Snipers, roadblocks stir Lebanon war memories
Source: Reuters
By Tom Perry BEIRUT, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Lebanese hoped they would never again see gunmen firing from Beirut rooftops. But the image returned to haunt the country this week during its worst unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war. Shootings, sectarian attacks and roadblocks have revived civil war memories for Lebanese who fear violence which killed seven and wounded close to 400 this week could mark the start of a conflict with new front lines. Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, whose leaders have been at political odds for months, fought with sticks and stones in the capital on Thursday. Gunmen picked off targets from surrounding buildings. Four were killed. "It made me sick. I had to take medicine," said Rabie Bada, 42, who dashed to collect his children from a school near the scene of Thursday's violence. "I never thought I'd see this day, no matter who had told me, I wouldn't have believed it. "My father said: 'When I was born the country was like this and when I die it will be the same. The same thing will happen to you. My father died two months ago and the country was the same, just as he predicted." Countrywide protests on Tuesday by the opposition, including Shi'ite Muslim groups Hezbollah and Amal and Christian leader Michel Aoun, sparked clashes which killed three. Much of Tuesday's violence was between Christian supporters of civil war rivals Aoun and Samir Geagea -- the leader of the pro-government Lebanese Forces. "SHI'ITE OR SUNNI?" The opposition paralysed the country with roadblocks -- part of its campaign to press demands for a greater say in a government backed by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri. Hariri loyalists followed suit on Thursday, erecting barriers in the Bekaa Valley town of Chtoura and the coastal highway to south Lebanon. "Snipers on buildings and balconies, the splitting of areas between this faction or that, asking about the sectarian allegiance of passers-by -- we are faced with three repeating images," writer and commentator Tawfik Shoman told Reuters. "When Lebanese were fighting between 1975 and 1990, they were trying to find ways to reach civil peace. Now there is civil peace but they are trying to find ways back to war." Young men wielding clubs meted out beatings according to sect in Beirut. Giving the wrong answer to the question: "Shi'ite or Sunni?" was enough to trigger an attack. "Sunnis and Shi'ites have been living together here for years," said Mohammed Hassani as he surveyed a rubble-strewn street where rival gangs clashed on Tuesday. But now "my five-year-old son is talking about Shi'ites and Sunnis". Residents fear their area will become a front line in a new conflict between Sunnis and Shi'ite groups. Bilal Yassin, a 26-year-old Sunni, watched the clash in the Mazraa district from a balcony with a Shi'ite friend. He said it was now safer to live in a district without sectarian diversity. His Shi'ite friend, 20-year-old Mohammed Saad, said sectarian tensions were taking their toll even on those not looking for a fight. "I am a Shi'ite living in a Sunni area. If it stays like this one would have to think about leaving."
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
