Country Advice Lebanon Lebanon – LBN37789 – Lebanese Forces political party – Confessional system 1 December 2010 1. Please send some general information on the Lebanese Forces political party, including who were their leaders and/or important milestones since 1994. Please include any information you feel may be useful. Background The Lebanese Forces political party formed as a mainly Maronite Christian military coalition during the civil war between Christian, Muslim and Druze militias between 1975 and 1990. The Lebanese Forces was one of the strongest parties to the conflict, during which time it controlled mainly-Christian East Beirut and areas north of the capital. In 1982, during the civil war, a key figure in the Lebanese Forces, Bashir Gemayel, who was the then President of Lebanon, was killed. The Lebanese Forces was regularly accused of politically-motivated killings and arrests and other serious human rights abuses before the war ended in 1990, although other factions in the conflict were accused of similar abuses. The Phalangists, the largest militia in the Lebanese Forces, massacred hundreds of civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982. The anti-Syrian Lebanese Forces was banned in 1994, but remained influential among the 800,000-strong Maronite Christian community that dominated Lebanon before the war.1 While the Lebanese Forces has perpetrated human rights abuses, a 2004 Amnesty International report stated that “Samir Gea'gea and Jirjis al-Khouri, like scores of other LF members, may have been victims of human rights violations committed in a climate of political repression and intimidation”.2 Since the Ta‟if Accord of 1989 the Lebanese Forces has dismantled its militia and one strand of the group became a political party with a significant opposition to Syrian power in Lebanon and a Lebanese nationalist stance.3 The banning of the Lebanese Forces was lifted in 2005 and it has become a legitimate part of the Lebanese electoral landscape, holding eight seats in the national Parliament and being part of the governing March 14 Alliance, it also holds seats in municipal governments. In the current alliance in 1 The US Citizenship and Immigration Services, INS Resource Information Center, Resources Information Centre 2002, Lebanon: Information on Lebanese Forces Militia, LBN03002.NYC, 6 November http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=829c53bc46 d8d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=d2d1e89390b5d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD – Accessed 26 November 2010 – Attachment 1. 2 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Lebanon: Update to LBN39595.E of 18 July 2002 on the treatment of members and supporters of the Lebanese Forces (LF) by the Lebanese and Syrian authorities and by the Hezbollah (19 July 2002-February 2005) , 8 March 2005, LBN43422.FE – Accessed 26 November 2010 – Attachment 2. 3 „Introduction‟ 2009, The Lebanese Forces Official Website website, 14 November http://www.lebanese-forces.org/lfintroduction/index.shtml Accessed 25 November 2010 – Attachment 3. Page 1 of 11 government it is in coalition with groups who may be pro-Syrian. The Lebanese Forces official website also states that it has a strong influence in educational organisations and unions, enjoying: a strong presence and a wide area of influence on the educational level within student organizations in universities and schools and also within many labor unions representing doctors, lawyers and engineers to mention a few.4 The principles of the Lebanese Forces, outlined on its website, are said to have formed in 1986: on the march of rebuilding, reform and modernization... The "Lebanese Forces" became the institution holding a historical political proposition for the Lebanese Christian community aiming at: Ensuring a sovereign, free, and secure Lebanon for all its citizens equally. Establishing a system of government whereas the superstructure (the government) is congruent with the infrastructure (the society) resulting in a fair, true and balanced political participation. Promoting a political system built on three basic principles: diversity, freedom to foster development and democracy representative of the diversity that exists in the Lebanese Society. Halting support to any ideology or movement that works directly or indirectly to joining Lebanon to another country. Adopting a neutral foreign policy to provide for internal security and to allow for freedom to build foreign international relations. The website also presents principles that were espoused in 1989, namely: safeguarding Lebanon‟s independence, sovereignty and distinct identity within its internationally recognized borders; founding the Lebanese Government on the basic principles of human rights; and establishing a democratic system