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INSIGHT
INSIGHT
Aired May 22, 2003 - 17:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: An overlooked occupation. Palestinian gunmen control refugee camps in Lebanon that the country's own army won't even enter and competing factions are struggling for supremacy.
Hello and welcome.
Few of us will ever venture into the refugee camps where millions of Palestinians live. Few of us pay much attention to what goes on inside, but this week, a deadly battle in Lebanon's largest camp draws our attention to a central unofficial fact. The United Nations may administer the camps, Lebanon may have legal sovereignty over them, but they're run by armed factions that decide their disputes with violence.
On our program today, Camp Fire (ph).
We begin with CNN's Beirut bureau chief, Brent Sadler.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Open warfare in the narrow streets of Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ein al- Hilweh. Deadly battles fought by rival Palestinian factions for control of a square mile piece of land, home to some 70,000 refugees caught in the combat, running for cover.
Heavy machinegun and rocket fire tore up their neighborhoods and not for the first time.
Camp battles flared last year in a similar round of vicious fighting. On one side of these firefights, Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, part of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, battling radical Muslim fundamentalist groups outside the PLO.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their aim is not for Palestinian. This is something over religion or attachment to God or a way to be able to go to paradise, but not to Palestine.
SADLER: When the shooting died down this time around, it seemed the Islamists had gained an edge. One of their fighters refusing to show his face picked up our microphone and called on God to give them strength to destroy disbelievers. Meaning PLO groups which favor stalled peacemaking with Israel.
The latest bloodshed may have been triggered by this man, Fatah's military chief in Lebanon, Sultan Abu Inan (ph). He reports directly to Arafat in the West Bank.
Inan (ph) has his own murky past -- sentenced to death by the Lebanese authorities for a previous murder and arms smuggling. He claims his conviction was related to anti-Arafat politics in Lebanon, but admits he's a fugitive, now threatening to defeat Islamic rivals if they use violence.
"If they carryon killing as before," he explains, "the decision will be to eliminate them."
But a close observer of the fray, Professor Nizha Hamzeh (ph), warns such bravado is easier said than done.
NIZAH HAMZEH, POLITICAL SCIENTIST: I don't see how this is going to be really done easily. As I said, for the last 10 years, the pull of the Islamist forces in the camps have grown in size and in strength.
SADLER (on camera): Although Yasser Arafat's loyalists still call the shots in Lebanon's refugee camps, Islamic extremist groups, as in the West Bank and Gaza a decade or so ago, have slowly but surely been winning over support, especially among younger generation Palestinians whose families have spent more than 50 years marooned in places like this.
(voice-over): They ended up here during the upheaval of Israel's war of independence in 1948 when a mass exodus of refugees fled to neighboring countries like Lebanon.
Refugees who dreamt of a swift return to their homes, suddenly located in a new Jewish state. These refugees have lived in limbo ever since, cherishing documents to long-abandoned properties, waiting in the wings, living impoverished lives in squalid conditions, hoping to eventually benefit from generations of what they call their struggle to recover lost land.
What they call a struggle, but which Israel and many others call terror, was initiated by the PLO in the late 1960's, turning these refugee camps, especially those in Lebanon, into recruiting grounds for Palestinian nationalist groups, like Fatah.
Now as peacemaking stumbles along an uncertain roadmap, Islamic extremist groups are making deep inroads into the very fabric of Palestinian life here, especially in Ein al-Hilweh, one of a dozen camps in Lebanon.
Over the decades, they had been transformed into islands, containing armed, often competing Palestinian groups beyond the control of the Lebanese Army and beyond the law, a safe haven for gangsters, murderers and wanted men, according to Lebanese security officials.
And a camp where the influence of armed Islamic militants seems to be going. Their followers openly admit to promoting an agenda which matches that of their counterparts waging violence in Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the same. It's the same. I, my fellow (UNINTELLIGIBLE) are like the Hamas and we are in Palestinian, occupied.
