We take a look at what life is like in South Lebanon and how the economic crisis in the rest of the country is making the area a barely contained 'powder keg' for Irish troops.
AN HOUR SOUTH Of Beirut the Coastal Highway has a slip road, just south of the Litani River, at a location near the Borej el Hawa food stop.
If you were not paying attention along the way it would feel like the drive from an airport on the east coast of Spain – the arid heat bleached topography is very similar to Valencia and Alicante. From the off-ramp at the services and fruit stalls it is around 50 minutes along winding mountain roads, through busy towns and villages towards the Irish Base, Camp Shamrock, near At Tiri.
While Beirut is chaotic in its energy, the towns in South Lebanon are tense and sinister. The vast majority of the mostly Shia or Shiite Muslim or Greek Christian population go about their day as normal but there are plenty of young men of military age in small groups looking intently on. Alamy Stock Photo A poster depicting Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen in Marwahin, southern Lebanon - in front of a UN post. Alamy Stock PhotoRecent elections saw the rise of independents as people disillusioned by the political system sought change, with a move away from the Hezbollah leaders of old.
The Journal found on its visit in May and June that while the political stasis is ongoing the economy has collapsed with black marketeers running an underworld currency enterprise that visitors use to change US dollars for giant wads of inflation-swollen local currency. Beyond the chaos of political life in Beirut there are places in the country, like the Beqaa Valley or South Lebanon where power is held locally by the mostly Shia Hezbollah and other disparate groups. That is different from the national elected parliament given that HZB lost power and seats in the election.
The south has always been a base for them – to all intents and purposes South Lebanon sees itself as the rebel heartland, a place that resisted Israel more than elsewhere. The local community leader, Mukhtar Abdo Haddad, has regular meetings with Irish officers at the local church and cultural centre which were built with Irish donations.
Sources have said that there was a largescale bloodletting from the region as young Hezbollah fighters travelled the short few kilometres to Syria to fight in that conflict – they are returning, security sources said, with a new more feverous idea on the way forward. After agreement from both sides, since 2007, UNIFIL has installed 272 visual markers or “blue barrels” to prevent inadvertent crossings and maintain stability in the area.
UNIFIL A UNIFIL issued map showing the area of operations. Irish troops are based in the bottom right of the map. UNIFIL “There are 10,000 UNIFIL troops in the mission area the size of Munster and no local should or would mistake us for Israeli soldiers, in white vehicles and blue berets,” the senior Irish military source said.
Such is the difficulty now in the country that he and his family have decided to move to Ireland only returning occasionally for family events and for Christmas. But it is the impact on the ordinary citizenship that is driving Lebanon to rock bottom – Lee, in his humanitarian work, has found that people are now leaving in large numbers.
“There’s no president, it’s a caretaker government. I think even if there was a president and there was a full government, I don’t think it would make that much of a difference.Since arriving in Beirut in 2007 he said he has seen a steady decline and key to that is HZB.
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