Word: christians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...immediate cease-fire. Pope John Paul II blamed Damascus for "genocide." But the pleas had little impact on a situation that is governed by passion and irrationality. Unless a cease-fire can be brokered quickly, Syria and its allies might risk an all out assault to crush the Christian forces...
...adversaries have been shelling each other mercilessly since March, when Major General Michel Aoun, the determined Christian President of the divided nation, clamped a blockade on Muslim ports and declared a "war of liberation" against Syria. Last week came intimations of a more serious escalation in hostilities. Syrian-backed Muslim forces attempted to invade the Christian sector. Aoun's troops successfully repulsed the ground attack on the town of Suq al Gharb, the gateway to the Christian stronghold in the southeast of the capital. The battle of Beirut appeared to be entering a crucial phase...
...Syrian troops, who entered Lebanon as peacekeepers in 1976 and neglected to leave, had taken part in the assault. Yet plainly Syria was deeply involved. A Muslim officer who fought under Aoun stated that both Druze and Syrian forces advanced on Suq al Gharb, then turned back under heavy Christian fire, leaving 35 dead Syrians behind. In Damascus, Syrian President Hafez Assad convened representatives of various Muslim, Druze and Palestinian militias to map out a combat plan to topple Aoun. The war council aroused international concern that Syria, which has upwards of 30,000 troops inside Lebanon, might be preparing...
...heart of Lebanon's misery is a 1943 "national pact" reaffirming that the predominance of power would be held by the majority Christian community. Since then, the Muslim population has overwhelmed the Christian count, but the political arrangements have not been altered to reflect the Muslims' strength. Until that imbalance is redressed, tribal hostilities will not cease...
...both Assad and Aoun seem bent on the same deadly gambit: Damascus hopes the violence will turn Christians against Aoun; the Maronite leader hopes it will bring intervention from the West against Syria. Meantime, it is the people of Lebanon who continue to suffer, particularly those -- Muslim and Christian alike -- who live in Beirut, where the shells have killed almost 800 and wounded over 2,000 since March. The fortunate have fled, paring the city's population from 1.5 million to just 150,000. Those who remain huddle by night in airless underground shelters, listening to the sounds of destruction...