Lebanon’s Maronite leader, Nasrallah Sfeir, accused Damascus and its Beirut allies on Wednesday of “signaling the death of Lebanon as an independent state,” issuing a statement that ended the country's short political lull, said the Daily Star.
Sfeir presided over a meeting of the Maronite Bishops Council, timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the "First Appeal" for Syria's exit from Lebanon, which had polarized the nation into pro- and anti-Syrian camps, it said.
But the bishops maintained that last year's appeal encouraged politicians to address an issue that had remained taboo for a quarter-century, "albeit cautiously."
According to the paper, this indicated that the council was after another "political shock," capitalizing on public sympathy following the recent crackdown on anti-Syrian Christian activists.
But the attempt could backfire and push the hardline Christian religious and political hierarchy into another phase of isolation.
The statement, the toughest against Syria since the end of the civil war more than a decade ago, cast doubt over the prospects of salvaging the dialogue that was established last week between President Emile Lahoud and the gathering of leading politicians blessed by the Maronite church, the paper added.
But it also reflected “deep frustration” with the Lahoud administration's perceived inability to accommodate political rivals and sponsor genuine reconciliation, said the paper.
Around 200 anti-Syrian Christian activists were arrested last month in a crackdown that saw several people charged with opening contacts with Israel.
Most were subsequently released, but several prominent activists are still being held.
Since the first appeal, the bishops had toned down their rhetoric, but were given nothing in return, even though Sfeir had received "numerous encouraging signals" from Damascus, a source close to the council told the paper.
The council focused its ire mainly on Syria, but Wednesday's three-page statement spared no one.
"What we recently witnessed is the most striking proof of the degeneration of the institutions: a Parliament which swung from one extreme to another at the wave of a magical wand in the span of 10 days; a Cabinet that appeared to be oblivious to what is happening around it, when it is supposed to be in charge of the country," the statement said, cited by the paper.
It was alluding to amendments to the Criminal Procedures Law, which MPs approved to please Lahoud, and last month's security sweep, mounted without the prior consent of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri or his cabinet.
"Some Cabinet ministers are imposed on the prime minister, who in turn is forced to cooperate with them against his will. The decision is elsewhere, outside Lebanon," it said.
The "non-Lebanese decision makers," it claimed, were determining the winners and losers in the local political game, referring to Syria's support for Lahoud.
The council compared Syrian intervention with other foreign tutelage in Lebanon's history, claiming that even during Ottoman rule the country maintained a measure of autonomy, which at present did not exist.
"Lebanon is vanishing little by little, losing its identity, its peculiarities, its constitutional institutions and even its entity," the statement said.
"There will come a day ... when there will be those who would say: 'We knew a free, sovereign Lebanon.'
"And those who claim they are protecting by keeping it under tutelage will be the cause of its disappearance," it said, referring to those defending Syria's military presence, spearheaded by Lahoud.
According to the paper, noticeably missing from the statement was any reference to the "special" relations with Syria, which the bishops had supported last year.
Instead, the new appeal was for "fraternal relations" that would prevent interference in each other's internal affairs – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
