Cette vidéo est malheureusement en arabe, elle concerne le génocide des Libanais durant la Première Guerre mondiale.
Contrairement à ce qu’on pense ou à ce qu’on laisse entendre, ce génocide a eu lieu en même temps que celui des Arméniens, il a même commencé quelques jours avant, comme le montrent les textes que je cite dans mon livre Quand les Anglais livraient le Levant à l’Etat islamique.
C’est pour une raison politique bien précise qu’on a tué le tiers des Libanais par la famine alors qu’en Arménie, en Turquie, en Syrie, en Irak, on a tué les chrétiens par des massacres. C’est parce que là-bas, on voulait tuer des communautés. Au Liban, ils voulaient tuer un peuple. C’est ainsi que moururent dans la montagne les druzes avec les chrétiens, formant 20% des morts. Il ne faut pas oublier que la majorité écrasante était alors chrétienne au Liban, et même maronite. A Beyrouth moururent des personnes de toutes les confessions: surtout chrétiennes, puisque la majorité écrasante des Beyrouthins était chrétienne comme à la montagne. Mais aussi, des musulmans, des druzes, des juifs.
Beyrouth, durant les premiers siècles de l’occupation romaine, était une ville d’étudiants. Dans son École de Droit, les étudiants affluaient de tout l’Orient. Dans les rues de Beyrouth, les étudiants discutaient beaucoup de métaphysique en-dehors des cours. Un texte datant d’avant la destruction de cette école, montre que l’ambiance dans cette ville était très pro-chrétienne, puisqu’une affaire de paganisme (et donc de sacrifices d’innocents) fut arrêtée par un mouvement populaire. En même temps, un étudiant pouvait, avec des discussions, en faire changer un autre d’avis.
Cette école devait avoir déjà son renom avant l’occupation romaine. Sinon Beyrouth, qui avait le meilleur port du Levant et aurait plutôt eu vocation à être une ville commerçante, n’aurait pas été choisie par les Romains pour être dépositaire de leurs lois pour tout l’Orient. D’où son surnom de « mère des lois ».
L’importance de l’École de Droit de Beyrouth a considérablement augmenté quand l’empire romain s’est transporté en Orient. Peu à peu, elle est devenue la plus importante école de Droit du monde.
C’est en effet à cette École que l’empereur Justinien demanda de réformer les lois et édits de ses prédécesseurs, dont beaucoup n’étaient plus à jour.
Il demanda plus spécifiquement à dix de ses professeurs de faire ce tri et d’opérer la compilation. C’est donc à Beyrouth que fut écrit le Code Justinien, qui devait, après le premier millénaire, devenir la base de tous les codes de lois en Occident.
La plus grande partie de ce Code est fondé sur les travaux d’Ulpien de Tyr, donc un Phénicien.
À l’idée raciste de la supériorité romaine, Ulpien opposait celle des droits innés que possède tout homme à la naissance, et de l’égalité de tous les hommes devant la loi. C’était alors révolutionnaire si l’on se rappelle que la plupart des codes de lois — dont le grec — donnaient la supériorité à une race ou à une caste.
Ainsi, quand Ulpien parle de l’esclavage, il écrit que l’institution est contraire à la nature, et issue de l’asservissement de nations par d’autres :
« Quant au droit naturel, tous sont égaux. Par le droit naturel, tous les hommes naissent libres. »
C’est la plus ancienne formulation de droits humains que nous possédions, en l’état actuel de nos connaissances.
Ulpien a aussi une vision un peu spéciale du statut de juriste, qui ne semble pas lui avoir survécu. Selon lui, la justice ne doit pas seulement punir, elle doit aussi récompenser celui qui fait le bien, et contribuer ainsi à l’amélioration de la société.