SADLER: It's also claimed by security officials here that some of Ein al-Hilweh's wanted led a full-scale Lebanese miliary onslaught in the north of the country some three years ago aimed at destroying a large terrorist network.
Today, Ein al-Hilweh is viewed by the United States as a hotbed of Islamic extremism and linked to U.S. claims that one group here, Aspat Al Ansar (ph), has connections to the al Qaeda terror network.
As the dead were buried from Ein al-Hilweh's latest clashes, renewed concerns are being raised here about threats to national security from inside the camp. The presidents of both Lebanon and Syria are under intense U.S. pressure to fight terror, and they've claimed some recent success with reported arrests of suspected militants accused of bomb attacks on American fast-food franchises in Lebanon and plots to assassinate the U.S. ambassador.
But U.S. efforts to pressure Beirut and Damascus into disarming Hezbollah is even more complicated. Hezbollah is seen here as a vanguard of resistance to Israeli occupation of Arab land and so remains untouched.
Meanwhile, violence originating from inside Palestinian camps seems unlikely t be resolved by any move to disarm them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you disarm the camps or the Palestinians in the absence of peace, with Israeli or a clear roadmap, you're taking basically a part of their power, a part of the resistance's power itself.
The fear now is that a negotiated truce between the bitterly divided Palestinian factions is at best fragile and that it may only be a matter of time before their competing ideologies collide in an even deadlier outbreak of hostilities.
Brent Sadler, CNN, Ein al-Hilweh, south Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: We take a break. When we come back, why Beirut let things slip beyond its control.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MANN: The government of Lebanon has limited means. Syria entered the country during the Lebanese civil war of the 1970's and even today Syrian troops remain there in force.
Lebanon is a democracy but key decisions are made by the regime in Damascus.
Welcome back.
Lebanon is a complex society, a mix of competing communities who went to war against each other and at the same time it is a battleground for other nation's ambitions as well.
Palestinian are an unwelcome addition to the mix. There are an estimated 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon, but they have few of the rights other Lebanese take for granted. Lebanon wants a solution to the Middle East crisis, at least in part so that it can send the Palestinians home.
Joining us now is Hishem Melhem, Washington correspondent for the Lebanese newspaper "Al Safir," and we're grateful to note, a frequent guest on this program.
Thanks so much for being with us.
What do you make of the violence in Ein al-Hilweh? Isolated incident, or as our correspondent suggests, symbol of something much more serious?
HISHEM MELHEM, "AL SAFIR": I'm afraid it's a sign of things to come, Jonathan.
What you've seen recently in the camps, especially in Ein al-Hilweh, which is the largest Palestinian camp in Lebanon, housing more than 80,000 people who live in abject poverty and under chaotic political conditions there, what you see recently is a function of the assertiveness on the part of the Islamist groups in those camps.
It's also a function of the degenerating conditions in those camps. They are ruled by groups who are not answerable to anybody. They are islands of chaos. For most of the Lebanese, the Palestinian community in Lebanon is an invisible community. If anything the Lebanese agree on, it's that they don't want the Palestinians to remain in Lebanon.
The Palestinians were never integrated in the social, political, economic fabric of the Lebanese society. In fact, many of those who were involved in the fighting, Jonathan, are wanted by the Lebanese government for committing crimes, such as killing judges and killing Lebanese soldiers.
So unless the Lebanese government moves quickly with the United Nations, in coordination with other relevant parties to control the situation there.
What you've seen in the last few days is likely to be reoccurring again and again.
MANN: What about the gunmen. It's hard to know exactly what to compare them to. Are they militias, like we have seen elsewhere in the region? Are they criminal gangs? Are they thugs, like you would see in any major metropolitan area? Who are these people?
MELHEM: Well, traditionally, the major group in Ein al-Hilweh has been Fatah. This is the group that represents the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This is the traditional military political power in Ein al- Hilweh.
