Most of the old town of Bint Jbeil still lies in dusty ruins a
year after war erupted in Lebanon between Israel and Shi'ite
Hezbollah guerrillas. But among the silent streets of shattered
houses in what was once a densely packed neighborhood, 60-year-old
Ihsan Bazzi has used his retirement nest egg to rebuild his family
home.
"The engineers told me they wanted to demolish the house, but I
refused. I inherited it from my father who built it stone on
stone," he said.
Qatar, which has promised to rebuild Bint Jbeil and three other
southern towns hardest hit in the 34-day war, paid Bazzi nearly a
quarter of the US$32,000 he has spent on repairs. He has received
nothing yet from the Lebanese government or Hezbollah. "I didn't
wait for anyone to help me. I see the humiliation of the people
pushing and shoving to get money -- and you see the (party)
supporters getting paid first."
Hezbollah and government officials involved in rival
reconstruction efforts agree that Bint Jbeil is a special case.
Conflicting damage assessments, disputes over whether the
historic town center should be preserved or replaced with apartment
blocks, and the absence of many property owners who live in Beirut
or abroad have helped to delay the Qataris.
Locals are grateful to the Gulf emirate anyway, contrasting its
deeds with decades of government neglect of the south. "As far as
(Prime Minister Fouad) Siniora is concerned, anything south of
Sidon isn't part of Lebanon," complained the pro-Hezbollah head of
Bint Jbeil municipality, Ali Bazzi.
Siniora said in May that the government had spent US$318 million
on rebuilding after the war that began on July 12 when Hezbollah
captured two Israeli soldiers. The Shi'ite group backed by Syria
and Iran says it has paid out more than US$300 million.
The conflict cost the lives of 1,200 people, mostly civilians,
in Lebanon, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Israeli bombing
devastated parts of the south and Beirut's Shi'ite suburbs, along
with bridges, airports and other targets elsewhere. Hezbollah
rockets caused damage in northern Israel.
Politics has poisoned reconstruction efforts as Siniora's
government uses Western backing and Arab funds to compete with
Hezbollah's parallel institutions oiled by Iranian money.
The government won US$7.6 billion in aid pledges from foreign
donors in January, but it has received only US$1.3 billion, mainly
from Gulf Arab states. Western aid was tied to reforms that have
withered amid a deadlock with the Hezbollah-led opposition.
Government claim
Nevertheless, Brigadier-General Yehyia Raad, head of the
government's Higher Relief Council, said nearly 90 percent of war
damage to Lebanon's infrastructure has been fixed and almost 80
percent of compensation paid in the south, but only 40 percent in
Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah bastion.
"We have paid irrespective of whether the recipients are from
Hezbollah," he said, conceding, though, that there was no
coordination with the group. "We don't know what they pay and what
work they do."
The United States, which views Siniora as a key Arab ally,
complicated Hezbollah's task by adding its reconstruction arm,
known as Jihad al-Bina, to its terrorism watch list.
A new Hezbollah unit, known as Waed (Promise), plans to launch
reconstruction this month in a bomb-flattened Beirut suburb once
home to Hezbollah's formidable "security compound".
Hezbollah official Bilal Naim said Waed would spend US$100
million on the project - if the government paid its promised share
of US$250 million in compensation to owners and tenants.
"We expect this operation to take about one and a half years,"
Naim told Reuters, outlining plans for wider streets, public
gardens and underground parking in every block of flats.
He said Hezbollah, which paid displaced families US$12,000 each
for rent and furniture last year, would soon give them another
US$4,000 to help them pay rent until their homes were rebuilt.
Hezbollah's dramatic cash handouts, which began soon after the
war ended, underlined its energy and determination to win hearts
and minds - as well as its access to Iranian coffers.
The government also had access to politically motivated Gulf
money with no strings attached, said Khalil Gebara, co-director of
the Lebanese Transparency Association, linking its slower response
to institutional flaws in a corrupt political set-up.
Sprawling government agencies overlap with ministries and
municipalities and are often sources of corruption, he said, citing
the Council for the South, a body long in the hands of Parliament
Speaker Nabih Berri's Shi'ite Amal faction.
The government uses the council as the main channel to
distribute reconstruction funds in the south. "The problem with
Lebanon is that money has been politicized," Gebara lamented.
(China Daily via agencies July 10, 2007)
