The Daily Star - Terrorist charges anger refugees, Bekaa residents, December 23rd 2011

By Rakan al-Fakih

ARSAL/MASHTA HAMMOUD, Lebanon: The recent comments by Lebanese officials about the presence of al-Qaida fighters along the country’s border with Syria are being met with exasperation and anger in the villages and towns where the number of displaced is steadily growing.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn made the accusation that fighters and weapons were being smuggled from areas in the Bekaa near Arsal, but for Ahmad Fleiti, a public relations official with the Arsal Development Association in the Bekaa Valley, Ghosn’s comments were just an attempt to cover up for the Syrian army’s intermittent incursions across the border.

Arsal saw one of its residents killed and another injured when Syrian troops fired on them last week.

“The minister of defense is the one who’s responsible for controlling the borders and protecting them from incursions from the Syrian side,” Fleiti said.

Residents are demanding that the army deploy all along the border, even if it means a temporary halt to lucrative smuggling in such areas.

The mayor of Arsal, Ali Mohammad Hujeiri, said suggestions of the entry of fundamentalist fighters and smuggling arms to Syria from crossings near Arsal were “completely true.”

“All they’re trying to do is put more pressure on the nearly 50 Syrian families who have taken refuge here and are receiving assistance from residents and some civil associations,” he said.

Hujeiri said that Arsal’s residents were fully ready to help the army verify whether or not al-Qaida fighters or arms were being funneled into Syria.

However, he added that this should take place by erecting checkpoints near the many crossing points along the porous border, and not inside the town.

Meanwhile, according to the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees, the number of Syrians in Lebanon fleeing unrest continues to rise steadily, topping the 4,500 mark, although it is unclear whether this is due to more people crossing over or an increase in the number of people registering themselves with the U.N.

The village of Mashta Hammoud in the Wadi Khaled region of Akkar is one of the main destinations for refugees.

At the Abra Center in Mashta Hammoud, more than 200 Syrian nationals have gathered and are ready to tell their story to the media, although these refugees face a number of restrictions on their movement.

Young children welcome visitors by chanting slogans and waving pine and cypress branches, to emphasize that they are part of a peaceful protest movement against their government.

Their parents, meanwhile, focus on the political and other developments under way in Syria – the latest being the government’s approval of a protocol to allow Arab observers enter the country.

Unsurprisingly, most of the refugees see the move as an attempt by the Syrian authorities to buy more time, and not a sign that the crisis could level off.

“If the Arab observers can get the regime to stop firing on demonstrators,” said refugee Mohannad Ahmad, “then millions of people will take to the streets, demanding that the regime be toppled.”

Ahmad, who is in telephone contact with his family members in the border village of Talkalakh, says that “defections in the army are rising, and the demonstrations are spreading to new areas, such as the Midan neighborhood of Damascus.”

For Maher Ibrahim, who is also at the Abra Center, there is no trust in the Syrian regime, merely hope that if the Arab observers enter Syria, refugees will be allowed to return.

Ibrahim was particularly critical of Hezbollah, which has supported President Bashar Assad throughout the uprising, and bitter that the situation is so different than five years ago, when tens of thousands of Lebanese were warmly welcomed in Syria during the July War.

“How can Hezbollah consider what happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya a revolution, while the uprising of the Syrian people is an American-Israeli conspiracy?” he asked.

The spokesperson for the refugees, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Akkari, lost his wife two weeks ago when she was gunned down by Syrian troops as she was returning from a visit to her family in Talkalakh. Two of Akkari’s brothers have been arrested, and the fate of one remains unknown.

Akkari, insistent that the Syrian uprising will remain largely peaceful, is determined to see a “civil, pluralist” state arise in place of the Baath regime.

He was dismissive of the Arab League observers’ mission, asking about the usefulness of issuing deadlines “to a killer, allowing him to kill more people,” but is fearful that the authorities in Damascus intend to stir up problems among the ranks of the refugees to blame them for violence.

Akkari said the main problem faced by refugees is that the Lebanese government refuses to officially recognize them as such and issue the proper paperwork so that they can travel freely.

“It’s as if we’re in a prison, and can’t leave. We have no papers allowing us to move around and not be arrested by Lebanese security personnel at the first checkpoint we try to cross,” he said.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-23/157712-terrorist-charges-anger-refugees-bekaa-residents.ashx#axzz1kI7QFwyN