WAR IN LEBANON BY FORMER AMBASSADOR TO BEIRUT

 Here is a video link that was sent to me by Dr Ilango Karuppanan, Malaysia's former ambassador to Lebanon. Dr Ilango gives a diplomat's take on what is happening in Lebanon.

 

 

There was a really brutal and murderous civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. When the Civil War began I was in Form 3 and I used to read about the war. There was a precursor to the Civil War in Lebanon. 

After the first (1948) and second (1967) Arab Israeli war, the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) relocated to Amman in Jordan. At that time Jordan was a very small and under developed country of Arab Bedouins. In no time the 'Palestinians' outnumbered the native Bedouins. 

By 1970 the Palestinians in Jordan tried to overthrow the very young King Hussein of Jordan. The CIA helped King Hussein by bringing in Brigadier Zia Ul Haq and his troops from Pakistan. There was a bloodbath where Brigadier Zia Ul Haque and his Pakistani troops massacred about 25,000 to 30,000 Palestinians in Amman and the rest of Jordan. That event is remembered by the PLO as Black September. The Jordanian monarchy is eternally grateful to General Zia for his ruthless handling of the situation.

The PLO leadership escaped to Beirut and set about reorganising themselves. By 1975 the PLO's presence and involvement in Beirut politics (in a very fragile multi-religious Lebanon) sparked off that Civil War that would last until 1990.

In 1982 I was a freshman at university in Indiana in the US. I met many friends including 'Palestinians', Lebanese and others who spoke about the Civil War in Lebanon. I knew 'Palestinians' and Lebanese students who had either fought in the Civil War (on opposite sides) or were escaping from the Civil War. Roget (Rojay) was a Lebanese Maronite Christian who kept silent all the time - he had seen and done many things in the war and it had affected him substantially.  Some Palestinian students on campus (including girls) still kept rifles under their beds because they were used to it. One time I was at a pizza parlour and when an old car backfired some Lebanese screamed and dived under the table. They thought someone was shooting at them. That was the effect the war had had on them. The Lebanese also told me how the Palestinians (PLO) set up roadblocks around Beirut and started behaving like they owned the place. The Palestinians would even stop and check the identifications of the Lebanese people !

All this came to a climax in 1982 when the PLO attacked Israel from Lebanon and sparked off the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The net result was the PLO was chased out of Beirut and escaped by ship to Tunisia. It was just one ship. The rest of the story is as per Ambassador Ilango's narrative above. 

It is a very complicated place. Real decisions have to be made which will guarantee the economic and social well being of all the people in Lebanon and the Middle East. No one really cares what passport or nationality they are as long as they get to eat three meals a day, have a safe and comfortable roof over your head, you can work or earn money and your children can have a good future.  It is really as easy as it sounds. It is so easy to manage a society and run a country on an even keel. But the politicians need to be eradicated first.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.