26 years on, Sabra and Chatila still bear scars

[Scurrilous]

Site of wartime massacre has yet to recover

<snip>

"Twenty-six years ago Monday the massacre in Sabra and Chatila began. Three-and-a-half days later, hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese men, women and children had been murdered by Christian militiamen who worked by day and under Israeli flares at night. Hundreds more from the Sabra and Chatila camps and the surrounding neighborhoods in Beirut's southern suburbs had gone missing.

Following the assassination of President-elect Bachir Gemayel, Israeli troops moved into West Beirut in violation of the pact US envoy special Philip Habib had hammered out between the Israeli Army, the Lebanese government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The agreement had facilitated the evacuation of 11,000 PLO fighters from Lebanon, and the US government had promised to protect the remaining Palestinian population.

After reported shelling and sniper fire, the Israeli Army - under the command of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and army Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan - surrounded Sabra and Chatila on September 15. The next day, Christian militiamen, many of them Israeli-trained and supplied, entered the camps. What ensued was a campaign of butchery, rape and murder.

The final death toll remains unknown - some estimates are in the low hundreds, while others are in the thousands. But the piles of bodies with slit throats and execution-style bullet wounds were reported widely by the press.

Following a popular outcry in Israel and an investigative commission led by Supreme Court President Yitzak Kahan, Sharon was forced to resign as defense minister.

The Sabra and Chatila massacre was perhaps the darkest chapter in a campaign of reciprocal violence between Lebanese Christian militias and Lebanon's Palestinian refugee population during the 1975-1990 Civil War.

Today, despite modest revitalizations, Sabra and Chatila still bear the scars of serial bombing raids and the massacre. Amid concrete apartment blocks, street-side vendors and remaining rubble, there is an open field memorial for the dead."

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[oberliner]

1. Thanks for posting!

It seems sometimes that Lebanon is destined to a state of perpetual civil war (or near civil war) due to the long-standing animosity between the various religious communities in that country.

Hard to say what direction Lebanon is headed towards at this point, especially with the continued ascension of Hezbollah.

[shira]

2. Sabra/Shatilla was terrible, no doubt about it

However, hardly anyone knows of the massacre at Hama Syria, which happened around the same time. For some reason, it didn't rate making the headlines. This bloodbath makes Sabra/Shatilla pale in comparison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre

When Israel or America isn't involved, it's just not news. Nevermind the grand scale of the suffering or bloodbath. These actions are tolerated, excused, and explained away. Not much has changed since ~25 years ago.

Political bias.

I'm sure those affected at Hama can take solace in the fact that it's in "everyones" best interest to minimize what happened there so the focus can always remain on the #1 and #2 threats to world peace (big and little satan).

[oberliner]

3. Thanks for posting this as well

Provides some interesting insight into the current Syria/Lebanon relationship.