Support for Aoun Cause: Cradle to Grave

BEIRUT â€”  An East Beirut woman who gave birth to triplet boys last week made it clear that in the beleaguered Christian enclave, military recruiting begins in the cradle.

“I’m happy to have three boys,� she said proudly in a television interview. “We Christians must increase our numbers.�

The new mother and other residents of Lebanon’s 310-square-mile Christian sector continue to rally behind the commander of the Lebanese army, Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, in his “war of liberation� against Syrian troops and their Lebanese Muslim allies.

There are about 1 million Christians in Lebanon, but the power and influence traditionally accorded them are in jeopardy. Christians now account for just 40% of the population, and they are counting on Aoun, who heads one of Lebanon’s two rival governments, to maintain their predominance against the Muslim majority and its Syrian supporters.

Outside heavily populated areas of East Beirut and its suburbs, the Christian enclave includes scores of coastal towns and mountain villages, none of them entirely free of the conflict.

In one mountainside village, Mazraat Kfardibiane, an 8-year-old Christian boy, recently challenged a friend to a game of chess. When his opponent chose the black pieces, he announced, “You are Syria.� Setting up the white pieces, he said, “I am Lebanon.�

For most Beirut children, formal education stopped last March, when shelling by Christian and Syrian forces made schooling secondary to survival. But for many of Lebanon’s youngsters, political education at their parents’ feet has begun where the three R’s stopped.

Political commitment to Aoun’s cause has also caught the imagination of young Christian men who once preferred the life of the militias.

“They are volunteering (for the regular army),� said a resident of Elysar, a community between East Beirut and the port of Juniyah. “They don’t even want basic pay.�

Little Dissent

In Christian towns, political discussions over endless cups of coffee produce little dissent. Any attempt to play the devil’s advocate is met with suspicion. The Arabic label khayyin , or traitor, is applied to those who don’t share the battle cry, “Syria out of Lebanon!�

It is becoming equally popular as an epithet against those who question that Aoun will be Lebanon’s next president. There has been no elected head of government since last September, when Parliament failed to agree on a successor to President Amin Gemayel. When his term expired, Gemayel left Lebanon in the hands of Aoun, his army commander, who has adopted the title of premier--as has Salim Hoss, the head of a rival Muslim government in West Beirut.

“I support Aoun in his war against Syria, but I do not necessarily want him for president,� said a resident of Douma, a mountain village. Aware that this is political heresy, he spoke out of earshot of his family and friends.

Most Christians are feeling singularly oppressed by the five months of war, which started when Aoun attempted to take control of ports run by Muslim militias in defiance of his government. Blockaded and shelled since March, residents of the eastern sector often liken their struggle against the Syrians to that of the Algerians against France, Afghans against the Soviet Union and Vietnamese against the United States.

The heart of Aoun’s support is in East Beirut, an area he wrested from the rightist Christian militia, the Lebanese Forces, in February. His turf is clearly marked with posters of the 54-year-old general framed by a Lebanese flag.

While his popularity extends throughout the enclave, Aoun’s direct influence is limited in wide areas still under the control of Samir Geagea, 37, commander of the 6,000-strong Lebanese Forces. There are no Aoun posters where the militia maintains its camps.

“We don’t like Geagea, but people are afraid to put up Aoun,� a Douma resident said.