Al-Hariri's
death seen as a bid to destabilise Lebanon
The Assassination Plot targeted Syria
Between 1989, when the Taif
Accords were signed, and 2005, armed militias that once were in control,
have largely disappeared from Lebanon's cities, towns and villages.
Yet the phenomenon of
political assassination shows no sign of ending.
Rashid Karami, Bashir al-Jumail,
Dani Shamun, Rene Muawad, Kamal Jumblatt, Hasan Khalid, Abbas al-Musawi
and Rafiq al-Hariri are some of the Lebanese politicians and officials who
have fallen prey to the assassin's bullet or bomb in the last three
decades.
The same strategy that was
used to kill president Muawad in October 1988 was used in last Monday's
attack, which killed present-day Lebanon's most prominent political figure
al-Hariri, the man regarded as the leader of Lebanon's reconstruction
drive after the civil war.
Blow against Syria
As in all the previous
cases, al-Hariri's death is seen by many Lebanese politicians as a bid to
destabilise their country.
Bushra al-Khalil, a Lebanese
lawyer and political activist, told Aljazeera.net the plot against al-Hariri's
life also targeted Syria.
"If we look at the way the
assassination has been conducted, it is very sophisticated, I knew al-Hariri's
security measures - no local system could have breached them.
"The question is, who stands
to benefit from his death? Syria's enemies. I think al-Hariri's death is
part of the plan to divide the region into tiny helpless sectarian states.
This plan has started in Iraq and it will continue to hit all other Arab
countries."
Al-Khalil said the killing
was an attempt to force Syria to leave Lebanon before striking it and
commencing the region's carve-up.
"If we look at who all
have been adding fuel to the fire in the recent past, we will find
sectarian leaders and promoters of sectarian division such as Walid
Jumblatt and Amin al-Jumail, who had killed a lot of Lebanese people
during the war just because they were not from their sects."
Al-Khalil considers the
killing of al-Hariri as the most dangerous and destabilising incident
since the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.
"Al-Hariri was the guardian
of stable Arab-Western relations. His success in this area had pulled the
rug from under the feet of the traditional godfathers of such
relationships.
Pan-Arab figure
According to al-Khalil,
opposition leaders who claimed al-Hariri was killed because he supported
them and opposed Syria, are dissembling.
"Al-Hariri did not agree with
them. He was grateful to Syria. He was a real pan-Arab figure who would
not tolerate harm to come to any Arab country," she said.
Al-Hariri had said before his
death that he knew there were people working to discredit his Arabist and
nationalist points of view.
Striking a similar note, Imad
Fawzi al-Shuaibi, head of the Strategic Studies Centre in Damascus, told
Aljazeera the former Lebanese prime minister was not an enemy of Syria.
"Obviously al-Hariri's
assassination was a blow against Syria and Lebanon. He was not an enemy of
Syria. He was a historic and traditional friend and ally of Syria.
"He did have disagreements
with Syria lately, but he did not call for the withdrawal of Syrian forces
from Lebanon, or stir up hostility towards Syria or demand an end
to Syria's role in Lebanon. He only had a different point of view" al-Shuaibi
said.
In his opinion, the huge
crowds that bid farewell to al-Hariri on Wednesday were not demonstrating
their support for the Lebanese opposition, but rather were expressing
their gratitude to, and admiration for, al-Hariri."
People's emotions
Al-Shuaibi's views seem to be
diametrically opposed to those of former Lebanese president Amin al-Jumail,
who said the thousands of Lebanese citizens who attended al-Hariri's
funeral wanted to express their desire for "independence".
"This is a Lebanese plea to
the whole world, an attempt to get all countries to take note of Lebanon's
misfortune - the violations of freedom and democracy going on in the
country.
"This is a very important
expression of people's emotions. They are disgusted with the current
[political] dispensation and the Syrian presence in Lebanon. They want to
deliver a message to the whole world that the Lebanese authorities do not
represent them and do not share their emotions.
"Now they are all together in
calling for Lebanon's liberty and independence", al-Jumail said.
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February 2005
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