by the prosecutor who actually runs the administration of the courtand to whom all clerks report. It takes minutes to try an average case and verdicts arepassed later on in the day or in the evening with little or no role for lawyers to play intheir defense. Torture prevails. Cases of special interest to the Syrians are handled bythe Syrians and the detainees are, without hesitation, transferred to Syria forinterrogation and internment without any Lebanese judicial intervention. In many cases theprisoners were actually apprehended by Lebanese security forces and delivered to theSyrians. In most such cases detentions simply turned into disappearances as the Syriansrefused to account for the detainees or permit family visits to them.The judiciary also suffered. What remained of judicial independence rapidlydisappeared. Syrian fingers became apparent in appointments of key prosecutors andinvestigating magistrates. When the third highest ranking judge who headed the JudicialInspection Bureau brought disciplinary charges against two senior judges who hosted alavish dinner in honor of Syria's defense minister financed by a well-known drugtrafficker, the Beirut home of the ranking judge was surrounded by Syrian forces andSyrian officers attempted to take him by force for a summoned audience with the Beirutcommander of the Syrian Moukhabarat. The two accused judges were subsequently tried by adisciplinary council and were cleared of the charges in a sharply divided vote. They weredefended by a fellow judge who, almost immediately thereafter, became the next topprosecutor general of the country. The judge chief of the Judicial Inspection Bureauretired.The Steady Erosion of Human RightsThe next target was what remained of the freedom of expression. Before the Syrian Armyformally advanced into Lebanon in 1976 (after it had long operated on Lebanese territoryin the guise of a Palestinian guerilla organization, Al Saiqa), an unconstitutional lawprohibited the publication of new newspapers, whether daily or weekly, unless two existingnewspaper licenses were first purchased by the applicant and revoked. As this legislationdid not apply to the electronic media, radio and television stations proliferated. Hence anew statute was enacted restricting television and radio stations but leaving in businessthose stations that are under the control of the "leaders", including a stationthat was hurriedly declared but is not in business to this date. One of the stations isowned by the prime minister. The banned stations were closed down by force. In the latestshutdown by force that took place in Tripoli a few weeks ago, two innocent lives were lostto security forces bullets.Goodbye to freedom of assembly and association. All demonstrations were banned in 1993by decree of the cabinet. To form a non-governmental association requires a decree by theminister of the interior. No association is permitted with aims or by founders or membersnot agreeable to the government. The minister, who is also vice premier and a very wealthyconstruction contractor and real estate developer, is known for openly and vocallydespising human rights. In a very recent statement, he proclaimed security more valuablethan "the rights they speak about". Lawyers and the Bar Association are now targeted but in different ways. Individuallawyers are threatened with prosecution for acts that fall naturally within their functionof defending their clients. Any criticism of the system is being declared as libelous andboth the Beirut prosecutor and the country's general prosecutor have publicly warned thatthey will not tolerate such criticism. The Bar Association, which is self-governing andyields legal powers over the legal profession, is one of the remaining institutions whichconstitute a potential threat to the Syrian-installed Lebanese regime. Hence thegovernment is interfering covertly in its annual meetings and the election of its council.Very recently the prime minister was invited to the bar where he presided over theground-breaking ceremony for a lawyers club on public property to which he announced acontribution of $400,000. The bar is also the beneficiary of a special tax on allnotarized and other official contracts equal to 1.5 per mill of the declared value thereofand collects a special tax on all powers of attorney. The independence of the bar has beenseriously compromised in that it cannot risk a confrontation with the government thatcould cost it vital sources of income that count in the millions of dollars per annum.The corruption of the institutions of civil society is in full swing. The generalfederation of workers unions has been split into two competing leaderships with theresulting paralysis of the labor movement. One leadership is openly and directly loyal tothe Syrians. The other is supported by politicians loyal to the Syrians. The situation with the illegal militias that all, and without exception, have aterrible human rights record, is very strange indeed. Officially, all militias weredissolved and their membership was absorbed into the army, the police and the civilservice. The Speaker of the House, who is one of the top three "presidents",continues, however, to lead his own armed militia, Amal, under the pretext of waging waron Israel. Hizballah is another militia which has evolved into a large heavily armedprivate army under joint Syrian-Iranian control with its own jails and detainees. It isofficially recognized by the government, and many Lebanese were charged before themilitary court with "spying" on Hizballah, and were tried, convicted andreceived prison sentences on such charges! Other militias which have been declaredofficially disarmed are ready to be back in business on the first signal from the bigbrothers. Hence the threat is openly and frequently made that if the Syrians are everforced to withdraw from Lebanon all the militias will be instantly back on the streets.Sadly, maintaining the Syrian military occupation has become part of the declared programsof many politicians commissioned, or adopted, by