DEVELOPING
‘We will not stop until we find all of our children’: Discovery of 751 unmarked graves only the beginning, say Saskatchewan Indigenous leaders

By Brendan Kennedy Social Justice Reporter
Alex Boyd Calgary Bureau

TORONTO STAR

Thu., June 24, 2021

Workers with ground penetrating radar on Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan. As many as 751 unmarked graves have been detected at the former site of Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1898 until 1997, and was run by the Catholic Church for most of its history.




Warning: This story contains details of residential schools and the abuse that took place there.

With reporters from around the world turning their attention to his small community on Thursday, Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme stared calmly into his computer screen and delivered a message for all to hear.

Echoing the words of residential school survivors across the country, he told a virtual news conference, “We always knew that there were graves here.”

This was Cowessess First Nation’s moment to tell its story.

But Delorme knew it was also only one point at the beginning of what will be a very long road, as his community of 4,300 in southeastern Saskatchewan and so many others across Canada reckon with this country’s brutal legacy of residential schools.


“There’s going to be many more stories in the future,” the chief acknowledged.


For the second time in a month, ground-penetrating radar has confirmed what government and church authorities have been accused of trying to suppress for most of Canada’s history.

VIDEO Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme tells CBC News his community would be treating the site "like a crime scene" because of what happened at, and adjacent to, the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.

As many as 751 unmarked graves have been detected at the former site of Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1898 until 1997, and was run by the Catholic Church for most of its history.

It’s not yet clear whether all of the graves contain children’s remains, Delorme said.

The community started its investigation less than a week after Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation near Kamloops, B.C., announced the discovery of the remains of 215 children on the site of a former residential school.

If Delorme was measured in his tone, Bobby Cameron, the chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, was more direct.

“We are seeing the results of the genocide Canada committed,” said Cameron, the head of a federation that represents Saskatchewan’s 74 First Nations.

“We will find more bodies and we will not stop until we find all of our children,” he said. “We will do a search of every Indian residential school site and we won’t stop there. We will also search all of the sanatoriums, Indian hospitals, and all of the sites where our people were taken and abused, tortured, neglected and murdered. We will tell the stories of our children, of our people who died, who were killed by the state and the churches and we won’t stop until we locate all of them.”

The world is watching, Cameron added.


“Canada will be known as a nation who tried to exterminate their First Nations. Now we have evidence. Evidence of what the survivors of Indian Residential Schools have been saying all along, for decades — that they were treated without humanity, that they were tortured and abused, that they saw their classmates die.”

The grave site in what is now Cowessess First Nation was overseen by the Catholic Church from 1886 — 12 years before Marieval opened — until the 1970s, Delorme said. There had been grave markings at some point, but the church removed them in the 1960s, he said.

“Removing headstones is a crime in this country, and we are treating this like a crime scene at the moment,” he added.

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Regina said the Cowessess First Nation has told them that in the midst of a dispute in the 1960s between a priest not associated with the Archdiocese and the Cowessess chief at the time, “the priest bulldozed several grave markers.”


In 2019, the Archdiocese gave $70,000 to Cowessess First Nation to improve the site and help identify unmarked graves. The spokesperson said that archival death records covering a period from 1885 to 1952 were also previously given to Cowessess.

In his remarks on Thursday, Delorme said he was “optimistic” the church will work with his community, but that he is still waiting for them to hand over records related to Marieval.

“We have full faith that the Roman Catholic Church will release our records,” he said. “They have not told us, ‘No.’ We just don’t have them yet.”

Delorme also called on Pope Francis to apologize to survivors of Marieval and their descendants. “An apology is one stage of many in the healing journey,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously called on Pope Francis to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in running residential schools, as the United and Anglican churches have already done. Francis has not heeded those calls.

As far as Betty Nippi-Albright is concerned, the time for platitudes is over.

Speaking toward the end of an emotional day, the Saskatchewan New Democrat MLA, who herself attended a residential school for nine years, declared the time for expressions of sympathy to be at an end.

  

In 2019, the Archdiocese gave $70,000 to Cowessess First Nation to improve the site and help identify unmarked graves. The spokesperson said that archival death records covering a period from 1885 to 1952 were also previously given to Cowessess.

In his remarks on Thursday, Delorme said he was “optimistic” the church will work with his community, but that he is still waiting for them to hand over records related to Marieval.

“We have full faith that the Roman Catholic Church will release our records,” he said. “They have not told us, ‘No.’ We just don’t have them yet.”

Delorme also called on Pope Francis to apologize to survivors of Marieval and their descendants. “An apology is one stage of many in the healing journey,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously called on Pope Francis to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in running residential schools, as the United and Anglican churches have already done. Francis has not heeded those calls.

As far as Betty Nippi-Albright is concerned, the time for platitudes is over.


Speaking toward the end of an emotional day, the Saskatchewan New Democrat MLA, who herself attended a residential school for nine years, declared the time for expressions of sympathy to be at an end.

“We don’t need moral support. What we need is dollars to help us cope, help us heal from the trauma that we’re still experiencing today.”

She called the recent funding to search for graves a good start, but said more is needed to ensure that Indigenous people are able to access equitable medical and mental health services.

The push for an end to systemic racism will be harder, she said.

“For mainstream folks, what they can do is, whether it’s signing petitions or writing to their elected officials, demand that they actually provide some real support rather than just ‘we’re really sorry.’”



Regina Archbishop Don Bolen was not available for an interview Thursday, but in an open letter to Delorme posted to the Archdiocese’s website, Bolen reiterated a previous apology “for the failures and sins of Church leaders and staff in the past towards the people of Cowessess.”

