by Michael Jansen

Former Lebanese army chief Michel Aoun, who returned to Lebanon in triumph last Saturday, is compared by his ardent Maronite Christian followers to General Charles de Gaulle and Napoleon.

The comparison with de Gaulle is invidious. De Gaulle returned to France at the end of World War II as the head of the Free French who fought alongside the Allies against Nazi Germany which was occupying France and many other countries in Europe. De Gaulle, who served as president from 1959-69, ended the French occupation of Algeria. But the comparison with Napoleon is more apt. Like Napoleon, Aoun - nicknamed "Napole-Aoun" - had ideas above his station, seized power, and inflicted great destruction and suffering on the Lebanese before he was sent into exile. Napoleon returned to France and wrought more havoc. It remains to be seen what Aoun will do now that he is back home.

So far he has managed to put the noses of a number of established politicians out of joint. He called for the abolition of "political feudalism and the religious [sectarian] system that dates back to the 19th century". This has upset the political elite which depends for its power and privileges on sectarian quotas fixed in the 1943 National Pact and preserved by the 1989 Taef Accord which ended the 1975-1990 civil war. By claiming triumph over the Syrians on his return, Aoun has, at least temporarily, overshadowed the leadership of the anti-Syrian "opposition" front which claims credit for this fear.

He met with representatives of the Shiite Hizbollah movement to discuss forming an electoral alliance with the movement to contest the parliamentary poll scheduled to take place from May 29 to June 19. Aoun is also trying to muscle his way into Maronite Christian constituencies represented by politicians who thought they had safe seats. Consequently, Aoun has received a cold shoulder from Walid Jumblatt, the "opposition" spokesman, and a number of figures he has crossed.

Aoun's return also sends a chill down the spines of both Christians and Muslims who recall what happened during the last three years of the civil war. Facing a crisis over the choice of a new president in September 1988, the outgoing President Amin Gemayel asked Aoun to form a temporary government of military officers to take power until a successor was elected. This was a flagrant violation of the Lebanese constitution which did not grant the president the powers to take such action and of the National Pact which specified that the office of prime minister must be held by a Sunni.

Aoun, a Maronite, established a junta of Christian officers and not only assumed presidential powers, which he had not been asked to do, but also challenged the legally constituted government of the day headed by Selim Hoss. Aoun encouraged his main Maronite competitor Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces, to wipe out the Phalangist militia loyal to Gemayel. While this reduced the power centres in the Maronite heartland from three to two - units of the Lebanese Army loyal to Aoun and the Forces militia under Geagea - this fratricidal warfare cost many lives. In February 1989, Aoun handily defeated Geagea's militia and imposed a blockade on West Beirut ports, claiming this was the first salvo in a "war of liberation" which would drive out the Syrian army, invited into Lebanon by the Maronites in 1976. This was a war that Aoun, with a few thousand troops and militiamen, could never win against the better armed and equipped 30-40,000 Syrian troops in the country (only 10-15 per cent of the Syrian army). Aoun's aim, of course, was to provoke the US and France into intervening.

The Syrians and Muslim units of the Lebanese Army responded by shelling East Beirut and the presidential palace which had been seized by Aoun. Geagea's forces joined Aoun's troops, but the Syrians outgunned them. A ceasefire was imposed in late May. Shelling resumed during July and August. Aoun refused to accept an Arab League mediated truce until late September. By that time 1,000 people had been killed, 4,600 injured, tens of thousands had fled, and one-third of the country had been devastated.

On Oct. 22, Christian and Muslim deputies, summoned to Taef in Saudi Arabia, signed an agreement to end the war and reform Lebanon's political system. Aoun rejected the Taef Accord and demanded Syria's withdrawal before reconciliation. In November, Rene Muawad was elected president; Aoun rejected him. Muawad was assassinated and Elias Hrawi was chosen to succeed him. Aoun rejected Hrawi who dismissed him as army chief and appointed Emile Lahoud, the current president. This led to the "war of the brothers", Aoun and Geagea, which went on until Oct. 13, 1990, when, with the approval of the US, Syrian troops defeated Aoun.

He had prolonged the conflict for one year and, perhaps, two. He took refuge in the French embassy to evade charges of usurping power, assaulting state security, and undermining national unity. In 1991 he was permitted to leave for France.

Nevertheless, Aoun received a rapturous welcome from thousands of flag-waving supporters gathered at Martyrs' Square in the centre of Beirut. Some in the mainly Maronite Christian crowd extended their right arms in the fascist salute adopted by the right-wing Phalange party in 1936, others cheered or wept. Youngsters danced with joy. His young followers, many of them too young to have been traumatised by his "wars" or born after he went into exile in 1991, are the base of Aoun's strength. They see him as a Christian hero who waged a long campaign to force the Syrians to pull their troops out of Lebanon. But if he now takes on the entrenched political elite, Aoun could destabilise the country. He is too much of a bull in the china shop of Lebanese confessional and feudal politics. It is ironic that if the Lebanese were to accept Aoun's demand for an end to the system imposed by France 70-odd years ago, the Maronite minority which he seeks to lead would lose the power and privileges the community has enjoyed since then.

This article was published in the Thursday, May 12, 2005 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.