the Syrians.Corruption in High PlacesOne of the Syrian tactics in Lebanon has been their wholesale adoption of theconfessional system and the corrupt political bosses who were on the road to extinction.Hence repression has been allied with corruption. The appointment of Mr. Hariri as primeminister intensified mismanagement and the decline of integrity in government. Hariridescended on Beirut from Saudi Arabia where he received all his practical education andexperience in life. He brought with him the Saudi culture of corruption, conflict ofinterest, waste of resources, and disregard for the rule of law. While Saudi Arabia couldfinance all those excesses from its vast oil income, Lebanon has no such income; hence thegrowing public debt and the steep rise in tax collection. Hariri has not disassociatedhimself from his vast commercial interests and his companies are known to be activelycompeting with smaller Lebanese companies on all levels. In addition to the office ofprime minister, he is minister of finance and of telecommunications. One of his many realestate projects, Solidere, was granted an unconstitutional and unconscionable concessionon the old city of Beirut, ironically home to the Beirut Law School of ancient times. Therights of the original owners and tenants were confiscated with meager compensation in theform of Solidere's own shares that can never be sold. A large police force was placed atthe disposal of Solidere's management to evict owners and residents by force. One old ladythat I represented was taken by force to a police station while her house was beingdemolished. She fell ill instantly and in a few weeks she died. A dozen residents of anold house, men women and children, who were lax in obeying the eviction instructions diedunder the rubble when Solidere's contractors proceeded, and without further warning, todemolish the house while the unlucky residents were still under its roof. Indeed, Beirutis no longer the mother of laws but the victim of gross abuse of rights.An Arena for Foreign PowersThe role of the US Government and its position on all that has been taking place is amystery to most Lebanese. Many of them strongly feel that had it not been for theacquiescence of the American Government Mr. Assad would never have dared to do what he hasdone in Lebanon. The recent brief visit of the American Secretary of State to Beirut andits public remarks on the rule of law were very encouraging, though its implicitendorsement of the Hariri-led Syrian-controlled regime was disturbing. What is furtherdisturbing is that the actions of American diplomacy portray continued unwarrantedtolerance of the Syrian role in Lebanon and an inexplicable support for Syrian croniessuch as Mr. Hariri, his cabinet and all what they stand for. As a result, the Lebanese people have become helpless hostages to a tyranny controlledfrom outside their borders and dedicated to an endless struggle between three majorregional powers, Syria, Iran and Israel. Each of these regional powers is much strongermilitarily than Lebanon.Together, they have chosen to settle their scores on Lebanese land. From where I livein Beirut we have a good look of the town of Na'me about ten miles south of the city. Inthis town the Syrians have unlawfully sanctioned the establishment of a base for aPalestinian armed group, one of a score of such foreign armed groups they similarlysanction. Israeli planes unlawfully violate Lebanese air space on a regular basis to raidNa'me in plain view from our balcony. Both sides, the Israelis and the Syrians seem to becontent with this "arrangement" and the political purposes of both governmentsare equally served. But I assure you the Lebanese residents of Na'me are not, and that thegreat majority of the Lebanese are not.One of the greatest ironies, if not farces, of modern diplomacy is what we have beentold by reliable sources for the last few years, that the Israeli Government, before andafter the assassination of Mr. Rabin and even under Mr. Netanyahu, repeatedly expressedserious interest in withdrawing from Lebanon. We are also told by the same sources thatthe Syrian Government has not been agreeable to such withdrawal, however unconditional,for fear of separating the "twin" negotiating tracks with Israel -- theSyrian-Lebanese! Most Lebanese believe the Syrian position to be motivated not only by thewish to maintain Lebanon as a bargaining chip, a hostage, in the endlessnegotiations-cum-confrontation with Israel, but also by its evident preference formaintaining the status quo. Lebanon is such a valuable prize, and an Israeli withdrawalmay ring the bells for a Syrian withdrawal long overdue under the Taif terms. So far theSyrian position on the Taif mandated withdrawal is simple: it is willing to withdraw ifand when it is so requested by the Lebanese Government. One of the ministers perhapsexpressed the views of his loyalist colleagues in the Cabinet by publicly threatening tothrow himself before the first Syrian tank that begins such withdrawal! This sad state of affairs calls for a stand by the Lebanese people. The Lebanese shoulddemonstrate in every way, and primarily through utilizing what remains of the legalprocess, their will to resist the tyranny and to defend their human rights against allforms of abuse. But there is also a role to be played by the international community tomake sure that the erosion in human rights in Lebanon is halted and ultimately reversed.Unquestionably, the resolve of the international community on this issue is vital to thesuccess of the local defense. Would you like to comment on this testimony? If you would like to send us your thoughts on this testimony, please click the button below: If you would like to read feedback submitted by other visitors, please click on the link below: USCFL Home Golden Circle Membership Mission Statement Current ViewsUS Testimonies Intelligence SpecialReports Activities Action Alerts Selected LinksSelected Readings Guestbook FAQs How to Contact Us Search |
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