Un rêve pieux, qui demeura un rêve : nous ne connaissons de la justice que son côté pénal. Mais au temps où cette École était encore en activité, elle devait enseigner ce côté de la loi. Nonnos, Égyptien d’expression grecque, écrit en effet :
« La discorde, qui ravage les États, ne cessera de troubler la paix que lorsque Berite [Beyrouth], protectrice des lois, jugera la terre et les mers, fortifiera les villes de l’indestructible boulevard des lois, enfin, lorsque cette ville régira toutes les cités du monde. »
Il est vrai que nous sommes dans un monde de loups, que les vestiges de l’École de Droit ont été rasés et jetés dans la mer, et beaucoup d’autres précieux vestiges aussi. Mais il est tout aussi vrai que nous sommes une nation captive, et que l’Histoire du Liban en a vu bien d’autres. À moyen terme, nous pourrions voir un bouleversement dans le sens de la vie, tel que nous en avons si souvent vu dans l’Histoire.
Attendons-le.
Lina Murr Nehmé
Page de manuscrit médiéval du Code de Justinien (Librije, Zutphen).
Je ne sais pas si la tradition du moghli pour fêter la venue des bébés remonte à la nuit des temps phéniciens. Quelqu’un peut-il me renseigner ? Car il est indiscutable que les bébés, à cet âge, ne mangent pas de moghli. Ils en mangent encore moins la garniture. Mais… bon… j’ai fait ceci pour les adultes, bien évidemment.
Une chose qui m’a étonnée: l’hôpital en prévoit six ou sept qu’il offre aux jeunes mamans pour leurs visiteurs des deux premiers jours. Même aux jeunes mamans musulmanes, qui sont très contentes d’en offrir quand elles ne sont pas salafistes.
Car pour les islamistes, il en est de la tradition du moghli comme il en est de celle de l’arbre de Noël. Une tradition des mécréants que nous sommes, qui leur fait pousser des cris d’orfraie si par hasard ils ont appris qu’une musulmane en a fait et offert à la naissance d’un bébé dans sa famille.
Je crois qu’ils seraient encore plus effarouchés s’ils savaient que cette tradition remonte aux Phéniciens dont ils cherchent à effacer la mémoire en prétendant que le Liban est arabe, comme s’il n’avait pas été peuplé de Phéniciens lors de l’invasion arabe.
Si le moghli est une tradition aussi ancienne (ce dont je doute vu les ingrédients), je ne demanderai pas mieux que de le leur faire savoir. Je crois qu’ils sont des fans de mes écrits et de mes apparitions télévisées, qu’ils épient avec passion.
Lina Murr Nehmé, 21 septembre 2018
P. S. : Voici une recette de moghli proposée par une lectrice:
Ingrédients:
1 verre de riz en poudre
8 verres d’eau
1 verre et demi de sucre
1 petite cuiller de cannelle en poudre
1 grande cuillère de carum en poudre
1/2 cuiller d’anis moulu .
Mettre le tout à froid ensemble. Laisser reposer deux heures ensuite au feu. Remuer jusqu’à ce que le mélange soit crémeux.
N.B. : Cet article a été publié sur Libnanews le 24 juillet 2011. Lien vers l’archive.
Lina Murr Nehmé, 24 juillet 2011, Beyrouth – On a découvert une fosse commune dans un terrain appartenant à un couvent à Chebaniyeh. Puis on nous a dit que ce ne sont que des os animaux jetés par un boucher.
D’abord, les os animaux ne sont pas jetés (les bouchers les donnent ou les vendent pour la soupe et le bouillon).
Quelle que soit la nature de ces ossements, il est inacceptable qu’une partie de la presse n’ait pas le droit de les approcher pour les examiner.
Et de toute façon, il est inadmissible que quiconque se mêle d’affaires de ce genre avant le procureur et les ministères concernés, le premier étant le ministère de la Justice. Où est le ministère de la Justice en ce moment?
Et le témoin a parlé de 27 sacs d’ossements. Or 26 n’ont pas été trouvés. Où sont-ils?
Ceci nous rappelle la tragédie de la fosse commune de Halate. On nous avait dit qu’il n’y avait pas d’ossements, car ceux qui avaient creusé la terre avaient refusé de tenir compte des indications des témoins, et ils avaient creusé là où il était impossible de trouver quelque chose.
