Lebanon en route to an illegitimate debt

Lebanon has just lived through a month of murderous conflict. More than 1,100 people have been killed during Israeli army raids and its blind strikes. A third of them are children under 12. Approximately a million people have fled. The human suffering which has been inflicted is unspeakable.

The trigger was the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, a militia present in South Lebanon. But the response of Tsahal, the Israeli army, was unprecedented. Undoubtedly, here Tsahal is a weapon of massive destruction, with US support.

The cease fire now in place, while fragile, means the limited sphere of the present can be left behind and we can start to look a little towards the future. Whether or not it is respected, eventually Lebanon will have to be rebuilt. Damage is currently estimated at $2.5 billion where approximately 150 bridges have been destroyed and a black tidal pool caused by dumping 15,000 tonnes of oil into the sea (more than the catastrophe caused by Erika along the French coast in 1999) has already polluted 140 kilometres of coastline.

According to World Bank statistics, well before this war, Lebanon was crumbling under a colossal external debt: $22.2 billion at the end of 2004 for 3.5 million inhabitants. This represented more than $6,260 per inhabitant, without counting the internal debt which is just as large, making Lebanon one of the most indebted countries in the world per inhabitant. In 2004, Lebanon paid out $4.4 billion to service its external debt.

Since before this war, Lebanon was in a very difficult financial situation. Its creditors (headed by Saudi Arabia and France) met in November 2002 in Paris to find a solution: at the time, they had promised $4.3 billion in exchange for modernising the fiscal system and boosting privatisation. The debt therefore led to a reinforcement of neoliberal policies, so favourable to wealthy Lebanese, foreign creditors and their large corporations.

Now, Lebanon will again call upon foreign capital to rebuild. This implies another increase in its debt and in new economic measures of structural adjustment which accompany it. Therefore, the Lebanese people are going to have to pay very dearly, in the years to come, for consequences of this war inflicted by Israel in violation of international treaties governing relations between states.

The Lebanese people paid a first time by giving their lives, losing their loved ones, enduring the destruction of their homes, their property and infrastructure. They must not pay a second time by being bled dry to finance reconstruction. Palestine is already suffering from Israeli state terrorism where the cost, both human and financial, is enormous. Since March 2003 Iraq has already been subjected to an illegitimate military aggression on the part of the US and its allies, which dominate the country, impose neoliberal choices on its economy and make it indebted for the benefit of large multinational corporations from the countries in the North. Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon must demand accountability from their aggressors. Social movements must pressure the international community to move in this direction.

For Lebanon, a possible solution resides in the immediate cancellation of its debt and the establishment of funds for its reconstruction, which would be fed by reparations deposited by Israel. A contribution from the US, who supports and finances the Israeli state, must be included. It is only then that it will be possible to say that the Lebanese people will have received justice.