Syria's continued occupation of Lebanon
Jamie Phife | 29.05.2003 13:06
Syria has engaged in an illegal military occupation, not for self-defense purposes but for aggressive purposes, since 1975
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon began in 1975, under the guise of a Syrian armed intervention to quell a PLO-instigated Lebanese civil war, but it extended and deepened long after the PLO was driven out of Lebanon by Israel and free Lebanese forces between 1982 and 1985. On October 13, 1990, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon was completed when Syrian soldiers took over the Lebanese presidential palace at Baabda. "Since that fateful day, Lebanon has been run as a fully owned subsidiary of the Syrian regime," explains Muhammad Mugraby, an international lawyer and human rights advocate from Beirut. It is widely recognized that every government decision, every military initiative, every diplomatic move and every economic plan made by the Lebanese government is subject to Syrian veto - when it is not at Syrian behest to begin with. To this day, report Lebanese exiles living in the West, Christian Lebanese suffer intimidation, imprisonment and widespread discrimination by the Syrian puppet regime.
Syria has completely taken over Lebanon. It uses Lebanese territory to maintain its terrorist proxy army, the Hizbullah; it uses Lebanon for drug trafficking; it drains the resources of Lebanon for its own sake; it has installed a government to do its bidding; and it uses police state tactics to crush opposition. Yet, for all this, there are but three United Nations resolutions that can be construed to call for an end to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
Why are there no Road Maps for ending the Syrian occupation of Lebanon?
Syria has completely taken over Lebanon. It uses Lebanese territory to maintain its terrorist proxy army, the Hizbullah; it uses Lebanon for drug trafficking; it drains the resources of Lebanon for its own sake; it has installed a government to do its bidding; and it uses police state tactics to crush opposition. Yet, for all this, there are but three United Nations resolutions that can be construed to call for an end to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
Why are there no Road Maps for ending the Syrian occupation of Lebanon?
Jamie Phife
Comments
Display the following 19 comments