BEIRUT: A pro-peace rally organized by 12 Lebanese NGOs in central Beirut on Saturday kicked off the Oua’a campaign, which aims to push politicians to resolve their disputes peacefully.
The rally was held just up the street from the opposition’s tent city which has paralyzed downtown Beirut since December.
Tired of the disruption to their lives caused by political conflicts, members of these 12 groups placed themselves between the anti-government opposition led by Hezbollah and the pro-government March 14 coalition.
The Oua’a groups’ mission does not extend beyond calling for peace. They still expect political leaders to resolve disputes.
“We don’t know what the solution is because we are not politically affiliated. We elect our politicians. We want civil peace. We are anti-sectarian, said Leila Agassi, one of the organizers of the event and a founding member of Resolve It, Solve It. “We’re going to keep going until we find a solution. We just want to live together.
“Oua’a means both “watch out and “wake up.
“Politicians need to know that there is a civil society monitoring their every move. It is our duty today to express our opinions, said Carmen Geha, a member of two of the 12 NGOs, Leb Youth and Resolve It, Solve It, and a graduate student at the American University of Beirut (AUB). “In times of crisis it’s important to surround ourselves with people who still believe in Lebanon.
A white handprint is Oua’a’s logo and people on Saturday left their white handprints on a black banner. According to Agassi, the black banner symbolizes Lebanon, while the white handprints represent citizens’ desire to whiten, or clean up, the conflicts in their country. About 200-300 people gathered for this event, an incomparable number to the droves of people joining Hezbollah and March 14 rallies.
“They are expressing a widespread sentiment but they need to find the right mechanism to solidify it, said Rami Khouri, veteran journalist and director of the Issam Fares Center for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. “People, whether on one side or the other, are tired of the conflict.
Some participants agreed with Khouri that this event may not be the most effective way to call for peace.
“It’s a nice idea. From all I know of Lebanon, I can’t really tell if this will have an effect, said Paolo Cernuschi, an Italian embassy employee working on economic development in Lebanon. “But I think it’s a commendable effort, bringing people together.
We wish this would work, but nobody listens to us, said Dr Mohamad Itani, a pediatrician.
With the opposition camped out downtown and paralyzing daily life in central Beirut, Dr Itani’s clinic, along with many other businesses, has suffered.
“People have difficulty accessing our clinics, he said. “Financially it has affected all the different sectors. People can’t pay for private physicians.
Many people worry that the current political situation could deteriorate into another civil war similar to the 1976-1991 war that devastated Lebanon.
“In any democratic country you can have a political conflict. But in Lebanon it turns into a religious and sectarian conflict. This is the problem, said Ahmed Diaa, an Egyptian graduate student at AUB.
But Khouri doesn’t believe there will be another full-fledged civil war in Lebanon. There will, however, continue to be smaller conflicts between people, which may erupt into violence as they have most recently with the assassination of Pierre Gemayel in November and the February bombings of two buses in Bikfaya.
Attendees of Saturday’s gathering agreed with Khouri. “We don’t need war, said Noor Itani, daughter of Dr Itani and a student at Beirut’s International College, who attending the protest as part of a community service project.
Despite the small turnout at the Oua’a event, recent developments in Beirut suggest that the sentiment behind this protest is shared by many. The Daily Star in Beirut reported last Friday that businesses in downtown Beirut may sue the Lebanese government if it continues to do little to help them recover the huge losses they have suffered since the opposition protest began in December.
Although the city center is peppered with tents put up by Hezbollah and the Future Patriotic Movement, many of theses tents are empty. A few hundred young Hezbollah supporters gather downtown, in a street adjacent to Beirut’s Place d’Etoile, the location of the Parliament building. With its new buildings and fancy restaurants, this neighborhood, developed by the late Prime Minister Hariri, is a symbol of hope for Lebanon’s post-civil war reconstruction.
On most evenings, the young opposition members chant against the government, Israel and the United States. However, according to many Beirut residents, these gatherings have the flavor of a party, an excuse for people to get together, rather than the tough protests of the early opposition.
Talks on Sunday between Lebanese officials, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz left many people thinking that there will be a resolution to Lebanon’s political crisis soon.
The current deadlock arose because of disagreements between Lebanese political factions over Hezbollah’s demands for more power in government and the handling of the United Nations investigation of the assassination of Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005. In November, Hezbollah and Amal officials resigned from cabinet and in December their supporters began to camp downtown.
There are many factors behind this conflict, say observers. It is the culmination of recent conflicts in Lebanon over issues including last summer’s war with Israel, Lebanon’s relationship with Syria, and Western involvement in the country.
But people of all ages and religions seem to hope that whatever happens in Lebanon will resolve the conflict quickly and peacefully.
At Saturday’s Oua’a rally, ten-year-old Farah Khawwam summed up the overwhelming feeling with a few simple words: “I don’t want war because I love Lebanon.