En 2000, lors de l’enquête faite par l’Etat libanais, Joumblatt et Berri ont reconnu qu’ils avaient tué tous les otages qu’ils avaient enlevés. Dans ce cas, ils doivent être dans une (ou des) fosses communes. Si la fosse comune de Chebaniyeh n’est pas un endroit où sont enterrés des hommes, où sont les fosses communes contenant les cadavres des Libanais tués par Joumblatt, Geagea ou Berri durant la guerre?
La légèreté et la vitesse, le manque de professionnalisme avec lesquels l’affaire est menée, sont inquiétants pour le futur. Car le jour où il y aura une vraie fosse commune d’ossements humains, il y aura de fortes chances pour qu’on la bouche avant que le ministère de la Justice s’en soit mêlé.
Contrary to preconceptions, the American media are, in the area of foreign politics, heavily influenced by unscrupulous entities that are, sometimes, related to the government.
This subservience is not obvious: the journalists in the United States are impertinent in the area of domestic policy. So the average American does not know enough about foreign politics to be able to check the data provided to him… or to know what is hidden from him.
While I was in Lebanon in February 1989, I had ordered sets of prints of some of my paintings. I had to go from Jounieh to Cyprus by boat, in order to return to the USA, where I lived, near Boston. I could not know that I had taken the last boat, and that heavy bombardments would close this port a few hours after my departure.
Three weeks later, as I needed to have a few samples of the prints, I called my parents in Lebanon and asked if they had received my prints. My father said:
“We are working as fast as we can. But we are under unceasing heavy Syrian bombardments. You know we are at war, don’t you?”
“No. I did not know. Otherwise I would not have asked for my prints.”
“We are experiencing the worst bombardments we have ever known. But we are happy, because at long last, Lebanon has declared war on Syria.“
It was huge: the war had lasted so many years, and the Syrian army was occupying part of Lebanon. The Lebanese army would fight against the Syrians at some places, yet, the Lebanese politicians had never dared talking of bombarding the Syrian army in Lebanon openly.
I called the Lebanese journalists I knew in America. They confirmed the existence of a blackout in the American medias, concerning Lebanon. One of them faxed me a sample of a letter to sign and send at the White House to George H.W. Bush, who was then president. In this letter, the sender demanded that the American media told the truth about the Syrians in Lebanon. I signed the letter and put it in an envelope which I stamped. I wrote on the envelope the name and address of George Bush, and I posted it, without hoping much of a result.
After a few days, the media stopped the blackout. I called the same journalist and I asked him what had happened. He said: “Fifty thousand of us sent letters to the White House. That’s why the media have stopped the blackout. Read the Boston Globe“.
On 2 April 1989, the Boston Globe wrote in its editorial page:
“Since March 14, the people of Beirut have suffered from artillery bombardments that have made their existence a nightmare. In one night, 5,000 rockets fired from Syrian positions in West Beirut landed on the Christian quarters of East Beirut. Enormous fuel-storage tanks have been set ablaze, and the fires have burned out of control. Power stations have been knocked out, and since Beirut depends on pumps for its water supplies, the cutoff of electricity has meant a city without lights and water.
“American newspapers and television networks have been hampered in reporting the tragedy of Beirut’s bombardment — the hundreds of casualties, the thousands of refugees fleeing south. The Bush administration has kept silent.”
Who could hamper all the American media from doing their job while the Bush administration was also keeping silent? And why?
The effects of this hampering are amazing. In the period from March 14 until the editorial cited above, the Boston Globe’s articles make it appear that nothing is happening in Lebanon except truces and some fighting between Christians and Muslims or Druzes. Below are the abstracts of all seven articles about Lebanon from March 14 to April 1, taken from the Boston Globe archives. Three of them are about truces, four of them describe the fighting as being between Christians and Muslim militiamen without Syrian involvement, one of them describes the Syrian army as not involved (but re-deploying just in case), zero describe Syria as being involved in the fighting, and only one (a third update of a former article) mentions that a certain General leading a “Christian Cabinet” says the fighting is against Syrian forces.
