Who would want to kill Samir Geagea?

Dr. Samir Geagea is a man with a colorful past. Let’s leave it at that. Any more info on the man can be found on his Wikipedia page (a rather glowing biography).

The Lebanese Christian leader has been taking it easy in recent years, sticking to a narrative he espoused during the civil war and backed up with military action during the 1980s. Given the goings on in Syria, and given Lebanon’s (or at least this government’s) relationship with Damascus, Geagea has been striking a chord of anti-Assad opprobrium that has gone down predictably well with partisans and even generated some unexpected bonhomie with champions of wildly different ideologies who happen to have found, in Geagea, a mutual Bashar basher.

Twitter reacts to fall of the government

Not to many people’s surprise, 11 ministers left cabinet today, toppling Saad Hariri’s fragile and – let’s face it, ultimately useless – national unity government.

The fall had been coming following the failure of Saudi-Syrian initiatives aimed at reaching a compromise over forthcoming STL indictments and “false witnesses” collapsed late on Monday.

As usual, Twitter had some interesting (and rather flippant) things to say about Lebanon’s latest bloodless coup.

Here are some of my favourite tweets with the #Lebanon hashtag (not to say that I agree or endorse any of these views):

@arzleb: Who cares? Nothing changed and nothing will change only one thing is sure in Lebanon is that the Lebanese are always screwed! #fail #Lebanon

@LebaneseVoices: government or no government, we still have no proper internet #Lebanon

@elmassari: BEIRUT: Politics fiasco is further evidence of Lebanon’s inability to overcome its internal divisions, now centred on the tribunal! #LEBANON

@jonathanshainin: Poor Lebanon, so far from God and so close to Syria, Saudi, Israel, Egypt, Iran and the United States.

@agrahamwilcox: initially I read the Lebanon headlines as Lebron and was just confuuuused. RT @nprnews Lebanon‘s Government Falls As Hezbollah Pulls Out

@tomgara: How screwed you would be if your country’s best hope for peace was being negotiated by the Saudi and Syrian governments

@Lebanesevoices: government or no government, Lebanese people will still vote for new MPs based on affliation/alignments & sects #lebanon #fail

 

Documentary delay raises more than eyebrows

If, like me, you take more than a passing interest in the security situation in Beirut, you might have set aside some time this evening. For that’s when BBC World documentary series, “Murder in Beirut”, was due to be screened. It was going to deliver shocking truths regarding Hariri’s assassination.

More than that, though, it was going to tell us what a lot here already know – or think they know: Hizbullah killed the premier. At least it was, if we believe Al-Akhbar’s front page on Monday. The decision to shelve the production, given Lebanon is currently at any time 60 seconds from disaster, has raised eyebrows along with anticipation to see the finished product.

“Murder in Beirut” was officially withheld in order for the World News channel to ensure it complied with their stringent editorial standards; a spokesperson for the BBC told me the film would definitely be shown, just, you know, not yet. But as Sharif Nashashibi of Arab Media Watch pointed out, why did it take producers and BBC executives until six days before broadcast to realise there may have been some discrepancies? One’s thoughts can’t help but drift towards comments made by Hizbullah and their Christian political allies the FPM, in recent days, warning of all-out carnage if Hizbullah is implicated in the 2005 bombing.

Will the STL stay the course?

Politicians do it, former generals love to do it. Now even patients at a Beirut gynaecology center are doing it: attacking the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).

The incident today at a clinic in south Beirut – wire copy won’t print those two words without first saying ”the Hizbullah stronghold of” – demonstrates one of the first incidents of popular uprising against STL investigators, even if several occurences and threats of attacks prompted former investigation heads to seek refuge in the quieter climbs of Mount Lebanon. 

The beleaguered court has been beset with a string of high-profile resignations and accusations of politicization since its inception and popular support for the probe into the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is it an all-time low ebb.

Has UNIFIL finally outstayed its welcome?

Blame for the second attack on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in less than a week could be placed on three sets of shoulders.

Firstly, UNIFIL itself. The force, which has been a mainstay in Lebanon for more than 30 years, is generally well-liked in the south. In the civil war, local sheikhs took to learning Norwegian in order to better accommodate UNIFIL’s then commanders; several shopkeepers now converse with troops in Fijian or Indonesian.

But UNIFIL’s time in south Lebanon has not been all happy, drawing ire from partisans of the resistance for what they see as the force’s unwillingness to counter continuous Israel belligerence.

Seven months, seven photos

Today I am marking, as well as the end of an eventful 2009, seven months in Beirut. I have reported on many interesting and important issues, from Hashish clearing in the Bekaa Valley to interviewing trauma surgeons in Haifa Hospital, Burj al-Barajneh.

Here are seven photos, chosen more or less randomly, from those seven months. I hope for many more in Lebanon. Enjoy!

A boy receiving treatment in Haifa Hospital, Burj al-Barajneh, July

A mural of Jesus in St George's Cathedral, Downtown Beirut, August

UNIFIL mine-clearer, Tibnin, August

Women on a shopping trip, Downtown Beirut, September

The telepherique at Harissa, Jounieh Highway, October

A boy takes part in Ashurah, Nabatiyeh, December

A boy prepares for bloodletting, Nabatiyeh, December

Ali the one-legged mineclearer

Ali sits outside MAG's Kfar Zor headquarters. I have no idea who the man in the shades is

Ali Murad smiles serenely as he tells me about the day he lost his leg.

He is dressed smart, in a pristine, grey t-shirt and khaki combat trousers and speaks in broken English with measured understatement.

“I was conscious when I went to the hospital, believe me, I remember everything,” he says and shuffles awkwardly onto his prosthetic leg.

Ali was part of Lebanon’s Mine Action Group, a team of some 400 trained mine clearers who have been working to rid the country from its estimated one million cluster bombs – relics from the 2006 war with Israel that still carpet much of south Lebanon – on a fateful February morning. His squadron had been working on a plot of land, known to be “heavily contaminated” all morning and had stopped for a break. These were the last moments of Ali’s first life.