AP News, April 13th, 2007
The bullet-scarred bus sat rusting in the spring rain, on display for all to see what triggered Lebanon's 15-year civil war.
Christian gunmen ambushed the bus as it carried Palestinians on April 13, 1975, sparking reprisals that spiraled into warfare between Lebanon's Christians and Muslims, killing 150,000 people.
On Friday's anniversary of the war's start, the bus became the centerpiece of a commemoration ceremony. Someone had scribbled "No to civil war," on a white board hung amid photos of the death and destruction. "I love Lebanon," another contributor wrote.
Lebanon is as divided today as it was 32 years ago. Threats of another civil war loom over this small Mediterranean nation, home to 18 religious sects. The country has been paralyzed since November by a power struggle pitting Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who is supported by many Sunni Muslims, against the opposition, led by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah.
Almost no opposition supporters came to Friday's commemoration, which was sponsored by pro-government forces and held on a former crossing point on the Green Line that separated Beirut's Christian and Muslim sectors from 1975 to 1990.
And most Lebanese, fed up with ongoing political tension and uncertainty, have lost their enthusiasm for memorials, so the ceremony was attended by just a handful of pro-government politicians and a few members of the public.
"Never since 1990 has the shadow of civil war been so present over us like today," said Yussef Bazzi, a writer who fought in a secular nationalist militia during the war.
The sectarian tensions, brewing since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, are unnerving the Lebanese. Their fears are reinforced as rival politicians accuse each other of rearming.
However, no major political party, including Hezbollah, advocates going back to a time when kidnappings, car bombs, mortars and assassination were regularly used to subdue the other side.
"We don't want civil war ... No one wants to burn down his country over political differences," Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last week.
Still the tensions have turned violent on several occasions. Nine people have died in street clashes in December and January between pro- and anti-government groups. A shootout Friday between supporters of the two sides in a village in the central mountains overlooking Beirut left one person from each side wounded, one by gunfire and another by a pistol-whipping, police said.
Most of the old faces from the civil war are still in power _ or their sons and grandsons. One of them, Karim Pakradouni, a leader of the Christian Phalange Party, attended Friday's commemoration.
"I am responsible for and a participant in the war," he told The Associated Press.
At the outset, he said, the civil war's aim was to prevent the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Many in Lebanon at the time resented the growing power of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which had effectively created its own state within Lebanon.
But Pakradouni said the war turned into a "struggle for power."
"I regret having taken part in the war to acquire power. But I'm proud of taking part in it to prevent the resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon," said Pakradouni.
Bazzi, the former militia fighter, said it was immature to blame the civil war solely on politicians and militia leaders.
"The people are to blame too. No one is innocent in Lebanon," he said. "In any civil war, the whole society is guilty _ there are fighters, there are witnesses and there are cheerleaders."
As for the past, Bazzi said the Lebanese people _ including the politicians _ should forgive but not forget.
"I feel guilty because I didn't appreciate the value of Lebanon and took part in its destruction," he said.