40 Lebanese Die in Sectarian Clashes, Mar 15, 1989: At least 40 people were killed, mostly civilians, on March 15, 1989 in Beirut as Christian army units and Moslem militiamen fought an artillery duel which rained hundreds of shells on Beirut’s residential areas.
40 LEBANESE DIE IN SECTARIAN CLASHES, Mar 15, 1989 (third update): Gen. Michel Aoun, who leads a Christian military Cabinet and commands 20,000 Christian troops, said yesterday: “It’s a war of liberation against Syrian occupation forces. The battle has begun.” Aoun’s headquarters were damaged in the shelling. In midafternoon, police said, Aoun’s forces shelled the border town [sic] of Chtaura [in the center of Lebanon], command headquarters for Syrian troops in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, and cut the Damascus-Beirut highway. Gen. Sami Khatib, chosen by [Salim Hoss] to command the army’s 22,000 Moslem soldiers, has kept out of the Christian-Druze battle. His troops are poorly equipped and scattered throughout Lebanon’s Moslem territory, which generally covers West Beirut, the slums to the south of the capital, and south Lebanon and coastal areas.
Lebanese Observe Uneasy, Unofficial Truce, Mar 16, 1989: Rival Christian and Moslem forces, pausing after two days of fighting that killed 50 people and wounded others, observed an uneasy and undeclared truce amid warnings of renewed fighting.
Shelling Continues in Hills Near Beirut, Mar 19, 1989: Christian-led army troops and pro-Syrian Moslem militiamen battled with tanks and artillery in the hills overlooking Beirut. Reasons for the latest fighting are presented.
Artillery Duels, Air Strikes Rock Lebanon, Mar 21, 1989: Violence erupted between Christian and Moslem forces in Lebanon while Israeli planes bombed Palestinian positions in the Bekaa Valley.
Syria Troops Redeployed Near Beirut, Mar 23, 1989: Syria moved its troops in Beirut to new positions and called for the ousting of Christian leader Michel Aoun. The military reorganization is in case of war across divided Beirut between Aoun’s troops and Syrian Moslems.
Lebanese Truce Starts; Shelling Subsides, Mar 29, 1989: The Lebanese army has agreed to a cease fire to give the Arab League a chance to negotiate an end to Lebanon’s crisis.
Such a subservience is amazing in a country that claims to have the freest press in the world. In a free country, there is no need to send letters to the President in order to have journalists report so huge a tragedy. Money or other forms of pressure make the American media accept, in the area of international politics — the most important area — a self-censorship similar to the one that terror imposes in dictatorships.
The White House was very well informed about the situation in Lebanon: that’s what ambassadors and secret services are for. The following telegram published by Wikileaks, was written on 14 March 1989 by John McCarthy, the American ambassador in Beirut. It speaks of the bombardment, and says that Nabih Berri, head of the Amal movement, wanted the ambassador to know that he was not the one who had bombarded the Lebanese MOD (Ministry of Defense). Berri implied that the Syrian army was the one to have bombarded the MOD: besides Berri’s Amal, there was no other armed force having a heavy artillery capable of doing such shelling:
Why did George H.W. Bush keep silent about the tragedy of Lebanon in March 1989, despite being kept informed on a daily basis by his diplomats and his intelligence services?
