The Security Council has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security under the UN Charter. It meets continuously and each member has a representative present at UN headquarters at all times. The Council can meet elsewhere and has done so in the past. When a threat to peace arises, the Council typically recommends parties resolve issues peacefully through negotiation. If fighting breaks out, the Council's priority is ending hostilities as soon as possible through ceasefire directives. It may also send peacekeeping forces. The Council can authorize enforcement measures like sanctions or military action. A member facing Council action may have its rights suspended or be expelled by the General Assembly on the Council's recommendation. Non-member states involved in a dispute may participate in discussions. The Council
Why & how is it that international laws & international bodies & international public figures paid to maintain peaceful co-existence keep silent while even endorsing repeated NATO bombings that have killed thousands of innocent men, women & children & destroyed public & private property in a show of supremacy & arrogance over the nations they have targeted? NATO war crimes extend from Yugoslavia, to Iraq, to Afghanistan & now Libya. Why are international laws being manipulated to pressurize nations politically less powerful yet bountiful in natural resources or placed in influential economic routes? This simply explains why nations are invaded in the present context & how NATO has become above the law.
Witnessing the series of attacks, debates and laws on cyber terrorisms or attacks viz- a-viz application of self-defense doctrine has become a hot button issue in global arena. Self defense per se an magnetic subjects which fascinates lawmaker and international bodies to play their active role. But as the emanation of a new threat of Cyber attacks and bit of new technologies, the issue of security has reached to its zenith. International laws, domestic laws, regulations, treaties etc. turn out to be vague and handicap to tackle this concept of cyber terrorism.
Study guide human rights-topic-area-a rotaract global mun 2015Adrian Dan Pop
For centuries, protection has been granted to people who flee persecution. However, the
current refugee regime seems to be the product of the last fifty years of the 20th century. The
origins of the modern refugee law can be found in the aftermath of the World World II, due to the
refugee crisis of the precedent years.n refugee regime is largely the product of the second half of
the twentieth century.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereinafter: UDHR) guarantees the right to
seek and enjoy asylum in other countries. Other human rights instruments 1 have also guaranteed
the “right to seek and be granted asylum in a foreign territory, in accordance with the legislation
of the state and international conventions.”2
International Humanitarian Law Lecture 11 - International Armed ConflictNilendra Kumar
This presentation recognises two categories of armed conflicts. It further describes the applicability of the conventions specially where it is non international in the strict sense of the term.
A Critically Analysis of the Doctrine of Use of Force by States under Interna...Onyekachi Duru Esq
The purpose of this presentation is to provide a clear statement, assessment and critical analysis of the rules of international law governing the use of force by states.
The Convention on Migrant Workers’ Rights, adopted by consensus in 1990 by the General Assembly, has been called the best-kept secret of the United Nations: so far, it has been ratified by only 47 states, and none of them belongs to Western countries. The article questions the existence of legal reasons that can explain this indifference comparable to a real boycott and comes to the conclusion that, on the contrary, the explanation must be sought in extra-juridical grounds that demonstrate once again the Western countries’ bad faith in the promotion of human rights
International Humanitarian Law Lecture 19 - 70 Years of Geneva ConventionsNilendra Kumar
Geneva Conventions are the main plank of IHL treaty law adopted by India to abide by protection, compliance and adherence norms in armed conflicts
This presentation is a review of past 70 years resume in it's regard.
Perspective ECtHR - CJEU European Constitutional Dimension
Prof. dr. Dirk Voorhoof
CMPF Summer School 2013 for Journalists and Media Practitioners
http://cmpf.eui.eu/training/summer-school-2013.aspx
Why & how is it that international laws & international bodies & international public figures paid to maintain peaceful co-existence keep silent while even endorsing repeated NATO bombings that have killed thousands of innocent men, women & children & destroyed public & private property in a show of supremacy & arrogance over the nations they have targeted? NATO war crimes extend from Yugoslavia, to Iraq, to Afghanistan & now Libya. Why are international laws being manipulated to pressurize nations politically less powerful yet bountiful in natural resources or placed in influential economic routes? This simply explains why nations are invaded in the present context & how NATO has become above the law.
