Report
BEIRUT: Security forces in Lebanon are hamstrung by regional and sectarian influences and lack necessary resources to safeguard citizens, according to a landmark study. The report charged that Lebanon’s security sector continues “to suffer command and organizational weakness due to the pull of political, sectarian and regional loyalties” and still bore the hallmarks of the country’s turbulent past.
“The security sector [in Lebanon] has not yet overcome the legacy of the 15-year Civil War that ended in 1990, nor the subsequent 15 years of Syrian domination,” said Yezid Sayigh, professor of Middle East Studies at King’s College London and author of “Fixing Broken Windows,” a study on security forces in Middle Eastern states.
The report, commissioned by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, assessed the performance of various Lebanese security forces, including the Lebanese Army (LAF) and Internal Security Forces (ISF). It also questioned the usefulness of international sponsors such as the US and European Union donating money to fund counterterrorism in Lebanon.
“The Lebanese security sector is under-resourced,” said Sayigh. “But material assistance is of limited value so long as the political authorities are unprepared to devise national security policies.”
Retired Army General Elias Hanna said that the LAF was deliberately kept in a state of diminished capability.
“Politics is stronger than the army and everyone is afraid of the armed forces so you keep them weak in order to control them,” he told The Daily Star. “Moreover, we have never had political calm in order to get better equipment and training.”
The fact that various services report to different authorities, coupled with the LAF’s and ISF’s pluralistic nature, “impedes modernization and the upgrade of skills and equipment,” according to Sayigh.
“The lack of political consensus prevented a comprehensive approach [to strengthening institutions],” he said.
Hanna added that political consensus on security issues was unlikely to be reached for some time: “When you want to govern strategy you have to have the political umbrella. We don’t have that [consensus] and maybe we never will.”
Both the LAF and ISF are required to recruit members from across the range of Lebanon’s sects, in theory ensuring that law and order enforcement remains non-partisan. Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud – under whose remit the ISF operates – last month said security in Lebanon was a “red line” that should not be crossed by political agendas.
“Because of the political problems in Lebanon, the distribution of power is reflected directly in the army, regardless of merit,” said Hanna.
“If you have five places to fill and you have five excellent officers that are all Shiite, you can’t use them. You have to find less excellent candidates in order to fill a quota.”
He added that the representational system of selecting army recruits was forcing “a sectarian program into a place where sectarianism is not appropriate.”
The report suggests that international support for Lebanese security forces fluctuates “in line with their perceived loyalty to the government or opposition.”
Sayigh used the example of the US’s reluctance to deal directly with the LAF following the 2006 summer war with Israel, given that “its rank and file were heavily Shiite Muslim and so presumably sympathetic to [Hizbullah].”
Although three-quarters of a total $410 million in assistance for Lebanese security pledged by the US since 2006 has gone to the LAF, Sayigh argued that proper funding ties were not re-established until May 2008, when clashes between opposition and pro-government gunmen tore through West Beirut, killing more than 60 people, most of whom were civilians.
Hanna said that US reluctance to donate additional equipment, including weapons, stemmed from a mistrust of how it would be used.
“Maybe the US is afraid that if it gives the Lebanese Army equipment it might fall into the hands of Hizbullah,” he said.
Hanna added that Lebanon’s standing in the region put it at a disadvantage when it came to internationally funded equipment and training.
“America will never give us the equipment we want even if there was no Hizbullah. It sees Lebanon as a small player so we will never get much support,” he said and added that US regional policy would also not allow significant military support for Lebanon.
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