Lebanese Writer Believes Tripoli Events Attempt to “Internationalize” Crisis
Text of report by Qatari Aljazeera.net website on 23 May
[Article by "Lebanese Writer" Muhammad Mustafa Allush: "A Different Reading of the Fatah al-Islam Events"]
Events in north Lebanon come amid the current circumstances and internal and external developments, in addition to the fragility of the social security and political conditions. In this article we will try to read between the lines and consider the current events outside the dramatic developments of the current military operations on the ground. However, brief history of the creation of the Fatah al-Islam Movement, its development, and its geographic location, is in order.
What is Fatah al-Islam?
Fatah al-Islam appeared for the first time when a number of gunmen announced their secession from the Fatah-the Uprising Movement at the end of October 2006. Following a clash at the Al- Baddawi Refugee Camp in north Lebanon between elements from the Security Committee and a group of 19 individuals of unknown affiliation and who were residing in two apartments near the Al- Quds Mosque in the Camp, a statement on the creation of the Movement was issued announcing the birth of the Fatah al-Islam Movement. Thus its members left the Al-Baddawi Refugee Camp and settled at the Nahr al-Barid Refugee Camp in centres and buildings belonging to the Fatah-the Uprising Movement.
The Movement started with about 15 Palestinian individuals. Then their number increased to over 140 after supporters joined them from the Palestinian refugee camps in Ayn al-Hilwah, the Palestinian Al- Ta’mir area, and other places. Its members are of various nationalities. They include Lebanese and Palestinians. It was observed that the Movement’s elements were highly trained. They were able to eliminate over 30 Lebanese soldiers for the loss of less than that. The Movement has a manoeuvring capability and experience in street fighting and it is self-financing. It has no political cover, neither in Lebanon nor outside of Lebanon.
Even though it was accused of being close to the Syrian regime or Al-Qa’idah, the Movement continues to deny these accusations, according to its media spokesman Abu-Husayn.
The formation of Fatah al-Islam has not been unlike the formation of the new movements and factions that appeared inside the Palestinian refugee camps. However, the clamour that accompanied its formation has been both strange and interesting. Analysts and observers at that time interpreted this Movement as a reflection of the crisis between the Lebanese government and the Syrian regime, especially since Fatah al-Islam announced its secession from the Fatah-the Uprising Movement, which enjoys Syrian protection inside Syria. However, the clamour that accompanied it became widespread in Lebanon. It was not confined to Lebanese parties but transcended them to foreign embassies, especially the US, French, Belgian, and other embassies after the Lebanese government accused the Movement of standing behind the Ayn Alaq bombing and when the Movement announced that the UN forces in southern Lebanon were like the (Antoine) Lahd militia, which collaborated with Israel.
On 22 March, Belgian Foreign Minister Karl de Gucht alluded to the Fatah al-Islam Movement by saying: “Hezbollah backs the UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] and we have no problem with that but we must be alert to the rumours that Fatah al-Islam is connected with Al-Qa’idah.”
Some consider the current security problem on the Lebanese arena to be fabricated while others consider it an unintentional reaction with which the Army was forced to deal decisively. In any case, the most prominent observations that can be made on this security problem and the salient impact of this event can be summarized as follows:
Wiping out Sunni Islamic movements or using them against Hezbollah
The current events come days after US envoy David Welch’s visit to Lebanon. Welch warned against the growing Islamic fundamentalism in Lebanon. Indeed, former experts and officials in the US intelligence accused the “Arabian Gulf in general and the Saudi Arabians in particular” of increasing their private contributions “to Sunni extremists in Lebanon, which might foment serious violence amid the growing regional struggle between the Sunnis and Shi’is” according to Reuters News Agency. According to Reuters, “former US intelligence officials emphasize that the latest influx of funds began in December in an attempt to counter Hezbollah, considering this to be part of Saudi efforts to strengthen Sunni Islam in facing the growing Shi’i activity in the Middle East and Africa.”
Citing the same source, Reuters says: “Among those who received the money were the Usbat al-Ansar group.” They also said that money was also sent to the Fatah al-Islam group, considering that “allegiance to the agendas of Saudi Arabia and the Al-Hariri family is the thing that is expected in exchange.”
Thus, emphasis was placed on the northern area. This was crystallized in US security reports that concentrated on expanding the “Sunni Al-Qa’idah” influence from Iraq to Lebanon and the numerous groups that are connected with them such as Jund al-Sham, the Liberation [Al-Tahrir] Party, the Usbat al-Ansar, and finally Fatah al-Islam in the northern areas.
Shifting the spotlights on fundamentalist groups in Tripoli and northern Lebanon in certain Lebanese media that are affiliated with certain partisan sides would increase the tension that was created by arrests that the Lebanese Army intelligence carried out among the fundamentalists who are accused of belonging to Al-Qa’idah – arrests which have been continuing for months – in addition to pursuing about 200 of them because of the Al-Ashrafiyah incidents in 2006. This would drag them either to violence or a confrontation with Hezbollah. In both cases, the winner would be the enemy of both parties at home and abroad.
What makes this analysis more important is the attempt by Lebanese parties that oppose the ideology of the Islamic movements to implicate the Islamists by linking the Al-Dinniyah incidents in the late 1999 and early 2000 with the current Tripoli and Nahr al- Barid Refugee Camp events, considering that history is basically repeating itself. The methods of Al-Dinniyah group, which resorted to surprise attacks by abducting a number of Army group and liquidating some of them, are similar to the Fatah al-Islam tactics when it mounted a surprise attack in retaliation for the storming of one of its centres.