Witnessing the series of attacks, debates and laws on cyber terrorisms or attacks viz- a-viz application of self-defense doctrine has become a hot button issue in global arena. Self defense per se an magnetic subjects which fascinates lawmaker and international bodies to play their active role. But as the emanation of a new threat of Cyber attacks and bit of new technologies, the issue of security has reached to its zenith. International laws, domestic laws, regulations, treaties etc. turn out to be vague and handicap to tackle this concept of cyber terrorism.
Study guide human rights-topic-area-a rotaract global mun 2015Adrian Dan Pop
For centuries, protection has been granted to people who flee persecution. However, the
current refugee regime seems to be the product of the last fifty years of the 20th century. The
origins of the modern refugee law can be found in the aftermath of the World World II, due to the
refugee crisis of the precedent years.n refugee regime is largely the product of the second half of
the twentieth century.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereinafter: UDHR) guarantees the right to
seek and enjoy asylum in other countries. Other human rights instruments 1 have also guaranteed
the “right to seek and be granted asylum in a foreign territory, in accordance with the legislation
of the state and international conventions.”2
International Humanitarian Law Lecture 11 - International Armed ConflictNilendra Kumar
This presentation recognises two categories of armed conflicts. It further describes the applicability of the conventions specially where it is non international in the strict sense of the term.
A Critically Analysis of the Doctrine of Use of Force by States under Interna...Onyekachi Duru Esq
The purpose of this presentation is to provide a clear statement, assessment and critical analysis of the rules of international law governing the use of force by states.
The Convention on Migrant Workers’ Rights, adopted by consensus in 1990 by the General Assembly, has been called the best-kept secret of the United Nations: so far, it has been ratified by only 47 states, and none of them belongs to Western countries. The article questions the existence of legal reasons that can explain this indifference comparable to a real boycott and comes to the conclusion that, on the contrary, the explanation must be sought in extra-juridical grounds that demonstrate once again the Western countries’ bad faith in the promotion of human rights
International Humanitarian Law Lecture 19 - 70 Years of Geneva ConventionsNilendra Kumar
Geneva Conventions are the main plank of IHL treaty law adopted by India to abide by protection, compliance and adherence norms in armed conflicts
This presentation is a review of past 70 years resume in it's regard.
Perspective ECtHR - CJEU European Constitutional Dimension
Prof. dr. Dirk Voorhoof
CMPF Summer School 2013 for Journalists and Media Practitioners
http://cmpf.eui.eu/training/summer-school-2013.aspx
Experts predict a wave of employee turnover as the economy recovers from the recession.
Here are five steps you can take now to prevent your best employees from riding that wave out your door.
For world peace to come, every person on the planet must be able to create his or her life without interference, be treated fairly and equally, and have a voice in government.
PLSI 120/.DS_Store
__MACOSX/PLSI 120/._.DS_Store
PLSI 120/articles/Annan In Larger Freedom FA 2005.pdf
"In Larger Freedom": Decision Time at the UN
Author(s): Kofi Annan
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2005), pp. 63-74
Published by: Council on Foreign Relations
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20034350 .
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n Larger Freec omn
Decision Time at the UN
Kofi Annan
OUR SHARED VULNERABILITY
As K A New York investment banker who walks past Ground Zero
every day on her way to work what today's biggest threat is. Then ask
an illiterate 12-year-old orphan in Malawi who lost his parents to
AIDS. You Will get two very different answers. Invite an Indonesian
fisherman mourning the loss of his entire family and the destruction
of his village from the recent, devastating tsunami to tell you what he
fears most. Then ask a villager in Darfiur, stalked by murderous militias
and fearftil of bombing raids. Their answers, too, are likely to diverge.
Different perceptions of what is a threat are often the biggest
obstacles to international cooperation. But I believe that in the twenty
first century they should not be allowed to lead the world's governments
to pursue very different priorities or to work at cross-purposes. Today's
threats are deeply interconnected, and they feed off of one another. The
misery of people caught in unresolved civil conflicts or of populations
mired in extreme poverty, for example, may increase their attraction
to terrorism. The mass rape of women that occurs too often in today's
conflicts makes the spread of HIV and AIDS all the more likely.
In fact, all of us are vulnerable to what we think of as dangers that
threaten only other people. Millions more of sub-Saharan Africa's
inhabitants would plunge below the poverty line if a nuclear terrorist
attack against a financial center in the United States caused a massive
downturn in the global economy. By the same token, millions ofAmer
icans could quickly become infected if, naturally or through malicious
KOFI ANNAN is Secretary-General of the United Nations.