But in recent years, we've seen the emergence of Islamists. You have two small groups now, one is called (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The other is called (UNINTELLIGIBLE). These are two extreme Islamist radical movements. Many of the members, as I said, are wanted by the Lebanese government. They have been joined in the last few years by few people who fled from northern Lebanon, after they engaged the Lebanese Army about more than three years ago, in pitch battles in the Tripoli (UNINTELLIGIBLE) area.
These are wanted criminals by the Lebanese government. They are not answerable to anybody. They are, you might call them thugs, and these people are wrecking havoc in the camp and they are challenging the traditional Fatah power in the camp. And as I said, they are not answerable to anybody.
MANN: But why has the Lebanese government let this problem fester? Why don't Lebanese soldiers just go in and clean them up?
MELHEM: Well, that's a very good question, and no government should allow islands such as these to remain without governmental control.
Now, the problem for the Lebanese government, they will see this as a national security issue, and to put it bluntly, they are not willing to do it or capable of doing it without the support and the blessing of Syria and other relevant powers in the region, such as the Palestinian Authority. And they are reluctant to engage in a situation that would lead to a great deal of blood-letting and casualties and accusations that the Lebanese are crushing the Palestinians in Lebanon.
MANN: Why don't the Syrians do it, then?
MELHEM: Well, there are political reasons. I mean, there are parties in the camps that the Syrians have good relationship with. This would require some sort of total political review of Syria's relationship with various Palestinian groups, including the resurrectionist groups that Syria traditionally has supported.
So -- and the Syrians also would like to maintain the situation as it is, because they don't want any resolution of the Palestinian problem to be outside the framework of an overall resolution that would include the Syrian front and the Lebanese front, including a resolution to the refugee problems.
And the Lebanese government are unlikely to move against the camps unless they see this as part and parcel of a process that will lead eventually to the resolution of the Palestinian problem, including the refugee problems in Lebanon.
MANN: What about the people of Lebanon? This is going on, after all, in their country. Quite apart from the politicians, what do the people who live near these camps think about this?
MELHEM: The recent fighting, Jonathan, created a great deal of revulsion and anger on the part of all the Lebanese groups, regardless of their political views and backgrounds and their history with the Palestinians.
They saw these acts of violence as nihilistic, meaningless, senseless, at a time when the Palestinians, under the Israeli occupation, are suffering tremendously. They saw it as the height of folly. And I think if these clashes continue in the camp, there'll be a growing chorus of demands on the part of the Lebanese people to put pressure on the Lebanese government to take some drastic measures to stop this kind of senseless killing.
MANN: Hishem Melhem, of "Al Safir," thanks so much for talking with us.
MELHEM: Appreciate it.
MANN: We have to take a break. When we come back, another force to be reckoned in all of this: Hezbollah.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MANN: Mohammed Khatami got a heroes welcome when he visited Lebanon last week. It was the first visit by an Iranian president since the Islamic revolution. 50,000 people filled a sports stadium to see him. Among the guests of honor, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, the party of God, an organization high on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist groups.
Welcome back.
You might have thought that Hezbollah's mission ended when the Israel's withdrew from southern Lebanon three years ago. But the group has refashioned itself as a political and social force, though it hasn't forgotten about Israel.
A few hours ago, Israel seized a boat containing explosives and arrested a man thought to be Hezbollah's master bomb maker. Hezbollah reportedly denies any arrest, but it does not deny its support for the Palestinian uprising.
David Lewis reported and produced a documentary on Hezbollah. Here's a portion of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID LEWIS, JOURNALIST (voice-over): This Palestinian refugee camp is not far from the newly Westernized center of the city, but it's a world away.
Here an throughout the country, Hezbollah gained legitimacy as the group that fought hardest against Israel's invasion of Lebanon. They're credited with finally driving out the Israelis after almost 20 years of a sometimes brutal occupation and after nearly 20,000 Lebanese had died.
I was able to negotiate my way into this Hezbollah political rally celebrating the anniversary of the Iranian revolution.
Ayatollah Khomeini gazed down upon his fellow Shias and chanted for the destruction of the Israeli state.
Hezbollah's backers, Iran and Syria, have long been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror. Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist group in 1995.
