"Riots in Lebanon; seven shot dead"
"Monday 28 Jan 08 -- Seven people were killed yesterday and many more wounded, as hundreds of Shiites protested electricity rationing, in which homes and business have power for just a few hours each day.
The riots were triggered when Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo rejected Syria's request that the Hezbollah-led Opposition be given greater representation in Lebanon's Cabinet.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem wanted the Opposition to have 10 ministers in the next Cabinet, or one-third of the seats, which would effectively give veto power to the Opposition. The other ministers rejected this.
Lebanon is embroiled in its worst political crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990. Former president Emile Lahoud left office on 23 Nov 07 without appointing a successor. No replacement has been elected, because of tension between two forces.
On one side is the March 14th Alliance supported by Israel, the USA, affluent Lebanese, and the Druze.
On the other is the Opposition, which is led by Hezbollah, but includes less affluent people from all groups.
Since the western mind automatically regards a “smaller” group as “terrorists” (regardless of the facts) the zio-media calls the March 14th Alliance the “majority government,” and calls the Opposition the “pro-Syrian” side (when in fact the Opposition is against U.S. / Israeli control).
Israel and the USA have been trying to spark another civil war in Lebanon for years. Part of the US-zionist program is to subject sections of Lebanon to constant blackouts – usually South Lebanon and the South Bekaa Valley, which are predominantly Shiite. Lebanon’s power grid has still not been fully restored since the 1975-90 civil war. Blackouts have been constant, but in recent months they were extended to Shiite South Beirut, which has caused increasing protests from the Opposition.
Electrical blackouts sometimes hit affluent areas as well. The March 14th Alliance blames this on Syria, which provides part of Lebanon’s electricity, especially in the Mount Lebanon area and the norther Bekaa Valley. There are occasional power interruptions from Syria, but these are technical in nature, and involve Syria's complex electrical grid, which originates in Egypt. The real problem is Lebanon’s state-owned power company, Electricite du Liban (EDL), which supplies the rest of Lebanon, and is in chaos.
Pro-March 14th newspapers blame the blackouts and rationing on the Opposition. Affluent Lebanese fall for this. When a blackout shuts down their nightclubs, their Internet cafes, their bakeries, or their streetlights, they blame Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah. When their children must do school homework by candlelight, they blame Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah. When they must pay more for less electricity, they blame Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah.
Most affluent Lebanese use generators when blackouts hit. Some also use small private companies that provide electricity, but these companies charge high prices, and must also ration electricity to handle demand. Many shops in Sidon get barely four hours of power a day from private providers.
Meanwhile at Electricite du Liban (the state-owned company), the bill collection department is in a shambles. Affluent Lebanese say Shiites steal electricity, and murder utility bill collectors -- and then Shiites protest when there are blackouts. They say Shiite theft means Electricite du Liban must be subsidized to cover the revenue shortfall. They say this subsidy (US $800 million a year) is a major burden on the Lebanese treasury, since Lebanon’s debt exceeds 185 % of its GNP.
Part of the problem is that in 2006 the Israelis specifically targeted power plants, high-voltage cables, and fuel-oil reservoirs in Lebanon. They also targeted tankers loaded with gasoline and fuel oil. Electricite du Liban power plants at Jieh, Zahrani, and Deir Ammar run on oil. The Israelis bombed the Jieh power plant in 2006 to kill Lebanese air conditioning, and to spill massive amounts of oil, thus ruining Lebanon’s beaches and wiping out the tourist industry.
Because of the blackouts and the rationing, Opposition-aligned Lebanese have increasingly held protests to shut down parts of Beirut. Today protesters blocked major roads in Beirut and its southern (mainly Shiite) suburbs, forcing Lebanese troops to intervene.
Protesters also blocked roads in the seaside southern suburb of Ouzai and the Beirut districts of Zokak Blatt and Msaitbeh. Army and police patrols quickly reopened all roads. The developments did not last more than 20 minutes each, but raised tension among the weary population.
This was the worst rioting in Lebanon since January 2007, when clashes between Sunnis and Shiites at a university cafeteria left four people dead.
The protests started in the afternoon, when fifty Opposition supporters erected barricades of tires in the suburb of Shiah and set them on fire, closing the Mar Mikhael intersection -- a major link between different areas of Beirut. Protesters also blocked roads in southern Beirut suburb of Ghobeiry and along the old airport road. The sky over Beirut became filled with black smoke.