[63]
Kofi Ann.
The United States can perfectly better serve its security interest.docxssusera34210
The United States can perfectly better serve its security interests, under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and subject itself to the constraints of international law, provided that the aggressions of the International Criminal Court are limited to cases approved by the Security Council of the United Nations. This would effectively protect the United States against a possible prosecution while it would allow to control, through its veto in the Security Council, other prosecutions. Otherwise the United States would fall under a double standard, when they seek to control the behavior of other Governments, without accepting the corresponding limitations of their own conduct.
Serious violations of human rights and war crimes committed during the Second World War demonstrated the need to implement mechanisms to prosecute those responsible for these atrocities. In this way, the international community decided back then to create tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo, formed by both in the first step towards the consolidation of international criminal justice. The Cold War prevented the establishment of an International Criminal Court of a permanent nature, a difficulty that would be extended until the end of the 1980's, with the fall of the Berlin wall, a possibility was newly opened by creating a court with universal jurisdiction for the most serious cases of violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, which was accentuated with the humanitarian crises that occurred by the civil wars in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
The ICC formed by 120 States adopted in 1998, the Rome Statute, is the first international jurisdiction with universal vocation and aspiration; competent to prosecute individuals for crimes of war, genocide, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Added to these serious crimes, at the request of the Court itself, were sexual offenses, torture as an illegal instrument of war and the elimination of "receiving a higher order", as a valid defense of criminal responsibility or liability. It should be emphasized that the ICC is a complementary body of the national jurisdiction, and is only competent in cases where the state cannot or does not want to prosecute the accused. However, the United States did not ratify it, and even withdrew its signature from the Rome Statute and proceeded to begin a campaign against the ICC. The ICC has jurisdiction only with respect to crimes committed after the entry into force of the Statute which was the first of July 2002, and the Court may only exercise its jurisdiction if the State on whose territory the crime in question has occurred, or the State of nationality of the accused of the crime, is part of the Rome Statute, and if not being so, agrees to accept such jurisdiction by expressing declaration. As we said ut supra the United States did not sign the Rome Statute, with which the ICC has no jurisdiction over its nationals. The signatory states pledged ...
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxEduSkills OECD
Andreas Schleicher presents at the OECD webinar ‘Digital devices in schools: detrimental distraction or secret to success?’ on 27 May 2024. The presentation was based on findings from PISA 2022 results and the webinar helped launch the PISA in Focus ‘Managing screen time: How to protect and equip students against distraction’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/managing-screen-time_7c225af4-en and the OECD Education Policy Perspective ‘Students, digital devices and success’ can be found here - https://oe.cd/il/5yV
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdf
Security council topic a, b and committee background
1. Security Council
The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the Charter,for the
maintenance of international peace and security. It is so organized as to
be able to function continuously, and a representative of each of its
members must be present at all times at United Nations Headquarters.
On 31 January 1992, the first ever Summit Meeting of the Council was
convened at Headquarters, attended by Heads of State and
Government of 13 of its 15 members and by the Ministers for Foreign
Affairs of the remaining two. The Council may meet elsewhere than at
Headquarters; in 1972, it held a session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the
following year in Panama City, Panama.
When a complaint concerning a threat to peace is brought before it, the
Council's first action is usually to recommend to the parties to try to reach
agreement by peaceful means. In some cases, the Council itself
undertakes investigation and mediation. It may appoint special
representatives or request the Secretary-General to do so or to use his
good offices. It may set forth principles for a peaceful settlement.
When a dispute leads to fighting, the Council's first concern is to bring it
to an end as soon as possible. On many occasions, the Council has
issued cease-fire directives which have been instrumental in preventing
wider hostilities. It also sends United Nations peace-keeping forces to
help reduce tensions in troubled areas, keep opposing forces apart and
create conditions of calm in which peaceful settlements may be sought.
The Council may decide on enforcement measures, economic sanctions
(such as trade embargoes) or collective military action.
A Member State against which preventive or enforcement action has
been taken by the Security Council may be suspended from the exercise
of the rights and privileges of membership by the General Assembly on
the recommendation of the Security Council. A Member State which has
persistently violated the principles of the Charter may be expelled from
the United Nations by the Assembly on the Council's recommendation.
