Hezbollah’s crackdown on protesters raises fears of Sunni-Shia strife

BEIRUT–What happened this past Saturday in Lebanon was considered by many Lebanese political sources a harbinger of extremely dangerous developments to come in a country that is already suffering from a real economic meltdown that the government hasn’t so far been able to stop, even though this government has been in place for one hundred days now.

These sources pointed out that on that day Hezbollah scored a great victory, but at the same time showed weaknesses that led it straight into a direct confrontation with the Sunni community of Lebanon, a community that is equal to, if not slightly larger than, the Shia community.

Despite a return to calm on Sunday in most regions, the spectre of a Shia-Sunni strife was still in the air, the sources said.

Lebanese politicians who talked to The Arab Weekly agreed that Hezbollah has succeeded in practically suppressing the popular revolt that began on October 7 of last year. Protesters began by denouncing corruption then ended up aiming their arrows at Hezbollah’s weapons and armed militias.

The politicians noted that Hezbollah, led by Hassan Nasrallah, and Amal Movement, led by Speaker Nabih Berri, had ordered their followers to take over the streets in Lebanon, which they did and then some, leading to provocations to the sensitivities of other Lebanese.

In fact, Hezbollah and Amal militants violently assaulted the demonstrators belonging to the “October 17 Revolution”, using sticks and sharp objects, at the Martyrs’ Square in central Beirut, they also chanted “Shia, Shia, Shia” and “Labbayka Ya Hussein” (the rallying cry of Shia fighters).

The demonstrators later responded by chanting slogans attacking Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, tore up his pictures and trampled them. Nabih Berri and his wife too were not spared the demonstrators’ anger.

Before the beginning of the demonstrations in Martyrs’ Square on Saturday afternoon, some called for disarming Hezbollah’s militias. The party’s response came in the form of open threats of violence against the protesters.

According to eyewitness accounts of the events, Hezbollah was prepared and ready to suppress any demonstration in Beirut simply because it was hostile to Hassan Diab’s government that the party considers its own.

Hezbollah militants responded to the slogans hostile to Nasrallah by chanting insulting slogans to Aisha, Prophet Mohamed’s wife, a move that Lebanese politicians found astonishing and out of place.

The insults to Sayyida Aisha did not sit well with the Sunnis. In Beirut, shots were fired in Sunni neighbourhoods with Shia inhabitants. Likewise, Hezbollah and Amal militants attacked Christian neighbourhoods in Ain al-Rummaneh district of Beirut.

Demonstrations and skirmishes with the security forces broke out in front of the Lebanese Parliament in Beirut, which resulted in 48 demonstrators being wounded, according to the Red Cross.

These events were immediately condemned by Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and Dar Al-Fatwa.

Aoun made an emotional plea to stop the strife. “Our strength was and will remain in our national unity … Let what happened on Saturday night be a wake-up call for all,” he said.

“We desperately need to put our political differences aside and hurry to work together to rescue our homeland from the depth of successive crises,” he added.

Speaker Nabih Berri also expressed his strong rejection of the Beirut events, but with a twist. “Every act from any party that targets the unity of the Lebanese, their security, their stability, their common life and their one and unique homeland, and promotes sedition, is an Israeli act,” he said.

Lebanon has not seen sectarian strifes since the civil wars of the period between 1975 and 1990. It maintains a precarious balance between its various sects, most of which have factions which are supported by rival powers in the region.

In further developments, Lebanese politicians were surprised by the fact that Sunni elements, affiliated with Bahaa Al-Hariri, brother of former Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri, came to Beirut from Tripoli and the Bekaa, with violence on their mind.

Witnesses reported that these elements vandalised local businesses in the centre of Beirut on their way to the parliament building.

One politician summarized the situation by saying: “After shots were fired at night in the Sunni neighbourhoods of West Beirut, the confrontation between the components of the system of corruption, that is, the major political parties, and the Lebanese revolutionaries entered a dangerous stage of ill omens.” He blamed the Shia duo, Hezbollah and Amal movement, for this dangerous turn of events and accused them of sending their thugs to put down a peaceful demonstration at Martyrs’ Square.

“They (the thugs) started throwing rocks at the revolutionaries, who had barely succeeded in gathering in the square because of the security checkpoints that were erected on the roads coming from Tripoli and the Bekaa to prevent them from reaching Beirut,” he said.

He revealed that the Shia attack on the demonstrators resulted, in practical terms, in shortening the period of the sit-in in the centre of Beirut, a sit-in that had gathered about ten thousand people.

Likewise, the rush of the Bahaa Hariri group on the parliament building triggered the violent response of the security forces, who proceeded to expel the demonstrators from Martyrs’ Square and chased some of the rioters who had infiltrated the ranks of the demonstrators up to the Karentina area outside Beirut.

The Lebanese army announced on Sunday that 25 soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, during the Saturday night protests.

The army issued a statement saying that its troops “were subjected to a hail of stones and fire crackers thrown by rioters as the army units were carrying out their security tasks.”

The statement warned of the “dire consequences of slipping into sedition acts” and stressed “the necessity of acting responsibly, with awareness and wisdom in order to maintain civil peace and preserve national unity.”

The Lebanese politician concluded by saying: “Still, the night time heavy fire exchanges heard in the areas of Mazraa Corniche, Sakiet Al-Janzeer, Barbour and the New Road constitute a dangerous shift in terms of the popular demand to disarm Hezbollah, which is a difficult process to implement, but one that enormously disturbs Iran’s party in Lebanon.”