Perhaps because George Bush wanted to leave a free hand to the Syrian army and the militias financed by Saudi Arabia and Syria. He would later approve the Syrian invasion of Lebanon (13 October 1990). A few days earlier, he even prepared the American opinion at a White House Briefing for Representatives of the Arab-American Community, on 24 September 1990. In this briefing, he refused to grant Lebanon the same human rights as Kuwait, and punish Hafez Assad like Saddam Hussein since he had committed the same crime: invading a neighboring country. In fact, Assad was far more guilty. He had shed much more blood than Saddam, and had invaded Lebanon many years before Saddam had invaded Kuwait. George H.W. Bush went so far as to announce that Syria would have a role in ending the division of Lebanon, which meant that Syria would occupy the totality of Lebanon:
A woman: “One question about Lebanon, please.” Bush: “Shoot.” The woman: ” …Our government has taken every action against Iraq that we have been urging should be taken against Syria for its similar action in Lebanon. Syria is now apparently allied with our government and others against Iraq. This disturbs us greatly, unless our government has some plan to use its newfound leverage on Syria to cause Hafiz Assad to conform to the norms of civilized behavior that we are attempting to enforce against Saddam Hussein. “This is the question: What is our plan to make Syria conform? And if there is no plan, doesn’t our alliance with Syria compromise our moral position in the worldwide effort against Iraq?” Bush: “This thing is so complex over there that it’s pretty hard to give you a definitive answer. Out of this, though, there could well be a new world order. And part of that must be the peaceful resolution of the division of Lebanon. I’ve been there; I’ve worked there years ago. And I’m old enough … to remember Lebanon as the peaceful crossroad. It didn’t matter what was going on in the rest of the world; commerce survived, people got along one with the other, different religions and different ways of life all thriving there. We want to help… bring peace to the Lebanon. And Syria does have a key role. And I hope out of this that we can use this new world order, if you will, that might emerge if we all stay together [with Hafez Assad] to be catalysts for peace in the Lebanon”.
It was the President of a democratic country speaking, openly, in front of microphones and television cameras, of a dictatorship putting an end to a democracy by a bloody invasion! This is to be compared with the way the Syrian regime is treated by the American authorities since it left Lebanon and accepted to acknowledge Lebanon’s existence as a free State, by exchanging ambassadors, for the first time in history.
This, knowing that Bachar Assad, unlike his father, had not committed any massacres before the beginning of the war in Syria. This war had been prepared for years, and financed by the same foreign powers as the war of Lebanon.
Some people say that what is happening to Bachar Assad is justice. I would say the opposite. The criminals who survived from the Hafez Assad regime, are today in the opposition that is backed by the West. The West backs these criminals today just as it backed them and Hafez in the past. Nothing has changed.
I published this open letter on 16 July 2012. The present tragedy in Tripoli and the declarations of Mikati make it necessary to publish it again. For the man who is leading now the battle against the Lebanese army in Tripoli is that same Shadi Mawlawi who was freed two years ago, in a way that was both unbelievable and unacceptable:
M. Prime Minister
A few weeks ago, Shadi Mawlawi was arrested in a building that belongs to Minister Safadi. Because of that, the Salafis inflicted their war on Tripoli, your city.
It is the judiciary’s business to say if the charges against Mawlawi are true or not. It is not mine. However, I have the right to refuse to believe that a man is innocent, when, with his consent, his friends free him from prison by putting his city at war, killing five persons, and wounding many others. A man who has nothing to do with crime, does not thank his friends because they killed innocent people for his sake. By doing that, he becomes their accomplice and bears the responsibility of their murders.
The judiciary freed him because of pressures laid by you, M. Mikati, and by M. Muhammad Safadi.
Both of you are very rich men. Each of you fears the loss of some of his wealth. Each of you prepares for the coming elections. I understand all that. But it is my duty to tell you the truth, however rich you are, however close the elections are. It is not honorable for a Lebanese Prime minister, to protect the murderers of innocent people, at the expense of security, of the Army, and of the citizens of Tripoli. Your duty is to punish these murderers and to impose law and order. This is the desire of the silent majority in Tripoli. And Tripoli is the second city of Lebanon. It deserves peace like Beirut, M. Prime Minister.
You were not content with protecting murderers by laying pressure on the Judiciary in order to free Shadi Mawlawi. You weakened the State’s authority even more, by opposing the Lebanese Army to the Lebanese Security Forces in Tripoli. So Mawlawi could say that “the Lebanese State cannot afford not to please the Sunnis”, as if the honorable community to which he belongs was superior to the other Lebanese communities.
The ministers rushed to the Tribunal, each one offering Shadi Mawlawi the service of his car. Thus rush the taxi chauffeurs at the airport, when they see a traveler.