A State which is a Member of the United Nations but not of the Security
Council may participate, without a vote, in its discussions when the
Council considers that that country's interests are affected. Both
Members of the United Nations and non-members, if they are parties to a
dispute being considered by the Council, are invited to take part,
2. without a vote, in the Council's discussions; the Council sets the
conditions for participation by a non-member State.
The Presidency of the Council rotates monthly, according to the English
alphabetical listing of its member States
.Topic A) Global controversy over Wiki leaks publications
Since its July release of over 77,000 classified government documents
from the Afghanistan War, the whistleblower website Wikileaks.org has
created serious controversy over the inherent conflict between national
security interests and government transparency. Just last week, Wiki leaks
released over 392,000 documents relating to the war in Iraq, sparking
condemnation from both sides of the political aisle.
Both these and the Afghanistan documents painted a picture of the
everyday fighting of the two wars. They also detailed many military
strategies and other sensitive information that the Obama administration
claims endangers troops and hampers the war effort. The Department of
Defense released a press statement saying, “We deplore Wiki leaks… By
disclosing such sensitive information, Wiki leaks continue to put at risk the
lives of our troops, their coalition partners and those Iraqis and Afghans
working with us.”
On the other side of the issue, the site exposed over 15,000 previously
undisclosed civilian deaths in Iraq and brought to light that the military
had lied about militants’ use of heat-seeking missiles against NATO
aircraft. Wiki leaks claims that it was merely exposing government abuse,
but the government claims that the site has undermined national
security by exposing classified information. This issue over the legality and
morality of exposing classified information is not new in the United States,
but is rather an issue with a rich and complicated history which raises the
fundamental question: who should have the authority to determine what
should and should not be published, the press or the government?
Wiki leaks is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide a forum for
anonymous sources to leak valuable information to journalists. The
organization claims as its goals the promotion of a free, unrestrained
press that closely scrutinizes government action to uncover abuse.
According to the website’s about page (accessed here), this goal stems
from the belief that “Better scrutiny leads to reduced corruption and
stronger democracies in all society’s institutions, including government,
corporations and other organizations.”
3. Wiki leaks promotes itself as a “new model of journalism” that vows to be
“fearless in our efforts to get the unvarnished truth out to the public.” To
achieve this goal Wiki leaks believes that the press should be wholly
unrestrained in investigating and exposing government abuse. The
government being investigated necessarily disagrees that the press
should have free reign over what they choose to publish. In the state’s
view classified documents are classified for a reason and revealing such
information to the public can have dire consequences when it comes to
security.
Tension between national security and freedom of the press is an
enduring feature of American politics. In 1971, The New York
Times published excerpts of the Pentagon Papers, classified Defense
Department documents detailing American involvement in Vietnam.
When the Defense Department sought to bar the Times from continued
publication, the case proceeded with lightning speed to the Supreme
Court. “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose
deception in government” wrote Justice Black for the majority, a
statement also quoted on Wiki leaks’ webpage.
The Court ruled that the government must demonstrate that “grave and
irreparable harm” would follow from publication in order to justify prior
restraint; a requirement it failed to meet in the case of the Pentagon
Papers. But though they reached a decision, the justices did not come to
a consensus as to the role of government and the press in balancing the
competing claims of security and liberty. The issue remains unresolved as
demonstrated by the Wiki leaks controversy.
Who would you trust to make decisions regarding release of sensitive
information?
Wiki leaks claims to engage in “principled leaking.” The organization is
quick to establish that it does not censor its news, but will take measures
to “protect life and limb of innocent people.” Likewise, editors Dean
Baquet of The Los Angeles Times and Bill Keller of The New York Times
claimed that the decision “to publish or not to publish” is a “responsibility
that falls to editors.”
Weighing the merits of publishing against the risks of making sensitive
information known, journalists claim the authority to decide which
materials to make public. Needless to say, the government disagrees. In
his dissent to the Court’s decision in New York Times Company v. United
States, Justice Stewart contended that as the Constitution gives the
Executive “a large degree of unshared power” over foreign affairs and
national defense and that it stands to reason that the Executive must
also possess the “largely unshared duty to determine and preserve”
security through decisions regarding confidentiality and classification of
documents.
