The Trouble with Lebanon's Guardians

8132019 The Trouble with Lebanons Guardians

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-trouble-with-lebanons-guardians 142 ESQUIRE AUGUST 2013

Through thick plumes of teargas protesters

wielding sticks and stones surged up the

road leading toward Lebanonrsquos Grand

Serail in Downtown Beirut The wave of

angry youths quickly punctured the first

security line of police officers and chaos

took hold as they reached a second barrier

and everyone scattered

A barrage of gunfire more canisters of

tear gas and a fortuitous shift in the wind sent protesters running

back from the Serail As protesters and the police force staggered

a phalanx of soldiers three men deep took position at the first

barrier The intervention by army personnel put an end to the

scuffle and the protestersrsquo hopes of reaching the office of the

prime minister

Last Octoberrsquos attempted storming of the Grand Serail last year

followed the funeral of the countryrsquos intelligence chief Wissam al-

Hassan It was another tense day for Lebanon that set the shortfalls

of the nationrsquos poorly trained and disorganised police force into

stark relief Yearsrsquo worth of lackluster performances have seen the

army being forced to step in and regain control during dangerous

moments of civil strife

THETROUBLE

LEBANONrsquoSGUARDIANS

I N A C O U N T R Y B E S E T W I T H U N C E R T A I N T YA N D A F R A G I L E P E A C E I T D O E S N rsquo T H E L P

M A T T E R S T H A T T H E P O L I C E F O R C E I S A L S OI N D I R E N E E D O F R E F O R M

BY STEPHEN DOCKERY

W I T H

P H O

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S X X X X X X X X X

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X X X X X

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X X X X X X X


httpslidepdfcomreaderfullthe-trouble-with-lebanons-guardians 24 AUGUST 2013 ESQUIRE 3

Despite internal restructuring and external aid efforts

that channel hundreds of millions of dollars into training and

equipment former police officers trainers and analysts describe

a force that is underdeveloped underfunded and undercut by

politics size and sectarianism

This is a major problem in a country as unstable as Lebanon

The countryrsquos tenuous peace has been shattered restored

and shattered again since the brutal civil war ended in 1990

Maintaining order between its eighteen recognised religious

groups and a host of foreign actors who used the country as a

proxy battlefield is an ongoing balancing act Israel has waged

war here the bloodshed in Syria regularly spills over the border

and the countryrsquos fractious political-religious groups have done

their part to push Lebanon near the edge of domestic strife and

chaos Over the past year roadblocks kidnappings and gun battles

involving radical Islamists rural gangs and zealous supporters of

the countryrsquos political parties have challenged the countryrsquos hard

fought peace

This is a nation in desperate need of lawmen that can protect

and serve Yet the police force also known as the Internal Security

Forces can barely direct traffic Officers are more likely to be

seen speeding down the highway the wrong direction chatting



with friends or accepting a bribe than

protecting and serving ldquoItrsquos extremely

difficult to reform or transform the

security sector in Lebanon when it

operates in a political arena that is so

divided and polarisedrdquo says Yezid Sayigh

senior associate at the Carnegie Middle

East Center in Beirut A ldquopoor cousinrdquo of

the nationrsquos multitude of security services

is how Sayigh describes a force that has

long been able to perform only the most

basic of policing duties while having

difficulty respecting human rights

This latter issue was illustrated by a

visit to a large auditorium at the University

of Saint Joseph in southeast Beirut Several

hundred officers had just undergone a

two-week course on respecting human

rights and the final session was also open

to the press The event was meant to show

the strides they was making towards

reform but it turned out not to be thebest advert for their progress As a trainer

reviewed arrest procedures one of the

trainees put up his hand ldquoBut what if we

really need to beat him to get a confessionrdquo the officer asked

His question was met with nods of approval and more hands

shot up How can you know if the guy is guilty without beating him

the officers wanted to know

Some of the issues are cultural family and religious alliances

are deeply ingrained and a heavy hand is something that goes

back to Ottoman times The organisation is also tied in sectarian

knots Each of Lebanonrsquos major sects supports a portion of the

force which it guards fiercely and rarely shares with other groups

This system undercuts talented officers in favour of political and

religious balance

Other problems are more modern and bureaucratic When the

police forcersquos mandate was renewed over nine years ago foreign

donors flocked to help with the reform process A group of mostly

western states primarily the European Union United States and

United Kingdom poured in about $70 million a year to improve

the police and increase stability in the country Its ranks more

than doubled in size growing from about 13000 officers in 2005

to nearly 30000 police today in a nation of around four million

Some recruits are being brought in faster than they can be trained

as competent officers

Donors agree that the large growth has created some of

the forcersquos problems ldquoItrsquos a relatively young agency so itrsquos

understandable that there are some organisational challenges asa resultrdquo says a US diplomatic source from the US embassy in

