BAALBEK, Lebanon: Umm Ahmad lives in an unfinished home that has been under construction for many years on arid land. Now in her 60s, she has a hunched back and deeply lined faced. She lives alone here, despite being mother to seven children. Her three daughters left when they married, while her four sons, one after the other, were arrested and went to prison on drug charges. Her story is just one of hundreds of similar tales in the Baalbek-Hermel province, where there are some 30,000 outstanding arrest warrants. The increase of the number of wanted individuals has left devastated a younger generation, many of whom themselves end up in prison, fleeing justice or committing crimes, some resulting in death.

Michel Daher, an attorney, says that around 2,500 residents currently have arrest warrants for crimes, while another 500 are wanted for minor violations.

According to Daher, those who are wanted by the police often fall prey to more serious criminal networks. The problem is also exacerbated by the terrible conditions in prisons which make fugitives all the more reluctant to turn themselves in and face the charges.

“The problem is very grave, and cannot be solved from the security angle alone. It is complicated and has been compounded by years of trouble,” says Daher, who is working on the cases of many prisoners as well as fugitives in the area.

“The number of wanted persons skyrocketed, leading to more crime. There is no solution except to issue a general pardon which would allow people to return to their daily lives and reduce the number of crimes,” he says. “The majority of wanted persons will have a fresh start after they stop running from the law.”

The phenomenon can be traced to the tribal system of social values in the area, says Ali al-Moussawi, a sociology professor at the Lebanese University.

According to Moussawi, members of tribes traditionally view raids as a source of power and pride, and there is no alternative framework that focuses on respect for the modern state and laws, especially since the Lebanese state is itself based on religious, sectarian and tribal balances, and the enforcement of laws is weak and selective.

“Enforcing the law should either be comprehensive or it will fail. When members of a tribe notice that the law is often violated by citizens of the country, and see some individuals being treated as if they are above the law, then they revert to their traditional system of values,” says Moussawi.

The professor argues that chronic underdevelopment is also responsible for the number of fugitives. During the Civil War, he continues, the area was secure and stable as it benefitted from illegal drug crops, which provided employment and steady income.

“This stopped with the return of the state, and the decision to end the drug crops. With this came the return of wanted persons, a problem that persisted due to underdevelopment projects in the area,” he says.

“Baalbek residents are the victims of the economic and political system in the country,” he adds.

He says that resolving the issue requires full scale development as well as prisoner rehabilitation in order to facilitate their return to the work force, adding that any solution based on security will not have any significant impact.

The relationship between the residents and the security forces has become one of cat and mouse. First charges are often for minor violation, but when wanted individuals flee from security forces, this leads to further violations, and can result in life of criminality or prison.

According to Mefleh Allaw, a member of the Allaw tribe as well as the Hermel municipal council, the problem of fugitives can be traced to independence, when the northeast region started being marginalized and neglected by state.

“There are still so many wanted persons because of the absence of development projects, which is the failure of successive governments since independence. The money that was allocated by the Lebanese government and international donors to these projects was wasted,” he says. “It was spent on superficial studies, as well as lining some people’s pockets.”

Allaw also argues that upper class residents bear some of the blame.

“At the same time, wealthy residents in the area who have made their fortune from illegal drugs do not use their money for projects that could benefit the wider area and provide job opportunities for its in youth,” he says, adding that no one investigates the source of their wealth.

Allaw argues that the long term solution is development.

“The solution is the implementation of real development, but issuing a general pardon would be a temporary solution,” he says. “After the pardon, punishments could be made more severe.”