Whether the government or the press is the proper authority to balance
the concerns of national security and liberty is debatable. The
government claims its interest is to protect the people from external
4. threat, the press from the dangers of over-powerful and unchecked
government.
Who do you believe should determine what should and shouldn’t be
published? Which concern should be paramount, national security or
government transparency?
Please post your thoughts in this page’s comments section; our goal here
is to spark an academic discussion of this important issue.
Topic B) Midle East because Israel, Lebanon and Syria problems
Lebanon vs Israel
As with many of the conflicts in the Middle East, the ongoing war along
the Israeli-Lebanese border is a part of the longer and larger Arab-Israeli
conflict. In 1948, five Arab nations, including Lebanon, invaded Israel in a
vain attempt to prevent the birth of the Jewish nation on land that the
Arabs felt belonged to them. The Arabs called the land occupied by the
Israelis "Palestine" and those Arabs living there as "Palestinians." As a result
of this and subsequent outbreaks of war, thousands of Palestinians fled to
neighboring Arab countries. Several Palestinian guerrilla armies formed to
fight a guerrilla/terrorist war against Israel. Their attacks on Israeli targets
prompted retaliation on the host nations of Jordan and
Lebanon. Palestinian power became so great in Jordan, that a civil war
was fought in 1970, resulting in the expulsion of Palestinian forces from
that nation. At this point, the Palestinian resistance moved to Lebanon, a
small nation located on Israel's northern border.
The newly resettled Palestinian forces, led by Yasser Arafat's Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO), had two important effects on
Lebanon. First, their ongoing cross-border raiding brought violent
responses from Israel. These retaliatory raids caused death and
destruction for the local inhabitants of South Lebanon.Secondly, the
large influx of mostly Muslim Palestinians upset the population balance
between Lebanon's Christians and Muslims. These two religious groups
fought a civil war in the 1950's, and an uneasy peace had existed
since. By 1975, tensions between the Lebanese Christians on one side
and the Lebanese Muslims and the PLO on the other side, erupted into a
bloody civil war. The Lebanese Army and government dissolved as rival
Christian and Muslim militias battled for control of their nation. This
conflict caused Lebanon's only two neighbors to intervene in its
5. affairs. Soon after the war's beginning, Syria sent a 40,000 man-strong
"peace-keeping" force into Eastern Lebanon. Though officially a force for
peace, the Syrians soon took the side of the Muslims and PLO and
actively battled the Lebanese Christian forces.Israel began aiding the
anti-Muslim forces with weapons and other assistance.
As the Lebanese Civil War raged on, the PLO continued attacks on
northern Israel. By 1978, Israel decided to invade Southern Lebanon,
which was now almost fully controlled by the PLO.
-- Israeli Invasion of Lebanon (1978) --25,000 Israeli troops invaded
southern Lebanon on March 14, 1978 in a campaign to drive the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) out. This attack was in response
to PLO raids into northern Israel from their bases in southern Lebanon.
After the 1970 Jordanian Civil War, in which the PLO was driven out of
Jordan, southern Lebanon came under Palestinian control, with Yasser
Arafat's forces creating a virtual 'state-within-a-state." Their control
became so dominint, that southern Lebanon was nicknamed
"Fatahland," after al-Fatah, the name of Arafat's main PLO faction.
This Israeli military offensive forced an estimated 285,000 people to
become refugees, with over 6,000 homes destroyed or badly
damaged. Between 1,100 and 2,000 Lebanese civilians were
killed. Twenty Israeli soldiers died, and an unknown number of Palestinian
fighters. The PLO forces retreated ahead of the Israelis and continued
their attacks on Israel.
Tactically, the Israeli invasion was unsuccessful. Their target, PLO military
units, left the area. Israel had failed to prevent the PLO retreat.
As the Israelis withdrew in June, 1978, they turned control of the
occupied territory over to the South Lebanon Army (SLA), led by Major
Saad Haddad, a renegade Lebanese Army officer who set up his own
militia. The SLA served as Israel's proxy in south Lebanon, often engaging
the PLO in combat.
An estimated 285,000 Lebanese and Palestininian civilians became
refugees due to Operation Litani.Estimates of civilian deaths in Lebanan
range from 1,100 to 2,000. 20 Israelis soldiers were were killed.The PLO
suffered an unknown number of casualties.