Beirut ldquoGiven their new mandate we have great confidence in

their ability to expand and growrdquo the source continues

A few of the donor-sponsored programmes have met with

moderate success A forensics facility has broken ground in the

town of Aramoun and a country-wide police communications

network is being set up at the largess of the US government

Similar efforts from other nations include anti-torture training

redrafting codes of conduct and development of specialised

counter-terrorism branches Some police patrols on the Beirut

corniche have exchanged their automatic weapons for batons and

in general community-minded policing has improved around the

country Female officers can be seen patrolling the city in squads

ldquo A s a t r a i n e rr e v i e w e d a r r e s t

p r o c e d u r e s o n e o ft h e t r a i n e e s p u t u ph i s h a n d lsquo B u t w h a t

i f w e r e a l l y n e e dt o b e a t h i m t o g e t

a c o n f e s s i o n rsquot h e o f f i c e r a s k e d ldquo

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after women were integrated into the police force with backing

from the US Where political cover exists police have been able to

make arrests in a number of high-profile cases including a string of

bank robberies and a case of fraudulent pharmaceuticals

But a public opinion survey conducted by the ISF in 2009 found

that less than fifty percent of the population had any degree of

trust in the police while only fourteen percent had total faith in

the force And despite the sleek Dodge Charger police cruisers that

prowl the streets the force is facing an anemic budget shortage

according to former General and ISF officer Amin Saliba It has a

yearly budget of around $500 million according to sources who

work with the ISF About $70 million comes from external donors

to be channelled to training and new equipment while the rest

$430 million comes from central government

That amount is barely enough to cover basic costs such assalaries according to advisers who work with the police force

and delays in payments of the shoestring budget are leaving bills

unpaid ldquoHospitals are not accepting Internal Security Forces

patients because we canrsquot pay our billsrdquo Saliba says ldquoWe need

to reconsider salaries and servicesrdquo That low pay keeps police

dependent on other sources of income and beholden to other

sources of power A few kisses on the cheek and a small bribe to the

local policeman are a more surefire way of seeing the law on your

side rather than any notion of protecting and serving

But to increase pay and reduce corruption and political

patronage the police force is in a double bind It would need

around an additional $100 million a year to cover costs police

analysts estimate Adding to the challenge raising salaries would

require boosting the pay scale of other government employees

making the issue a political non-starter

ISF officials admit that more needs to be done to fund and

improve the police But they nevertheless argue that the force is

headed in the right direction overall ldquoThe quality of our training

has significantly improved but itrsquos a continuous processrdquo says a

police official of recent reformsrdquo The official credits former ISF

head General Ashraf Rifi with upgrading the force But after

reaching retirement age Rifi handed over his post in March to ISF

chief Roger Salam despite protestations from Hezbollah backed

candidate Ali Hajj who claimed he had a right to the position

Salam also reached retirement age and passed the position in June

to Ibrahim Basbous another temporary leader who will age out of

the position shortly as well

The political scuffle that brought down Lebanonrsquos governmentin March of this year was partly over the leadership of the nationrsquos

police force Two of the countryrsquos major parties were vying to get

their man into a seat of power on the police force before Prime

Minister Najib Mikati stepped down This uncertainty surrounding

the top spot will continue until a new government can be formed

that agrees on a permanent appointee But given the current sense

of political paralysis which is compounded by the impasse over

the Syrian uprising a breakthrough seems unlikely And this means

the nation may not get the force of law and order it so desperately

needs in increasingly trying times ldquoThat doesnrsquot prevent a lot

being donerdquo insists Yezid Sayigh before adding a word of caution

ldquoEven with the best will in the world it must be very difficult for

anyone in commandrdquo






Despite internal restructuring and external aid efforts

that channel hundreds of millions of dollars into training and

equipment former police officers trainers and analysts describe

a force that is underdeveloped underfunded and undercut by

politics size and sectarianism

This is a major problem in a country as unstable as Lebanon

The countryrsquos tenuous peace has been shattered restored

and shattered again since the brutal civil war ended in 1990

Maintaining order between its eighteen recognised religious

groups and a host of foreign actors who used the country as a

proxy battlefield is an ongoing balancing act Israel has waged

war here the bloodshed in Syria regularly spills over the border

and the countryrsquos fractious political-religious groups have done

their part to push Lebanon near the edge of domestic strife and

chaos Over the past year roadblocks kidnappings and gun battles

involving radical Islamists rural gangs and zealous supporters of

the countryrsquos political parties have challenged the countryrsquos hard

fought peace

This is a nation in desperate need of lawmen that can protect

and serve Yet the police force also known as the Internal Security

Forces can barely direct traffic Officers are more likely to be

seen speeding down the highway the wrong direction chatting





































religious balance
































































































































religious balance























































































































































Documents

The Trouble with Lebanon's Guardians