Army ambush shines spotlight on Lebanon”s “Wild West”
The ambush in which four soldiers were killed has put the spotlight on Lebanon”s "Wild West" where drug barons armed to the teeth fill the void left by the state.
"Lebanon is one of the few countries where drug traffickers control an arsenal which is almost as big as that of the security forces," Colonel Adel Mashmushi, the anti-drugs enforcement chief, told AFP.
"They have shells, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and mortars."
In the Bekaa Valley region of western Lebanon where trafficking flourished during Lebanon”s 1975-1990 civil war, powerful clans protect about 100 drug barons who are fugitives from Lebanese justice.
The military has launched a crackdown and made some 100 arrests following an ambush on an army vehicle on Monday in which four soldiers were killed.
The attack was apparently in revenge for the death of Ali Abbas Jaafar, a drug baron killed by the military last month after refusing to stop at a checkpoint. Jaafar was wanted on as many as 172 charges.
Members of his family are suspected of being behind the ambush in which the soldiers” vehicle was raked with bullets and blasted with a grenade.
"Drug trafficking is widespread, especially among the clans because their culture allows them to protect each other," explained sociology professor Fuad Khalil, author of a book on how the tribes substitute the central government.
"These clans, for whom carrying arms is part of their tradition, are stronger than the state," added anthropology professor Massud Yunes of Beirut”s Saint Joseph University.
"Their power derives from the fragility of Lebanon”s social and political system which puts the emphasis on confessional, feudal and tribal affiliation at the expense of loyalty to the state," he added.
Soldiers, police and their families have all been targets of threats or even murdered in retribution for actions targeting the drug gangs.
However, anti-drugs chief Colonel Mashmushi said Monday”s ambush in the notorious Bekaa was "the most daring ever committed by traffickers against a symbol of the Lebanese state."
The Bekaa, a mainly Shiite Muslim area, for long has been reputed as a fertile ground for drugs and a bastion of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by Washington.
During the civil war, the drug trade thrived into a multi-billion dollar business, with Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon until its troops were forced to pull out in 2005, said to be actively involved.
The Syrian-backed Hezbollah (Party of God, in Arabic) this week renewed a pledge not to provide cover for fugitives in the Bekaa.
Following the war, drug cultivation collapsed amid US pressure to wipe out production but it has shot up again over the past three years of political instability in Lebanon.
And "due to the political crisis which broke out in 2006, guns have been proliferating in the region," said Mashmushi.
The Bekaa is rife with a host of other social challenges such as poverty, illiteracy, and a dearth of infrastructure and investment by the central authorities in Beirut.
"Clan violence is to be condemned totally. But the Bekaa, like other regions of Lebanon, has been neglected by the state for the past 60 years. Some people have been trying to “make do” through their own means," said Khalil.
"The big dealers are role models for the local youth, who are tempted by the easy money," Mashmushi chipped in. "They often fire at us when hashish plants are being destroyed. They feel we are destroying their livelihood."
From 2006 to 2008, the political and security situation has not been conducive to such campaigns. "But this year we are going to redouble our efforts," said the officer.
He said the Bekaa had alternative resources and sources of revenue such as the Roman temple in Baalbek, which is a potential big tourist draw, and fertile agricultural lands.
In 2008, Adel said some 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of land were cultivated in the Bekaa with cannabis and poppies, the source for opium before it is converted into heroin.