6. 1981 --In response to PLO rocket attacks, Israeli forces began heavy
bombing of PLO targets in Lebanon. The United States negotiated a
cease-fire.
1982 -- Operation Peace in Galilee (June 6, Israel began its 1982
offensive into Lebanon in response to two specific terrorist acts; the
bombing of a bus in northern Israel, and the assassination attempt on the
life of Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov. Calling
this invasion "Operation Peace in Galilee," (Galillee is the biblical name
for northern Israel), Israel invaded Lebanon up to the outskirts of the
Lebanese capital, Beirut.
While eventually allowing the PLO to leave Lebanon, Israeli forces
remained in control of south Lebanon near the border until 2000, when
the troops were withdrawn in order to end the ongoing guerilla war with
the Shiite Lebanese militia called Hezbollah.
1993 --Israeli Forces launched Operation Accountability (July 25-July 31,
1993), a week-long military campaign directed at Hezbollah ( this conflict
is called The Seven-Day War by the Lebanese).
In June, 1993, Hezbollah launched rockets against a settlement in
northern Israel, and then in July, 1993, both Hezbollah and the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) launched attacks which killed
five Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in Israeli-occupied southern
Lebanon. Israel decided to respond to these attacks by making southern
Lebanon an inhospitable environment for Hezbollah.
During Operation Accountability, Israeli forces destroyed or damaged
thousands of houses and buildings, causing some 300,000 Lebanese and
Palestinian civilians from southern Lebanon to migrate towards Beirut and
other areas outside of the combat zone. Israeli forces also targeted
Lebanese infrastructure, (power stations, bridges, and roadways. This is a
tactic that would be repeated in future Israeli attacks on Hezbollah and
Lebanon. Hezbollah responded with more rocket attacks on Israeli
civilian targets.
At least 118 Lebanese civilians and two Israeli civilians died during this
operation.
1996 -- Operation Grapes of Wrath (April 11-April 27, 1996) --Israel's
massive air and artillery attack on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon
which attempted to end shelling of northern Israel by the Iranian and
Syrian-backed Lebanese Islamic militia. Israel forces launched 1,100 air
raids and fired nearly 25,132 shells at Hezbollah targets during the sixteen-
day offensive. A United Nations camp at Qana, Lebanon, was hit by
Israeli shelling, killing 118 Lebanese civilians who sought shelter
7. there. Nearly 640 Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel in this time period,
particularly the often-hit settlement of Kiryat ShemonaIsrael's ally and
proxy force, the South Lebanon Army (a mixed Christian and Shiite
Muslim militia under the command of renegade Lebanese Major Saad
Haddad), also engaged in ground fighting with Hezbollah. At least 350
civilians were wounded in Lebanon , and 62 Israeli civilians were
wounded in Israel.
2006 --In response to the killing of three Israeli soldiers and the capture of
two others in July, 2006 Israel found itself immersed in yet another
Lebanese war
Lebanon vs Syria
It dominates Lebanon's foreign policy and has effectively occupied
large sections of its smaller neighbor for nearly 30 years. There are
currently some 15,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon, and Hezbollah --a
militant Shiite group supported by Syria and Iran--has long operated in
southern Lebanon. The United States has repeatedly demanded that
Syria withdraw its troops and refrain from interfering in Lebanese politics.
Was Syria responsible for the assassination of Rafik Hariri?
There are many suspicions that it was, but no proof. On February 14, a
massive car bomb in Beirut killed Hariri and more than a dozen others
and wounded more than 100. Syrian officials deny involvement. In
September 2004, the Baathist government of Syrian President Bashar al-
Assad pressured Lebanon's parliament to amend the constitution and
extend the presidential term of Emile Lahoud, a Maronite Christian widely
seen as a Syrian puppet. Then-Prime Minister Hariri, a billionaire
businessman who had led the post-civil war rebuilding of Lebanon,
resigned in protest in October.
How long have Syrian troops been in Lebanon?
Since 1976. Full-scale civil war broke out in April 1975 between the
Maronite Christian groups of the Lebanese Front and the Lebanese
National Movement, which was made up of left-leaning Muslims who
wanted a greater share of political power.Fighting was intense, and in
June 1976 the Maronite-dominated government asked for support from
Syria.
