The Daily Star

"It should have happened decades ago," Baroud told event organizers during a meeting before going outside to witness the crowd. "It's a step toward creating a real civil society in Lebanon."

The timing of the event was also symbolically chosen to take place the weekend before the 34th anniversary of the 1975-90 Civil War, which was marked on Monday.

According to a ULDY, statement, about 200 people removed their sects from their IDs Saturday in Beirut and several other towns including Aley, Hammana, Jbeil and Saghbeen.

The minister also said he expects citizens who conceal their sect to run for a Parliament seat in future elections as an "experiment" to see how Lebanon's sectarian electoral law would hold up under the circumstances. The current 1960 electoral law only allows citizens of a particular sect to run for Parliament in each district.

"Baroud met with us to show his support and reassure us that our actions are allowed for by the Constitution and are within our rights of freedom of religion and belief," ULDY president Arabi el-Andari said. "Freedom of religion means having the freedom not to believe and not to disclose your religion."

ULDY, a left-wing secular youth group comprised mostly of communists, often holds events across the country to promote issues like civil marriage and a secular state. It is also active in the boycott campaign against Israel and regularly calls for protests outside businesses with ties to the Zionist state.

Not all citizens who met at the ministry Saturday were ULDY members. Many journalists sent to cover the event finished up their interviews and jumped in line alongside others to have their IDs modified.

One middle-aged woman, Fawzie Ali Sharife, brought her young child who stood on the sidewalk holding a sign that read: "My sect is meaningless. My country is my only concern."

Sharife, like many others present at the ministry Saturday, said she remained faithful to her religion but believed the government had no right to identify its citizens by their sects.

"What's between God and myself should remain between us and not have to go through the state," she said. "As a Muslim, I believe in all human beings as equal, just like the communists that are here believe we are all equal. Anyone who disagrees with that is not human."

النظام الطائفي في لبنان هو من أهم وأقدم الأزمات التي يعاني منها البلد، منذ إنشائه حتى الآن. وقد برهن هذا النظام أنه آلية رثة ومتخلّفة ليس باستطاعتها إدارة شؤون البلد وشؤون مواطنيه. وقد تم إنتاج هذا النظام الطائفي في لبنان، منذ البدء، كنظام لإدارة الأزمات وليس لحلها، إذ انه يعتمد على إنشاء توازن رعب بين الطوائف. والخطير في هذا التوازن أنه ليس توازناً سياسياً، بل موازنة ما بين سجون اجتماعية وسياسية واقتصادية، تصادر حرياتنا كأفراد بشتى الطرق.

تستأثر الطوائف اليوم من خلال الطائفية السياسية بقرارنا السياسي، كما تتحكم بمصيرنا الاقتصادي من خلال التوزيع الطائفي للوظائف الرسمية وخضوع عملية الإنماء للابتزاز الطائفي وسمسرة من يحمل راية "حقوق الطائفة" في كل ما يتعلق بالإنفاق الحكومي. ومن جهة أخرى تتحكم الطوائف بحياتنا الاجتماعية اليومية لما تملكه من تفويض يخولها البت والتشريع في مختلف جوانب الأحوال الشخصية للأفراد.

ومن أخطر الأزمات التي أنتجها هذا النظام هي الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية التي دامت 17 عاماً وراح ضحيتها مئات الآلاف بين قتلى وجرحى ومهجرين. ولم تقف كوارث هذا النظام على هذا الحد، بل تلت الحرب الأهلية أزمات سياسية حادة كادت تودي بالبلد إلى حرب طائفية دموية جديدة. أزمة تلو الأزمة، يثبت لنا أن هذا النظام يشكل أحد أشد الأخطار التي تواجهنا وأن سلطة الطوائف على حياتنا هي إحدى أبرز المعوقات أمام تطورنا وتقدمنا. يوم بعد يوم يظهر لنا جلياً ضرورة تحطيم هذا النظام والانتفاض على سلطة الطوائف التي تكبلنا.

اليوم، وقد اقترب تاريخ 13 نيسان ذكرى الحرب الأهلية، بات لنا خيار أن نبايع هذا النظام الرث من جديد ونبقى رهائن لدى أمراء الحرب، أو أن نعلن رفضنا له ولكل الكوارث التي أنتجها من خلال شطبنا لخانة الطائفة من سجلات نفوسنا. إن هذا الإجراء يشكل خطوة ملموسة على طريق تخطي هذا النظام المتخلف. فكلما ازداد عدد الذين يرفضون التصريح عن انتمائهم الطائفي كلما فقد هذا النظام مشروعيته أكثر وأكثر. وبقدر ما يكثر عدد الشاطبين لخانة الطائفة من سجلات نفوسهم، بقدر ما يزداد الضغط على هذا النظام وعلى سلطة الطوائف على حياتنا.

ولإيماننا بأن هذه الخطوة ضرورية جداً في عملية تخطي النظام الطائفي، ندعوكم للمشاركة معنا في تقديم جماعي لطلبات شطب خانة الطائفة من سجلات نفوسنا، رفضاً منا للعيش تحت حكم هذا النظام المتخلف وإعلانا عن رفضنا لأن نكون ضحايا حرب طائفية جديدة،

وذلك نهار السبت 11 نيسان 2009، الساعة 11 صباحاً، أمام المديرية العامة للأحوال الشخصية في بيروت ، شارع الحمرا مقابل المصرف المركزي.