whereas freedom and Human Rights of every citizen are protected and guaranteed. That both sets of principles still appear on the official website suggests that the principles continue to inform the stance of the party. Leaders of the Lebanese Forces have included: Bachir Gemayel (1978-1982), Fadi Frem (1982-1984), Fouad Abou Nader (1984-1985), Elie Hobeika (1985-1986) and Samir Geagea (1986- ). The Lebanese Forces have representatives in the national government and in several municipal governments. Of the aforementioned leaders, the Lebanese Forces official website identifies its major leaders as Bachir Gemayel and Samir Geagea.5 There is a clear geographic separation of Christian and Muslim communities in Lebanon and the Lebanese Forces political party is associated with the areas where the Christian community is found. A February 2007 report from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada cited an academic at Balmand University in Lebanon who stated that the geographical separation of Christians and Muslims in Lebanon was “clear-cut, and that the majority of Christians in Lebanon live in areas where there are very few Muslims”. The professor specified that “the area from East Beirut up the coast to the southern suburbs of Tripoli, and from the coast to the Mount Lebanon range between these areas, as almost 4 „Introduction‟ 2009, The Lebanese Forces Official Website website, 14 November http://www.lebanese-forces.org/lfintroduction/index.shtml Accessed 25 November 2010 – Attachment 3. 5 Introduction‟ 2009, The Lebanese Forces Official Website website, 14 November http://www.lebanese-forces.org/lfintroduction/index.shtml Accessed 25 November 2010 – Attachment 3. Page 2 of 11 exclusively Christian areas”.6 The Christian area of Lebanon includes the Al Koura, Becharre district. Becharra and Koura are noted as centres historically associated with Maronite and Orthodox Christianity. The attached map shows the distribution of religious groupings over Lebanon.7 During the 2009 national election, the Christian Maronite electorates in the north of Lebanon were divided between several parties, of which the Lebanese Forces was one. The other parties were the Free Patriotic Movement, El Marada and Kataeb. During the election is was unclear whether the Christian Maronite electorate would repeat its 2005 choice of following Michel Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement (a member of the March 8 alliance) or support the March 14 Alliance Christian parties (mainly Kateab and Lebanese Forces). The Lebanese Forces and Kataeb claimed that Aoun‟s popularity had decreased as a result of an agreement with Hezbollah. Although the precise breakdown is contested, the Christian Maronites voted primarily for the Christian parties in the March 14 Alliance.8 The Lebanese Forces official website states that in 1990 when it changed from a resistance militia to a political resistance, it had 30,000 members, not including their families.9 No more recent information on formal membership could be located. The religious demographic of the country is changing and this has an effect on electoral politics. Until recently the proportion of the Lebanese population that was Christian was about 39%; today it is around 34% while the Muslim population has grown.10 Under the Lebanese electoral system electoral representation is confessional; that is, representation is related to the proportion of the population of the various religions: Muslim, Christian, Druze. The position of President of Lebanon is reserved for a Christian. The Lebanese confessional electoral system currently ties confession to particular seats and districts. Candidates must be of the same confession as the seat and district and voters register in their place of origin (married women are registered in the same place as their husbands). The seats within each constituency are allocated according to a majority system. Each voter is entitled to vote for a number of candidates that equals the number of seats allocated to every district, based on its confessional distribution.11 The agreements that underpin the confessional political system in Lebanon specify the 18 confessional groups to be represented; the Lebanese Forces is one of these. 6 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2007, Lebanon: Treatment of Christians, particularly Maronites; the availability of state protection (2006), 19 February LBN102320.E - Accessed 29 November 2010 – Attachment 4. 7 „Lebanon Support (June 2008), Mapping of Vulnerabilities in Lebanon (SE-1) (Deprivation Indicators, 1996)‟ 2008, Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection, The University of Texas at Austin - http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Sa.nsf/luFullMap/00BD785A71C24C8885257474007067B1/$File/ls_SE C_lbn080626.pdf - Accessed