After the ultimatum expired without a reaction from the government, the Mokdads – along with other clans and a significant segment of the Lebanese people – became convinced that their government is not concerned for their safety. (Photo: Rameh Hamieh)
To address the wave of abductions targeting Syrian nationals, the Lebanese cabinet has instructed the courts to issue arrest warrants for the kidnappers. But shouldn’t dealing with such crimes address the root causes behind them?
On Thursday August 16, the Lebanese cabinet instructed justice minister Chakib Kortbawi to issue arrest warrants for all those involved in kidnapping Syrian and foreign nationals, thereby “taking part in distorting Lebanon’s image.”
The move was approved by ministers from Hezbollah and Amal, who called on the security services and the military to “strike with an iron first.” Yet we know that tackling this issue requires dealing with the principal factors that led to the chaos, rather than making such pugnacious statements.
At any rate, the cabinet decided to establish a “crisis cell” to follow up on the case of the Lebanese pilgrims who were abducted in Syria. President Michel Suleiman said, “The events that took place in reaction to this issue were bad and harmful to Lebanon and its relations with friendly countries.” Suleiman’s statement caused offense given the fact that he had paid little attention to the families of the Lebanese abductees.
No crisis cell was formed in the immediate aftermath of the abduction of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims in May, or after the kidnapping and apparent torture of Hassan Mokdad, who “confessed” that Hezbollah general secretary Hassan Nasrallah “had ordered him to kill Sunnis.” The crisis cell was only formed after the Mokdad clan took things into its hands and decided to free Hassan Mokdad from his alleged captors, by force if necessary. The elders of the clan gave an ultimatum before unleashing its “military wing.”
After the ultimatum expired without a reaction from the government, the Mokdads – along with other clans and a significant segment of the Lebanese people – became convinced that their government is not concerned for their safety.
On August 16, Prime Minister Najib Mikati threatened that “these warrants (against the Mokdad clan, who kidnapped Syrian nationals and a Turk to exchange them with their relative) will be issued imminently.” Lebanese law punishes whoever forcibly detains a person, whatever the reason. But Mikati’s threats do not solve the problem, they only make it worse.
To begin with, the hundreds of kidnappers and instigators of kidnapping will be added to the tens of thousands of fugitives in the Bekaa, who have warrants out for their arrest, sentences made against them in absentia, and Interpol notices out for them. These fugitives are involved in four categories of offenses: drugs, homicide, robbery, and other minor violations.
According to Bekaa MP Ghazi Zaiter, the number of wanted fugitives in the Bekaa is less than the number being circulated by the media (which puts the figure in the vicinity of 35,000 fugitives). The number is still around 10,000, including a majority who are wanted for violations that have led to criminal sentences, and others who were charged or sentenced for involvement in drugs, homicide, kidnapping, larceny, and armed robbery.
The security services and the military are unable to apprehend such a large number of fugitives, particularly those who belong to clans that aid and abet them. In addition to this, all the prisons and jails in Lebanon combined do not have the required space to accommodate them.
If the security services and the army succeed in arresting all these fugitives, it would be impossible for interrogation centers, public prosecution chambers, and courts to process their cases, given the shortage of human resources and equipment in the justice system.
Another problem that is increasingly deleterious is the suffering of the detainees’ families, who are deprived of the basics of decent living because of the absence of official support programs. Poverty and deprivation thus push the children of detainees in many cases into crime, in what is a vicious circle that the state only makes worse, instead of addressing its root causes.
Excessive Selectivity
The families of the Lebanese kidnapped in Syria blocked the airport road during the past few days to put pressure on the Lebanese government to help liberate their relatives. This has prompted the government to act quickly to reopen the road, while PM Najib Mikati stressed that there would be guarantees in place to keep it open. He said, “the Airport road will not be blocked from this day forward.”
On Friday August 17, Lebanon’s top security committee convened to discuss the sole issue that was on its agenda: the airport road. But when the Salafi sheikh Ahmad al-Assir and his followers decided to block the road leading to the South for weeks, the state failed to act with such urgency. Then when this same cleric ended his sit-in, the prime minister made no announcement that there would be “guarantees” in place to keep this road open.
The way the government, for political reasons, has been so selective in its dealing with security-related incidents and legal issues has only made divisions worse. For instance, a certain young man was released in Lebanon after he was arrested on suspicion of “belonging to an armed terrorist faction, committing crimes against persons and properties, and undermining the standing and authority of the state.” Five other people were released along with him, including a Qatari national. This is while three Lebanese army officers were rearrested on suspicion of killing a cleric and his companion in the North.
In what is a clear indication of the government’s selective approach in dealing with cases, the cabinet chose to expand the probe into the case of the cleric’s death, while suspending the investigation into the terrorist group.
The General Security of the State
On August 17, Mikati asked justice minister Kortbawi to pursue “anyone who has interfered with the general security of the state,” while failing to mention that preserving the so-called general security of the state requires comprehensive and long-term efforts that his government and the successive governments before it have failed to deliver.
The suffering of the people of the Bekaa, despite all promises made, remains much the same, if not worse, as the region is witnessing a scarcity of development projects, and growing problems in water and energy services, as well as healthcare and education.
Public schools are overcrowded, and are in much need of equipment and repairs. In many cases, they do not meet the specifications set by the parliamentary education committee. Unemployment in the Bekaa region is also increasing, especially among young men and women.
Then there is the Litani River, the lifeblood of the Bekaa region – from Baalbek all the way to Lake Qaraoun – and of the touristic ventures and development projects in the valley. This river has been neglected by the state, so much so that it has become an extended gutter into which towns and factories dump their sewage and hazardous waste.
Even worse, the waterway of the Litani and the canals connected to it have not been cleaned, which means that when winter arrives, the river will flood into the areas adjacent to its banks.
The agricultural sector is in an even worse shape, with the high cost of agricultural inputs, such as labor, water, fuel, electricity bills, in addition to the absence of appropriate agricultural policies and plans in place. Agriculture in the Bekaa is also experiencing other problems, such as contamination of vegetable and fruit products with chemicals and pesticide residue, as well as restrictions on agricultural products in Arab and European markets.
All of this has driven some people in the Bekaa to grow cannabis. Here, the state does interfere, only not with funding and services, but with force of arms and repression in order to destroy the plants.
Add to all these problems – which obviously undermine the so-called general security of the state – the issue of the Syrian refugees in the Bekaa region. The influx of Syrians cannot be measured by the official numbers recorded by international organizations, as the real figure may be ten times the number of registered refugees, according the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
With the fighting now reaching Aleppo and the streets of the Syrian capital, more Syrian refugees have come to the Bekaa, although it is near-impossible to accommodate any more of them. Now, families are seeking refuge with other families, and places are becoming more packed with new refugees day after day. Even some schools have been accommodating displaced people from Syria.
How the State Loses Its Authority
Encouraging people to respect the law requires the state to make decisions on the basis that it has the ability to compel them to adhere to its provisions.So if the state is unable to compel people to abide by a certain law, then it should repeal it or suspend it in order to preserve its standing among the citizenry.
Failing to enforce the law implies the collapse of the state, which in turn prevents it from imposing its authority at any level.
Fiorello La Guardia, mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945, refused to compel the city’s population to abide by a 1937 law that outlawed the smoking of marijuana, because the police in the city could not pursue those who violated it — given their large numbers and the widespread use of marijuana.
La Guardia justified the suspension of this law by arguing that the authority of the state, which depends on its ability to enforce the law, needed to be preserved.
But in Lebanon, the authority of the state is in tatters, because it asks people to respect laws that it cannot enforce.
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