Military rule in part of Lebanon

The cabinet will declare the Bekaa a military zone today, after consultation with Damascus. All police and security forces will be put under the command of army chief General Emile Lahoud, who will have a free hand to crush the revolt of breakaway Sheikh Sobhi Toufeili.

Prime minister Rafik Hariri had met yesterday with the Syrian president Hafez Assad in Damascus to discuss the latest local and regional developments. Hariri also met with the Syrian vice-president Abdel-Halim Khaddam, as he arrived to Damascus in the morning. Their discussions centered around the situation in the area, the Arab situation and the relationship between the two countries.

Hariri highlighted, after the meetings, the importance and the continuity of the coordination and the consultations between the two countries. The prime minister returned to Beirut in the evening after a meeting with president Elias Hrawi in Baabda.

Toufeili, a former secretary-general of the Hizbullah guerrilla group, had recently issued a call to his followers to bar government ministers from gaining access to the Hermel-Bekaa area. That call came after October 26 demonstrations in Hermel, in which citizens from 75 villages blocked the streets with rocks, cars, agricultural bulldozers and burning tires.

In addition to the rallies, Toufeili had called in July for civil disobedience, such as withholding taxes and utility payments, to force the government to improve economic conditions for its citizens. Lebanon's Bekaa Valley is among the poorest regions in the country.