Syria had previously mounted several failed diplomatic efforts to stop the
war. For then-Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad--the current president's
father--the Lebanese conflict presented a range of possibilities, all of
them unappealing: sectarian strife spilling over into Syria, which had its
own Christian-Muslim tensions; an Israeli invasion of Lebanon; or the
establishment of a radical, left-wing Muslim state, if the Lebanese
National Movement won. Assad sent in troops to strengthen the Maronite
8. government, which he calculated he could manipulate, many Mideast
analysts say.Assad's move earned the wrath of the Muslim world,
because he backed the Christian side. Still, small contingents of troops
from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Sudan later joined the Syrian-
dominated Arab Deterrent Force. The war lasted 15 years.
What caused the war?
Tensions among Lebanon's Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, and
the Druze Muslim sect. Those groups had long jockeyed for power and
influence. Under the French occupation, which lasted from the end of
World War I until independence in 1943, a "confessional" system evolved
that reserved certain government posts for each religious group. Under
this system, Christians had the upper hand in the national assembly--the
Chamber of Deputies--that chooses the president. This arrangement
bred resentment among Lebanese Muslims, especially as they grew to
outnumber Christians.
In the early 1970s, the arrival of Yasir Arafat and thousands of his fellow
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) militants exacerbated Christian-
Muslim strains and swelled the Muslim ranks with thousands of
experienced gunmen. Lebanese Muslim groups supported the PLO
fighters, recently expelled from Jordan, while Maronite Christian groups
worried that PLO raids against Israel would invite retaliation and
destabilize Lebanon. Throughout the 1970s, the PLO increasingly used
Lebanon as a base from which to attack Israel. Israeli forces invaded in
1978 and 1982; after the second invasion, they remained and occupied
a strip of southern Lebanon for nearly 20 years. Egypt, Iraq, and Libya
supported Muslim factions in the civil war, while the United States and
Israel backed Christian groups. During the long course of the conflict,
Syria alternately supported the Christian amd Muslim sides.
What ended the war?
The October 1989 Taif Accords , an agreement brokered by Arab
nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, that gave Lebanese Muslims a greater
share of political power in Lebanon and formalized "preferred relations"
between Lebanon and Syria.Syria's internationally recognized role as "the
guarantor of Lebanon's security" was also established in these accords,
says Murhaf Jouejati , director of the Middle East Studies program at
George Washington University.
What impact did the Taif Accords have on the Syria-Lebanon
relationship?
Experts say the agreement gave Hafez al-Assad effective control over
most of Lebanon in return for a promise to maintain internal stability. The
Syrians were supposed to set a timetable for a withdrawal of their troops
to the Bekaa Valley, a strategic security zone between Syria and
Lebanon, by 1992 or another date negotiated with the Lebanese
government. Lebanon has never asked Syria to leave.Syria maintains
that its troops--whose numbers reached a high of 35,000-40,000 in 2000--
9. are a stabilizing factor and claims it would withdraw them immediately if
Lebanon asked.
What has happened in Lebanon since the war ended in 1990?
The country has been rebuilding. Hariri, who became prime minister in
1992, spearheaded an ambitious public-private partnership that rebuilt
Beirut, which was known as "the Paris of the Middle East" before the civil
war. The skyscrapers and luxury hotels in the city's downtown reflected
an economic resurgence that steadily erased some of the evidence of
the devastating war. The war also decimated Lebanon's security forces;
it rebuilt them with Syrian help, Jouejati says, to its current troop strength
of some 70,000. Politically, there has been "a slow mending of the
fences--yet you could feel that there was no sense of a Lebanese
national unity. Sectarianism remained the primary definer of identity,"
Jouejati says.
What is the US position on Syria?
The US government has long said Damascus is a state sponsor of terrorism
and has banned foreign aid, American investment, and the sale of
military equipment or dual-use items to Syria.
What has the United Nations' attitude been toward Syria?
The United Nations has a long history of urging foreign troops, including
Israeli, Syrian, and Palestinian fighters, out of Lebanon. In 1978, UN
Resolutions 425-427called for Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanon; in
1982, after the second Israeli invasion, the Security Council passed a raft
of resolutions, including 508 , 509, and 515-521, deploring the violence of
that year and asking all parties to cease fighting and withdraw their
troops. Since Israel pulled out in 2000, attention has focused again on
Syrian troops. UN Resolution 1559 , passed in September 2004, is the latest
Security Council action on foreign presence in Lebanon.