Scores of troops arrived shortly afterward and fired their weapons in the air to disperse the demonstrators. The protests were confined to mainly Shiite areas, and the army sought to prevent unrest from spreading to nearby Sunni and Christian areas.
Two people were shot dead near the Mar Mikhael intersection, while a third died of his wounds at a hospital in southern Beirut. Four more were shot dead in South Lebanon. Many more were wounded. No one knows who did the shooting.
One of those killed was Ahmed Hamza, an official with the Shiite Amal group. Amal, led by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, is Shiite, and is aligned with the Opposition, but sometimes disagrees with Hezbollah. It said a sniper fatally shot Mr. Hamza while he was trying to help the army resolve the protests. The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation said the sniper was not a member of the Lebanese army. Five other people died of gunshot wounds at hospitals in southern Beirut.
The sniper -- or snipers -- worked for Israel, or the USA, or the March 14th Alliance, and sought to inflame the disturbances. Also a hand grenade was thrown in the Christian suburb of Ein Roummaneh, wounding four people. All of these are false flag operations to hopefully spark a civil war so the USA and / or Israel will have an excuse to intervene. Another goal is to force Hezbollah to become violent. This is necessary because Israel, the USA, and Canada are the only nations whose governments consider Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization. Israel wants the EU to declare Hezbollah “terrorists.”
Hezbollah refuses to fall for these games. They know that confusion sets in when darkness falls, so when the sun went down, Hezbollah activists got into vehicles with loudspeakers and cruised the streets, calling on rioters to disperse and go home.
Today’s unrest erupted near the former demarcation line between Christian and Muslim areas during the civil war, and near a district where the first spark of that 15-year conflict was ignited.
Later in the day, hundreds of Opposition supporters blocked the road leading to Beirut’s airport, causing a major trasffic jam. Troops later removed the tires from the Mar Elias thoroughfare, and prevented vehicles from getting close to the area for fear of further shooting.
When night fell, dozens of protesters gathered again in Mar Mikhael and set tires on fire as troops watched from a distance. At about 6:30 p.m., scores of Opposition supporters briefly blocked a coastal road between the southern cities of Tyre and Sidon to protest the shooting of Hamza. In the eastern Bekaa Valley, Opposition supporters bocked several roads. Both areas are predominantly Shiite.
Tension in Lebanon increases all the time. There are bombings, strikes, and protests. People leave their cars at home and walk to work. Cars are torched.
THE ARMY
The problem for Israel and the USA is that the March 14th Alliance has not managed to control the army. This is why tension has continued so long. The army tries to remain neutral. Therefore affluent Lebanese who support the March 14th Alliance say the army collaborates with Shiites. The army quickly opens all roads that have been blocked, but affluent Lebanese say the army should provide total protection on all roads, even if it means martial law. However martial law would trigger another civil war, which the army does not want.
TWO COUNTRIES
Lebanon seems to be two countries. One Lebanon consists of affluent urbanites that just want to go to their jobs, their nightclubs, their ski resorts, and their shopping boutiques without interruption. They think like Americans, and they get their information from newspapers that favor the March 14 Alliance. They blame the Opposition for all problems, including Israeli attacks on Lebanon. They say there is no “Opposition”; there is only a Hezbollah-Amal jihad that controls all of Lebanon, with the army as collaborators. And since they believe the zio-media, they say Iran and Syria control the jihad and the army. (“Iranian Hezbollah is the black death in human form. The black hand of Persia is trying to squeeze the will to live free from Lebanon.”) They say Hezbollah is a gang of crazed thugs that roam the streets, terrorizing everyone. They say that when demonstrators set up a roadblock, it is a “coup d’etat.” They hate Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, because Hezbollah favors Chavez. They want Hezbollah crushed.
The other Lebanon consists of everyone else.
To some extent this is an ethnic struggle. The Shiites want equality. Sunnis and Christians don’t want to give it to them (although less affluent Sunnis and Christians support the Opposition.) The Palestinians just try to survive. The Druze take care of themselves, but tend to be pro-March 14 and pro-Israel. That's why the Israelis allow the Druze to occupy the Golan Heights, which Jews seized from Syria during Israel’s 1967 war of aggression."
