Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ψ 25
$'$6+72 %(,587
O
The original plan to go to Lebanon had been abandoned due to the renewed outbreak of vi-
olence between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Government. The situation was summed up in
the news reports of 8 May 2008, which said that:
“Street clashes in Beirut have taken an ominous new turn after Lebanon's top Sunni and
Shi'ite Muslim leaders accused each other of taking orders from foreign powers to provoke
religious strife”.
However, time can heal many things, or at least calm them down. At the time of arrival in
Damascus several months later, matters had calmed sufficiently to open the opportunity for
a quick visit to Beirut. On enquiring, I found it would cost 200 US Dollars for a vehicle and
an English-speaking driver.
We also found that we had multiple entry visas to Syria, so could return without too much
trouble; provided we could get a visa at the border to enter Lebanon. After a chat to Mo-
hammed, things fell into place and arrangements were made to give it a try.
The journey to Lebanon was prompted by an interest in how the people had survived the
endless violence that had wracked the country for many decades and also by Dalrymple's
descriptions of his travels through the area. The Lebanese Civil War had dragged on for
many years from 1975 to 1990 and then there was the prolonged Syrian occupation, which
came to a shuddering halt following the 2005 assassination of Hariri and the consequential
Cedar Revolution. This was followed by a spate of assassinations and bombings that tar-
geted anti-Syrian politicians and public figures, with these killings continuing sporadically
to the present day.
Fighting broke out between Hezbollah and Israel in 2007 and then the more recent 2008
clashes between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah.
The origins of the Lebanese Civil War can be traced back to the conflicts and political com-
promises reached after the end of Lebanon's administration by the Ottoman Empire. The
conflict became greatly exacerbated by Lebanon's changing demographic trends as a result