What does Resolution 1559 say?
Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France and
supported by Lebanese reformers like Hariri, calls for "foreign forces" to
leave Lebanon and end their interference in Lebanese affairs. It does not
refer to Syria by name.
It also calls for the disarmament of militias. All militias were supposed to
be disarmed after the civil war, but the Lebanese exempted Hezbollah,
which they call a national Lebanese resistance movement aimed at
fighting Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon. In January, UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan appointed a special envoy for the implementation
of Resolution 1559. Terje Roed-Larsen, formerly UN special coordinator for
the Middle East peace process, began meeting with Lebanese and
Syrian officials in early February.
What impact will Hariri's assassination have on the Syria-Lebanon
relationship?
10. Experts say the killing has focused both national and international
attention on the Syrian occupation and revealed deep anti-Syrian
feeling in Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of mourners at Hariri's Beirut
funeral February 15 called for Syria to leave Lebanon. Angry mobs
attacked Baath Party headquarters in Beirut and Syrian workers and
trucks in other cities, including Tripoli and Hariri's hometown of Sidon. "The
majority opinion in Lebanon is that Syrian troops should leave," says
Richard Murphy, a former US ambassador to Syria. Expelling all the Syrians
from Lebanon won't be easy: in addition to the soldiers, there are more
than 1 million Syrian workers in Lebanon, a country of roughly 4 million
people, and thousands of undercover Syrian intelligence agents, experts
say. "The Syrians are deeply integrated into the fabric of Lebanese
society," Murphy says.
Was Hariri's death the main cause of anti-Syrian agitation?
No; experts say anti-Syrian sentiment had been slowly building. "In the last
year or so, as the economic resurgence continued, Lebanese voices
were getting louder about the need to redefine the relationship with
Syria--namely, to modify or end completely the Syrian occupation," says
Hussein Ibish, the Lebanese-born vice chair of the Progressive Musli
Union and former Washington, DC, correspondent of the Beirut-
based Daily Star . Syria's interference with the Lebanese Constitution last
fall angered many Lebanese. The constitution states that a presidential
term is six years, and candidates are required to wait six years before
running again. But in September, Syria forced through a change that
extends current President Emile Lahoud's term by three years. "It was a
very crude and totally gratuitous display of power by the Syrian regime,"
Ibish says.
What role did Hariri play in the opposition?
Before last fall, Ibish says, the opposition had been mostly limited to
supporters of Michel Aoun--a Christian general who declared himself
president of a divided Lebanon in the late 1980s and was later
deposed--and other disparate groups. As anger over Syria's interference
with the constitution spread, though, experts say the opposition
coalesced into a more vocal, organized movement. It attracted the
support of high-profile Lebanese like Walid Jumblatt, a longtime leader
of the country's Druze community, as well as Maronite Christian
leaders. Hariri, who provided financial support to the opposition and had
hinted at a return to politics, would have made a formidable opposition
candidate: a charismatic, experienced, wealthy, urban Sunni who
appealed to all of Lebanon's distinct communities, experts say. "This is
why people are not hesitating to blame the Syrians" for Hariri's death,
Ibish says."They're the obvious beneficiaries." He says Lebanese anger
over these two events--the Constitutional interference and Hariri's killing--
could mark a tipping point that might cause "a dramatic change in the
relationship between Syria and Lebanon."
What are the chances of another civil war if Syria pulls out?
11. This is a concern, experts say. Some see parallels with Iraq, where most
Iraqis want the United States forces to leave--but not immediately, for
fear of the instability that would result. "Some people say the Syrian iron
fist is keeping all these groups together, and if you remove the fist they'll
be at each other's throats again," Jouejati says. "I get the sense that the
rehabilitation of Lebanon has been mostly physical--infrastructure and
such--but the social structures have not been rehabilitated."Other
experts agree that the country's deep ethnic and religious divisions still
exist."In Lebanon, people have been traumatized by [the experience of
the] civil war," Ibish says. "The only thing that ended that war was Syrian
control, and people don't forget that."
What's next on the political agenda?
Lebanon will hold parliamentary elections in May, which experts say will
test the strength of the pro-Syrian and opposition factions. Lebanese
officials announced after Hariri's death that the elections would take
place as scheduled. Jouejati and other experts say this election will likely
show strong gains by opposition leaders energized by recent events.