The Kurds of Syria and Lebanon

The Kurds of Lebanon
By: Joseph Hitti and Abdul Karim Meho
May 2003
PART II of II: Occupation and Liberation in the Land of the Cedars

The attention given to the plight of the Kurdish people of Iraq under Saddam Hussein has eclipsed the fact that the Kurdish people are scattered and suffer elsewhere in the Middle East. This two-part series tells the story of the Kurdish community of Lebanon. Part I related the escape from Ottoman and Turkish brutality early in the 20^th century and the shelter found in the pluralistic environment of Lebanon. However, the Kurds of Lebanon found themselves later in the throes of the Lebanese-Palestinian war of 1975. Part II now focuses on the Syrian regime’s invasion and occupation of Lebanon and their impact on the Kurdish community as represented by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of Lebanon. Like other communities in Lebanon, the Lebanese Kurds today are in a state of exile, both physical and existential. As the wounds of the past slowly heal, and with the impending fall of dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, the Lebanese Kurds of the KDP work hard to fulfill the dream of returning Lebanon to its promise as a land of liberty, tolerance, diversity, and shared-living.

In 1976, the Arab League endorsed the Syrian invasion of Lebanon under the guise of an Arab Deterrence Force supposedly sent in to halt the war between the Palestinian organizations and their Syrian and Lebanese proxies on one hand, and the Lebanese army and allied grassroots organizations on the other. The bulk of the Arab Deterrence Force was made up of the invading Syrian troops to which tiny contingents from the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Oman, and others were cosmetically added. Lebanese leader Kamal Jumblatt opposed the official “entry” of the Syrians in the country for he knew that this would have disastrous consequences on Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, and free decision-making. In a famous call to the invading Syrian forces, Jumblatt said “You are invaders. You are a party to the conflict and cannot be neutral”. In the end, Jumblatt paid dearly for his opposition to Syria when he was later assassinated on March 16, 1977 in a roadside bomb planted 200 yards past a Syrian checkpoint that his car had just cleared. The KDP had strong ties to Mr. Jumblatt and supported his rejection of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

Under direct orders from Syrian president Hafez Assad, the Chief of Syrian Intelligence Services (Mukhabarat) operating in Beirut, Col. Ali Khaddour, kidnapped the late Jamil Meho in West Beirut in an ambush. Mr. Meho’s own driver was a forced conspirator in the ambush as he and his family received daily threats if he did not cooperate. Mr. Meho was incarcerated in the infamous Mazze Prison on the outskirts of Damascus where he stayed 2 years. During those two years, Syrian officials led by then Chief of Syrian Mukhabarat Services Ali Duba tried in vain to get Mr. Meho to collaborate with the Syrian occupation, but he rejected these attempts and remained attached to the sovereignty, freedom, and independence of Lebanon. He was eventually released in 1979 after a campaign in both the domestic and international media.

The Syrian regime did not cease its harassment against the KDP. Through its alliance with Ayatollah Khomeini and his newly emerged Islamic revolution in Iran, whose objectives now spread to the Shiite community of Lebanon, the Syrian regime exploited the ongoing war between the Kurds and the Khomeini regime. The Assad regime incited sectarian conflict between the Lebanese Kurds, who are Sunnis, and the Lebanese Shiites who had completely fallen under the influence of the regime in Tehran. The KDP was one of the staunchest defenders of the rights of the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan, and it fought a media campaign against the crimes and atrocities committed by the Khomeini regime against the Iranian Kurds. After assassinating KDP leader Jamil Meho’s son Mohammed along with a number of his aides, the Syrian regime managed to drag the KDP into a bloody military conflict with the Shiite Amal movement headed by Nabih Berri. A vicious military campaign was launched against the KDP with the objective of eliminating it from the Lebanese political scene. The KDP managed to resist this assault as well as all other attempts by the Syrian regime and its proxies among the Shiites in Lebanon.

Between 1983 and 1986, the invading Israeli forces gradually withdrew from Beirut to the Southern security zone. With the attack against the US Marines and French Paratroopers barracks (October 1983) in the first suicide terrorist bombing on record, the Multi-National Force (MNF) withdrew from the country. The MNF was composed of American, British, French, and Italian contingents, and had come in 1982 to escort the PLO out of Beirut and help the Lebanese government restore its legitimate rule over the country. This withdrawal ended the last direct Western involvement in the crisis and opened the door for the Syrian army, which had been evicted from West Beirut by the Israeli army, to return en force to the city and in turn evict the Lebanese army. The Lebanese troops managed, however, to stave off the Syrian assault against the seat of the Lebanese government in Baabda in fierce battles that raged for months in Souk-al-Gharb, southeast of Beirut. By 1986, the Syrian Mukhabarat Services now fully operational in occupied Lebanon carried out a series of repressive actions and assassinations against the rank and file of the KDP. Many of the party’s political cadres were forced to go undercover or into exile. Under Syrian sponsorship, elements of the Amal movement burned and destroyed the party’s headquarters and property, and killed a number of KDP members who had stayed in Lebanon. Other supporters and partisans were subjected to harassment and humiliation.

In 1992, and in the aftermath of the Taef Agreement, the Lebanese government headed by Rashid Solh and under pressure from the Syrians issued an official decree banning the KDP in Lebanon. In 1994, the leadership of the party residing in Europe gathered and decided to resume action, and Abdul Karim Meho was assigned the mission to return to Lebanon and investigate conditions for a resumption of political action there. Within two weeks of his arrival to Lebanon, Abdul Karim was arrested by the Lebanese authorities, incarcerated for 2 months, and deported. That same year, the 8th conference of the KDP was held in London (UK) and Abdul Karim Meho was elected Secretary General of the party. The party resumed its political and media activities under the banners of rejecting the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and calling for the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the country. Since 1994, supporters of the KDP have been subjected to continuous persecution, culminating in May 2002 in the largest wave of arrests by Syrian Intelligence Mukhabarat Services, headed by Rustum Ghazaleh, in occupied Lebanon. KDP members and supporters were subjected to all manner of torture and harassment. However, their patriotic spirit could not be broken and the KDP became increasingly popular among the Kurdish Lebanese community. The hope is that one day, like many other patriotic leaders who have been exiled, the leadership of the KDP will be able to return to Beirut to continue the political struggle for a free and democratic Lebanon. The Lebanese KDP’s persecution and oppression by the Syrian occupation are a badge of honor as they for all Lebanese patriots alike.

With the US-led initiative against the Iraqi Baathist dictator, the war on terrorism targeting both the manifestations of terrorism as well as its political and social roots, and the roadmap for a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, the Middle East has entered a period fraught with potential upheavals but also full of tremendous hope for positive change. The KDP remains committed to the mission of its late leader Jamil Meho, a mission that harbors the ideals of love of country and a continuous search for peace and justice. As Lebanon emerges from decades of suffering under tyranny, the KDP will contribute its share in the search by the Lebanese people for a renewed political system that protects the rights of all people without alienating them from their specific values, principles, or religious beliefs. The KDP’s many struggles will continue to be driven by the party’s core attachment to Lebanon until the day that true liberty shines again on the country.

(End)
Joseph Hitti is President of New England Americans for Lebanon (Boston, Massachusetts, USA). He can be reached at NEAL-MA@attbi.com.
Abdul Karim Meho is the Secretary General of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Lebanon based in London, UK. He can be reached at KDPLEBANON@aol.com