Mafia Morals

Christian vs. Christian again

When Lebanon's Christians and Muslims are not fighting each other, they are apt to be warring among themselves. Last week, as various Muslim groups skirmished with each other in West Beirut, a far more important fight took place between Christian militia armies in East Beirut and along the coast to the north of the capital. The Phalangists of Pierre Gemayel virtually wiped out the forces of their chief rival, National Liberal Party Leader (and former President) Camille Chamoun, thereby emerging as the dominant Christian military group in Lebanon.

The clashes started two weeks ago, after the Chamoun group offered to turn some of its military positions over to the Lebanese army and the Phalangists objected. On Sunday, July 6, Gemayel's elder son Amin visited a beach resort of the National Liberal Party and assured his rivals that the Phalangists would not retaliate for the fighting. He even stayed for lunch and a swim. The very next morning, however, Chamoun's followers were attacked by 800 Phalangist troops under the leadership of Amin Gemayel's younger brother Bashir, head of his faction's "war council." The savage fighting ended two days later after Chamoun ordered his badly outnumbered followers to evacuate their offices and barracks. The estimated casualties on both sides: 100 dead and 300 wounded.

To some observers, the militia leaders appear to have the morals of Mafia dons. The Phalangists' sneak attack was reminiscent of a raid they made in June 1978 on still another Christian faction, the one led by former Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh. In that attack, Franjieh's eldest son Tony, as well as Tony's wife and infant daughter, was slain by Phalangist gunmen. In their assault on the National Liberals last week, the Phalangists seized and burned the home of Dany Chamoun, the son of the party leader and the commander of the group's militia. Dany was not home at the time, but the Phalangists kidnaped his Australian-born wife Patty and daughter Tracy, 17, and held them for several hours before surrendering them to the Red Cross.

The Phalangists appeared to have had at least two goals: to consolidate their hold over a 400-sq.-mi. Christian-dominated area to the north and east of Beirut, and to merge the various Christian militia units into a Phalangist-run "national guard" consisting of 40,000 men. They reportedly offered Camille Chamoun the titular leadership of the new coalition in return for his cooperation. Dany Chamoun accused the Phalangists of "treachery" and of committing "atrocities." His father said nothing, apparently hoping to protect his followers. Already about 300 members of his defeated militia had taken refuge in areas controlled either by Franjieh or by their old enemies, the leftist Muslim forces.

The aim now, said one Phalangist leader, is "to liberate the rest of the country." That sounded like a prescription for a return to civil war. Muslim groups feared that the Phalangists might put new pressure on the feeble regime of President Elias Sarkis for a de facto partition of the country. As for the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose headquarters are in Beirut, it regarded the events of last week as tantamount to "a declaration of war on the Palestinians."

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