8/3/2019 Fear of Invasion in Wadi Khaled - Libano 11 febbraio
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Fear of invasion in Wadi Khaled
Ana Maria Luca and Nadine Elali, February 10, 2012
A view of the Syrian armys outpost on the Syrian side of the
border, taken from Wadi Khaled. (NOW Lebanon)
Khaled Terekmani, a teacher in the northern Lebanese border town
of Wadi Khaled, is a rathershort man wearing jeans and a velour
jacket. He stands on the porch of a house in the JuratChouh area of
the Mqaibleh village and points at the small Syrian army barracks
visible throughthe trees around one kilometer away, on the other
side of the border.
Look, thats Syrian territory. That, up the hill, is Msharfeh,
the Syrian village. And right there, thatsmall white thing between
the two trees, thats from where they shoot at us, he says.
A few hundred meters away from his friend Alis house is the
place where, a little over a monthago, Lebanese Maher Abu Zeid and
brothers Ahmad and Kaser Hussein Zeid were shot dead bySyrian
troops for getting too close to the border. Terekmani says they
were not weaponssmugglers, as the Syrian army claimed, but had met
to settle a debt.
[The soldiers] are there all the time, and after 9 p.m. they
always shoot at anything that moveson this side of the border. This
is the most dangerous place to live right now. Alis house was
hit
by bullets a couple of weeks ago, Terekmani says.
Ali, who requested that his name be changed for security
reasons, says the Syrian outpost hastanks, snipers and an armored
personnel carrier. They make us feel the adrenaline. They makeit
interesting for us to live here, he jokes, putting his scarf over
his face to shelter it from the coldwind.
But he soon becomes serious. This is the most dangerous place in
Wadi Khaled now. Everynight we hear the shelling, the gunshots and
the fights. People here are afraid that the Syrianarmy is going to
come over very soon, and nobody is here to stop them.
8/3/2019 Fear of Invasion in Wadi Khaled - Libano 11 febbraio
2012
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Talk of a Syrian invasion has been circulating around the
villages near the northern border forquite a while, since the
Syrian military has deployed more heavily on their side of the
border andplanted land mines to prevent refugees, activists and
army deserters from crossing into Lebanon.
Both Syrian refugees and Lebanese in the area fear that the
increasing violence on the Syrianside of the border might spill
over, and that the Lebanese authorities might cooperate in
thesuppression.
In front of the school-turned-refugee-center in Rameh, a group
of men talk loudly. They comefrom several flashpoint Syrian towns,
such as Daraa, Tal Kalakh, Homs and Banyas. They saythey have been
in Lebanon for months and dont plan to go back to Syria until the
fighting is over.
Mohammada 48-year-old man from the Syrian border town of Arida,
which was shelled sixmonths agosaid he spent a month in prison in
Tripoli after he was caught crossing the border totake shelter in
Lebanon. We are always afraid that the Syrian army will invade. We
are alsoafraid that the Lebanese authorities, at the request of the
Syrian government, might come afterus, arrest us and turn us in for
the regime to kill us. We dont go around town; we barely go to
the
shop across the street. We barely leave this school because we
are afraid, he says.
Some of the Lebanese media dont help, local businessman Hayssam
al-Nesr says. Afterreports that Islamist organizations infiltrated
Wadi Khaled and are arming the Syrianrevolutionaries, the Lebanese
Special Forces were deployed here last weekend. They searchedthe
area and then they left. They havent found anything, he says. Nesr,
who is a communityleader in his village and was investigated
several times for helping refugees, says that the peopleof Wadi
Khaled are supporting the Syrian uprising and are not going to
change their minds even ifthe Lebanese state doesnt protect them
from the Syrian army. He says people still go in and outof Syria,
although secretly and with great care after the mine fields were
planted.
There are deserters coming to Lebanon, through Wadi Khaled. That
is no secret. But they arenot using this region as a military base
for operations. Most of them come here as refugees, not
as fighters, he says. Both Nesr and Terekmani call the deserters
revolutionaries and do norefer to them as the Free Syrian Army.
Terekmani keeps up to date on what is happening across the
border. He says he gets informationby phone from his relatives and
from all the people who come in from Syria. Look at that whitetower
over there, over the border. That is Bourj Bahlounieh. Since June
2011, after Tal Kalakhwas shelled, the Syrian army built a small
base there and lately they have been fighting therevolutionaries
who have their base in the old castle that you see on that hill.
They have beenshelling it for the past weeks, he says.
We also have information that the town of Hosn is under the
control of the revolutionaries. Wedont know much of what is
happening in Homs. Since Monday morning all phone lines havebeen
cut, and there is rarely anybody coming from Syria. We also know
that most people who
cross the border into Lebanon and have a phone have to pass
through the Syrian intelligenceoffice and their cards are
confiscated, he adds.
The Wadi Khaled villagers expect the Lebanese army to deploy
again over the weekend. But theyare not happy with the troops being
there. They are not here to protect us, although we askedthem to.
They deploy only at the request of the Syrian ambassador when there
is talk in themedia about Islamists and revolutionary fighters
around here, Nesr says. We are not peoplewho fight, but we dont
feel protected, and we fear that our youth might gather and
organize todefend the village in case of a Syrian invasion. If the
state doesnt do anything for us, what elsecan we do?