Safadi won the contest. Mawlawi used his ministerial car, which transported him to Tripoli.
Your car, M. Prime minister, was refused. But you had Mawlawi visit you at your home. We read in some newspapers that you offered him ten thousand dollars. However, your office denied it afterwards. True or false, the matter would have caused you much harm, if it had become the talk of the town.
Then came the time of the annual commemoration of the massacre of Halba. The massacre of Halba cannot be explained in confessional terms, because both the murderers and the victims were of the same religion (Sunni). The Salafis, however, decided to organize another celebration in a nearby place.
The Army was sent to prevent people from bringing guns, in order to protect every person who would participate in one of the two celebrations.
As we all know, when the Army is sent to make a roadblock, it receives the order to fire on the tires of every car whose driver refuses to stop. And the Army is supposed to fire on the people that are inside if they go on their way or if they charge the soldiers.
In Kueikhat, a two car convoy passed. One of these cars contained a great number of guns in its trunk. And its driver did not stop when the soldiers ordered him to. The occupants of the car even fired at the soldiers, and wounded one of them. The soldiers fired back, and killed two Salafi ulamas. One of them was Sheik Ahmad Abdul-Wahid, who is well known for having smuggled arms in order to help the Fatah al-Islam (an al-Qaida Palestinian organization) against the Lebanese Army in the battle of Nahr al-Bared.
The photos of the wounded Lebanese soldier were not communicated to the press. Why? Because they would have proved that the Army did its duty, and that the soldiers were shot at before shooting?
Pressure laid by the rabble, and also by you, M. Prime Minister, led to the arrest of the soldiers and officers who obeyed orders. The Army did not do anything to defend them. Why? Maybe for fear of some politicians who draw their strength and their financing from serving foreign powers. But the Lebanese military also are in need of security. Security when they obey orders. If these orders were bad, you should have punished those who gave them, not those who obeyed.
Thus you freed the man charged with crime, and threw in jail those who obeyed orders. After that, M. Mikati, you decided to free the Salafists who were arrested because of the Nahr al-Barid events. To justify the interest you and the Minister of the Interior had in freeing them — and not the others — it was said that they had been in jail for five years.
We want the law to be implemented. We want people to be freed after having been arrested for a time, if they have not been judged. But why should you free the Salafist Moslems and not the Moslems who are not Salafist? Why should you free the Salafist Moslems and not the people belonging to other communities? Indeed, in the prison of Roumieh, there are men who have been waiting for seven years or more, and they still have not been judged. Among them, some have been arrested for stealing 100.000 Lebanese pounds only ($75) and not because they belong to a terrorist organization that has killed Lebanese civilians and soldiers.
A few days later, the First Military Investigation Magistrate, Riad Abou Ghida, freed the military officers who had been arrested after the death of Sheikh Ahmad Abdul-Wahid and his companion. Then the Salafists threatened to blow up Tripoli and the North. Then you intervened, you, M. Prime Minister who never cease to fear for your electoral popularity in Tripoli, and for your billions of dollars invested in the Saudi Arabian Kingdom. And the First Military Investigation Magistrate arrested again the military officers. In no other country is such a tyrannical act allowed, M. Mikati. Its purpose is to ruin the Army morale so that it stops defending the country. So Lebanon becomes defenseless when time comes to transform it into… into what? Perhaps into that Salafist Islamic Republic claimed by those who demonstrated against the liberation of the military officers.
It would have been less harmful to the State’s reputation, not to have freed the military officers at all.
Now, the majority of all religions in Lebanon, is angry. But will you listen to its voice, to the voice of conscience more than to the voice of the minority that burns tires and kills the innocent?
M. Mikati, do you rule over the Republic of Al Capone, which defends murderers and abandons the innocent majority?
Lina Murr Nehme
This open letter was published by Elnashra, on 16 July 2012. Safadi answered me, through the same media. He did not deny anything I had written, he only said that Shadi Mawlawi did not use his car to go to Tripoli. But I ask Safadi why he did not contradict the television reporters at that time, when they were saying, live, that Mawlawi used his car?