The issue of arms with certain parties gains prominence
The issue of the Palestinian arms has been presented forcefully to public opinion. Thus, avoiding any discrimination between Palestinian factions, speaking of a relationship among Fatah al- Islam, Jund al-Sham, and Ansarallah and considering them to be several names of one bloc, that they are formed of various nationalities and have links with Al-Qa’idah, in addition to accusing some of these organizations of standing behind the various bombings in Lebanon, would help in pushing things towards liquidating these weapons and placing them under control.
This would be commensurate with leaked information from Palestinian sources; namely, that an internal Palestinian understanding has been reached based on forming a Palestinian brigade from the main Palestinian factions in Lebanon, in coordination with the Lebanese state, to implement what had been proposed at the Lebanese dialogue table to collect the Palestinian arms outside the camps and control them inside the camps. It was also rumoured that the former armed struggle official, Khalil Abu- Ta’an was entrusted with preparations for the implementation of this suggestion.
Hezbollah considered that this move would be against their weapons especially because a European diplomat commented on the confrontation between the Army and Fatah al-Islam by saying that he could not see in the foreseeable future any sign of the establishment of a strong and capable state in Lebanon as long as the arms are outside its authority and in the hands of armed Lebanese and non-Lebanese groups, and to be exact Hezbollah and the Palestinian organizations. The diplomat said that the problem that was and still is confronting the Lebanese regime is the problem of arms that are outside its authority.
Entrusting outsiders with Lebanese security
Some circles in the Lebanese opposition are of the opinion that the Lebanese government initiated or paved the way for such a crisis in order to convince the Lebanese public opinion of the need to seek the assistance of the international forces, after handing the country’s judiciary to outsiders by calling for the adoption of the international tribunal under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, with the aim of internationalizing the Lebanese situation and handing Lebanese security to regional and international forces.
The circles think that “the actual outcome of the anarchy in the country’s security would be to strengthen the US plan to internationalize the Lebanese situation at the pretext that the Lebanese state’s institutions are incapable of assuming responsibility in the country. The attempt at undermining the Lebanese Army’s ability to impose security and stability would serve this plan, which aims to impose the international tribunal through Chapter VII and enhance Al-Sanyurah’s message that Lebanon is a state without sovereignty and is incapable of treating its serious security, political, and judicial problems.
Based on this concept, these circles think that “there is a US and Israeli plan to start clashes in Lebanon, because their project is no longer capable of confronting the resistance, and therefore, they want to start internal Lebanese clashes because these clashes are their last bargaining chip. If the US and Israeli occupation becomes capable of opening such struggles, then the Americans and the Israelis will remain in Lebanon until doomsday.”
What makes this analysis logical is that the state has been aware of the existence and movements of Fatah al-Islam for sometime and has been monitoring it since the Movement announced itself at the refugee camp. The state also closed its eyes to the movement’s arms. Moreover, a fifth column or a third party has reportedly appeared with the aim of trying to ignite the trouble every time the mediators tried to solve the issue politically. If we consider the Beirut bombings in conjunction with the start of troubles in the north based on the premise that Fatah al-Islam had no connection with these troubles, as the movement itself said, we become certain that there is a carefully-prepared agenda, that the crisis is fabricated, and that some have been involved it in. The aim is to hand the country’s security to outsiders.
Transforming the Lebanese army convictions
Observers of the way how the crisis came to a head noticed, based on certain information, that the information section of the Internal Security Forces had not coordinated with the command of the Army, which besieged the Nahr al-Barid Refugee Camp where the Fatah al- Islam was stationed. The well-meaning explained this by saying that this was an illegitimate competition between the institutions of the Army and the Internal Security Forces, as General Awn said. However, some opposition circles considered it a premeditated action by a government side especially since the information section is considered to be under the control of certain pro-government parties and that their aim is to implicate the Lebanese Army in trouble involving the weapons of the Palestinian camps in order to realize the following objectives”
1. Exhausting the Lebanese Army in a battle that cannot be decisive, especially since it cannot make a political decision to enter the Palestinian Camps. Involving the Army in a battle that it cannot decide would further exhaust the Army’s resources in the Palestinian issue by involving it in a battle whose timing it did not choose. This means exposing its inefficiency and its need for the backing and support of the international forces, or changing its status in Lebanon, thus justifying its deployment on the Lebanese- Syrian border based on the premise that the Nahr al-Barid Refugee Camp is the closest Palestinian area to the Syrian borders in the north.
2. Everybody knows that the Lebanese Army has national convictions because it considers Israel the sole enemy in the struggle between the opposition and pro-government forces. Thus, involving the Army in a war with the camps would reduce the Army’s popularity at home and make it a party to the current struggle, and consequently prevent the Army’s commander from becoming a candidate for the presidency as the presidential change approaches.
In addition to the abovementioned considerations and regardless of whether or not all of these goals are sought from this military operation, observers and strategic experts in Lebanon agree that the Palestinian issue in Lebanon is a political one, and therefore its solution can be found through political and not security methods, and that entering this game would not leave any Army or state and might be the beginning of the country’s return to a civil war, especially since fresh reports have said that a third party has jumped into the fray; namely, hired snipers with the aim of pushing the country towards a civil war like the one that began in 1975, or at least redrawing the country’s map in accordance with international changes.
(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.