يمكنكم الحصول على طلبات شطب خانة الطائفة من سجلات النفوس والاستعلام عن الإجراءات اللازمة لإتمام هذه الخطوة في مكتب التجمع اليساري من أجل التغيير، في الصنائع، شارع سبيرز، مبنى "زيكو هاوس"، طيلة أيام الأسبوع، من الساعة الرابعة وحتى الساعة الثامنة مساءاً، وذلك حتى 24 نيسان 2009. كما يمكنكم الحصول على الطلب عبر الانترنت على موقع التجمع اليساري من أجل التغيير

www.tymat.org.

بيروت في 10 نيسان 2009

In the early 90’s, when the Lebanese civil war, seen by some as the war of others, was “officially” over, its clan chiefs and warlords were crowned as our care takers, becoming, by God’s will, the guardians of peace. During that period, conciliation from above was made. “What is past is past,” they said. The conciliation translated into impunity for those responsible for the war’s crimes and atrocities. The result: 17 thousand kidnapped –their fate still unknown, 300 thousand wounded and handicapped and a million displaced without proper compensation.

This is then how the war started and ended like nothing has ever happened. An amnesty law was issued on the 26^th of August 1991. Those who had committed crimes during the civil war up until the 28^th of March 1991were granted amnesty. Some were even granted the highest-ranking government positions in the “new” republic.

The General amnesty and evading accountability

The 15 year war was characterized by a rare level of brutality and genocidal massacres and other criminal activities. Lawyer Kamal Dagher says that the amnesty law was issued not only to erase all that but to resurrect its symbols. it also “permitted moving war leaders from barricades and check points to the highest places of the present state, something that was done over hundreds of mass graves and the bodies of more than 150 thousand killed and hundreds of thousand wounded and handicapped, not to mention big scandals including the disposal of hundreds of tons of poisonous wastes all over the Lebanese land, from sea to high mountains. The country witnessed as well the abuse of public money and vandalizing of property and the spread of a corrupt authority rarely seen elsewhere”.

It should be noted that 17 years after the end of that war, thousands of families are still asking about their sons, brothers, mothers and fathers who have disappeared. They know nothing about their fate: if they died, they don’t know who is responsible and where they are buried, or under what conditions.

Dagher wonders: “if the general amnesty means oblivion and forgiveness, then who could forget, and who has the right to forgive? And which civil peace can be built on oblivion and forgiveness that ignores the need to confront the truth, even a small part of it, and guarantee a minimum level of justice?”

In this regard, Amnesty International affirms that on one side, the amnesty law “guarantees to the human rights violators the evasion from punishment and on the other side prevents the exposure of the truth.” The organization adds: “Lebanon won’t know real and sustainable peace, and Human Rights won’t be protected unless the country faces his past through procedures allowing the investigation in the war period and showing the truth regarding Human Rights’ abuses that were committed in the context of the conflict the country witnessed”.

Thus, a general amnesty that isn’t accompanied by accountability and recognition of past mistakes, represents a law which preserves the ugly image of the war, thereby increasing the chance of its renewal, as long as the country and state are rebuilt, once again, by the same old leadership entrenched by the Taef agreement. These leaders are ready and set, at any time, to play the same blood shedding role that they once played. And today they continue to mobilize people on the basis of sects and confessions, accompanied by the rearming of some of them. And that is how, says Kamil Dagher, “we find ourselves in a vicious circle: the sectarian structure of the country and the absence of accountability produce civil wars, in which war crimes are committed, as well as Human rights abuses. Afterwards, pause periods occur through general amnesty laws, thus accountability is absent and collective evasion from punishment will occur. This is a reality that keeps the fire under the ashes, hence storms will eventually clear out the ash and the fire will be ignited once again.”

Bassem Chit, one of the activists in the “People’s Court” a campaign that was launched in April 14, 2007 and called for the abrogation of the amnesty law, says: “we cannot go forth unless accountability for the mistakes and crimes of the past is conducted. He who killed his people in wartime cannot be entrusted to build peace. He who kidnapped and tortured on the basis of sectarian and racist divisions cannot and should not be entrusted to build civil peace.”

In the 19^th anniversary of the cease fire, the war hasn’t ended yet. The war is still ongoing in various forms and all of us have a role to end it. Young men and women with no horizon for better future, students and workers along the production lines, we all have to move our country from the present situation towards fully transcending the sectarian structure. Then, another society can be built, a transparent one, based on continuous accountability, where no one can escape from retribution or reconciliation. Together, we should stand against this political class that decided to step over every essential notion in the experience we lived in war and peace and gave us a pseudo country, a pseudo dream, a suspicious present, a suspect future, all wrapped with an amnesiac memory and at the bottom a gapped memory! Only then…we can safely and confidently say “Never Again”!

by Farfahinne

“Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile - SOLIDE”

Committee of the Families of the Lebanese Detainees in Syria

Invite you to a

Press Conference and a Rally of Support

12:00 PM on Saturday 11 April 2009

At Gebran Khalil Gebran Garden, Riyad Al-Solh Square

In front of the U.N. House in Beirut (ESCWA)

SOLIDE – Mailing Address: P.O. Box 16-6640, Beirut – Lebanon

E-mail: info@solide- lb.org

The Leftist Assembly for Change invites you for a public talk over the Civil War and its consequences on our reality and future...
with Fawaz Traboulsi and Kamil Dagher.
Tuesday April 14- 2009 at Zico House, Sanayeh- Beirut.
at 18:30.

finally we can remove our sect from our identity card and from the family records...