Ironically, in Lebanon, Hezbollah has been remaking itself as a mainstream political organization. They operate a satellite TV channel which reaches an audience of 10 million people in the Middle East, second only to Al Jazeera. It broadcasts news and entertainment as well as propaganda like this.
But in Lebanon, they've built a political organization. In recent years, it's become the second largest political party in the Lebanese parliament.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Earlier we spoke to David Lewis here in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEWIS: Hezbollah is in the process of trying to beat some of their swords into ploughshares. Their history is as a terrorist organization, going back to the early 80's when they attacked the Marine barracks and the U.S. embassy and other Western facilities in Beirut.
But, you know, in the early 90's they began to emerge from entirely clandestine status and they became a legal political party. They have now the second largest number of MPs democratically elected in the Lebanese parliament. They have hospitals, schools, all kinds of social services.
So, yes, they are indeed trying to leave part of their past behind, but their rhetoric is still very loud and they're staunchly anti-Israeli. They are a state within a state in a military sense.
MANN: Let me jump in and ask you about that. How many men do they still have under arms, and what are they doing?
LEWIS: Well, let's just put it like this: those who know, don't tell. They have a lot of people under arms. On Jerusalem Day, which is their big annual coming out party, they have literally thousands of armed men walking through the streets, celebrating Al Quds Day (ph), Jerusalem Day.
The question is, is there is this sort of overt military side that guards the Lebanese border. When you get close to the border with Israel, the Lebanese Army isn't there. It's Hezbollah that's on the border, and that's overt. And they have this public military side.
And then there is presumably some kind of entirely secret organization that even most of Hezbollah doesn't know about, and how many people are there, how many -- they're very, very secretive about weapons and what weapons and how many men and issues like that.
MANN: Part of the whole reason that Hezbollah exists is because of the concern about Palestine, the Palestinians. What's the relationship like between Hezbollah and the Palestinians inside of Lebanon?
LEWIS: I would say that they tolerate each other. Certainly, the rhetoric of Hezbollah's leaders and of, for example, Sheikh Hassan Favlavah (ph), who is regarded as the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, the primary sort of Shiite religious leader in Lebanon, they talk all the time about the martyrs of the Palestinian -- they are very close to them in terms of the cause.
There's also presumably some closeness in terms of training, Hamas, Islamic Jihad. I was at a rally where the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad was speaking along with Hassan Nasrallah.
And then with the Palestinians inside Lebanon, for example, I was in the Savra (ph) Refugee Camp, and the water -- there were big water tanks, provided by Hezbollah. You know, the camps are horrific, rats, open sewers, no fresh water, and the water was being trucked in by Hezbollah. So we saw next to the posters of Arafat and the flags of Fatah, you also saw a Hezbollah flag.
MANN: Now, they're acting as a social services agency. They have a military wing. And you described them just now, intriguingly, as a state within a state. They have these means. They have the backing of Iran and Syria. How powerful is Hezbollah compared to, say, the agencies of the Lebanese government or the Lebanese Army for that matter?
LEWIS: Well, they're very powerful. On the military side, certainly the Lebanese and the Lebanese Army expect that if Israel invades, the Lebanese Army will turn tail and it will be Hezbollah that will do the fighting.
They're motivated. They're trained. They have the weapons -- not heavy weapons, like tanks or helicopters, but you know, they have the tools. They have suicide bomber brigades that are available. And they have people who are motivated to die. You know, martyrdom is totally woven into the fabric of the Shia culture, and that very much plays to their military strengths.
On the social side, you have very new hospitals. I saw, I was in the hospital in Beirut, which is probably the second best hospital in Beirut, you know, brand new CAT scan, MRI machines, very good neonatal ward, complete with pampers and Mickey Mouse blankets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: David Lewis, independent documentary producer, speaking to us earlier.
Before we go, a quick word. The last news we have is that at this hour Ein al-Hilweh is quiet.
That's INSIGHT for this day. I'm Jonathan Mann. The news continues.
END
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