Hizbullah leader welcomes troops sent to muzzle protesters
Lebanon, Military, 8/14/1997

Four hundred soldiers were deployed outside Baalbek and Hermel on August 13 in line with a cabinet decision last week to crack down on civil disobedience.

The soldiers arrived in the army barracks in Riyaq on August 12. A military police unit was sent to Baalbek at 10 a.m., but the unit bypassed the town to halt at the village of Qaa, 10 km southeast of Hermel and 5 km west of the Syrian border.

At 10:45 a.m., troops from the third rapid deployment battalion arrived in armored cars at the southern outskirts of Baalbek and patrolled the area before returning to Riyaq. Three hundred policemen, who are expected to execute around 1,000 arrest warrants, remained in the barracks.

Former Hizbullah secretary general Sheikh Sobhi Toufeili, whose call on residents of the Bekaa not to pay taxes triggered the crackdown, welcomed the deployment but insisted his "hunger revolution" would go on. "The Lebanese army today is different from the Lebanese army during the civil war and its policies are different from those of the government," Toufeili said.

"We welcome the troops in light of current tension with the Zionist enemy and fears of an Israeli escalation," he added, warning of a possible commando operation in the Bekaa similar to the one which claimed the lives of five Hizbullah fighters in the south last Thursday.

"The army's presence is important for our people because it makes them feel secure," Toufeili said. "That's how we perceive the army's deployment, and any other explanation for the move makes it abnormal and unhealthy."

Toufeili, who held a rally in Baalbek last month, attacked a ministerial meeting on Monday which gave the green light to a series of development projects as part of a government drive to alleviate rural poverty. "When we feel that they are dealing with the problem seriously, the problem will be solved. Words are useless," he said.

Asked about orders by the judiciary to prosecute alleged instigators of civil disobedience, Toufeili said: "We do not think or care about this thing. When we decided to defend the people's rights in the face of usurpers and thieves, we did not pay attention to any move the thieves would make."

He also accused the government of "claiming to crack down on outlaws every time it targets people voicing genuine grievances."

Toufeili has announced that his "hunger revolution" will be placed on hold until September 13, allowing the government a month to address the plight of the poor in Bekaa.

Interior Minister Michel Murr brushed aside reports that the security forces stationed in the Bekaa had arranged their deployment with Toufeili.

"Troops and policemen deploying in the Bekaa are executing orders given to them by the cabinet, and it is not their duty to contact anyone," he said in the Government House in Beirut.

Previous Stories:
  Hizbullah leaders escalate crisis in Lebanon   (8/12/1997)
  State accused of scare tactics   (7/29/1997)

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