“I know that apologies seem a very small step as the weight of past suffering comes into greater light,” he writes, “but I extend that apology again, and pledge to do what we can to turn that apology into meaningful concrete acts, including assisting in accessing information that will help to provide names and information about those buried in unmarked graves and to stand by you in whatever way you request.”

Delorme stressed the Marieval site did not contain a mass grave, but unmarked graves roughly one metre by one metre. He said they used the same ground-penetrating radar technology used in Kamloops, partnering with experts from Saskatchewan Polytechnic, which estimated a margin of error of between 10 and 15 per cent.

Delorme said this first phase of the investigation involved a search of 44,000 square metres. They will continue to search other parts of the site, he said, adding their goal is to identify each of the remains and mark all of the graves.

“This is going to be years in the making.”



Last month’s discovery in Kamloops has led to a renewed reckoning over Canada’s residential schools history and fresh calls to search the grounds of all former sites across the country, and even in the United States.

A statement from the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation Thursday offered their support for their fellow First Nation.

SECOND MASS GRAVE FINDING

Hundreds of child remains found at old indigenous school in Saskatchewan, Canada

June 24 (UPI) -- Hundreds of remains have been found in unmarked graves at a former Canadian school for Indigenous children in Saskatchewan, the second such discovery in the country over the past month.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations said Wednesday a search of the former Marieval Indian Residential School on Cowessess First Nation in southern Saskatchewan found the remains on the property.

Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme said there were more than 300 remains found at the school's location, calling it a "horrific and shocking discovery," according to the Regina Leader-Post.

The Marieval Indian Residential School was part of a system that placed Indigenous children in boarding schools across Canada. Indigenous leaders have long complained that many children were never returned to their parents and were given little, if any, information about what happened to them.
RELATEDInterior Department to investigate Indigenous boarding schools, burial grounds

The disappearances have long been part of Canadian indigenous oral histories, but the discoveries offer confirmation for the stories that have passed through generations.

"There's no denying this: All of the stories told by our survivors are true," Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby said, according to The New York Times. "This is what the Catholic Church in Canada and the government of Canada of the day forced on our children."

Last month, the Tk'emlupste Secwépemc First Nation announced that the remains of 215 children had been buried at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The government ran that school from 1890 to 1969 after taking over administration from the Catholic Church to operate it as a day school residence. It eventually closed in 1978.

RELATED RCMP investigating 'suspicious' fires that burned down two B.C. Catholic churches

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations said it's now assisting First Nations in searching more than 20 former residential school sites in Saskatchewan for similar signs of unmarked graves.

"Today, all of Saskatchewan mourns for those who were discovered buried in unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School site," Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said in a Facebook post.

"I understand many were children, and it is heartbreaking to think that so many children lost their lives after being separated from their families, and away from the love and solace only a family can provide."

Moe said he has offered provincial support in the investigation into the other boarding schools.

UNITED FRONT*** FOR H&S OF ALL

Airlines, pilots, flight attendants urge prosecutions for unruly passengers

Unions for flight attendants and pilots are calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to criminally prosecute disruptive passengers onboard flights. 

File photo by Nir Elias/UPI/Pool | License Photo

June 21 (UPI) -- A coalition of U.S. airlines and employee unions on Monday urged the Biden administration to criminally prosecute passengers' unruly and disruptive behavior onboard aircraft.

A group including the carrier trade organizations and unions representing pilots, flight attendants and transport workers together called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to "commit to the full and public prosecution of onboard acts of violence."

"These incidents pose a safety and security threat to our passengers and employees," they said in a letter.

Their call comes after the Federal Aviation Administration reported last week it has received 3,000 cases of unruly behavior by passengers so far this year, including 2,300 for refusing to comply with face mask mandates.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson in January announced a stricter, "zero tolerance" legal enforcement policy against unruly passengers in which offenders could face fines of up to $35,000 and imprisonment for interfering with crew members.

Under the new guidelines, the FAA has levied a combined $368,000 in civil penalty actions against 21 passengers so far, but fines alone aren't enough to address the spike in bad behavior, the coalition said.

"We ask that more be done to deter egregious behavior, which is in violation of federal law and crew member instruction," they said. "Specifically, the federal government should send a strong and consistent message through criminal enforcement that compliance with federal law and upholding aviation safety are of paramount importance."

RELATEDFAA announces $52,000 fine for passenger who punched flight attendant

The letter was signed by the Air Line Pilots Association, Allied Pilots Association, Association of Professional Flight Attendants and the National Air Carrier Association, among other organizations.

The trade group Airlines for America also wrote separately to Dickson asserting the U.S. government "is well equipped to prosecute unruly and disruptive onboard behavior" under federal laws prohibiting assault or intimidation of a flight crewmember or flight attendant.

"Making these prosecutions public will put a spotlight on the serious consequences when breaking the law and will act as an effective deterrent against future onboard disruptions," the group said.

RELATEDFAA increases penalties for unruly airline passengers after Capitol siege


***UNITED FRONT

THIRD  WORLD USA

Medicaid enrollment soars to record 80M during COVID-19 pandemic

Teachers and school employees in Wylie, Texas, receive a COVID-19 vaccine on March 26. The pandemic was behind a record surge in Medicaid enrollment during 2020, officials said Monday. File photo by Ian Halperin/UPI | License Photo


June 21 (UPI) -- Enrollment in state Medicaid and children's health programs shot up by nearly 10 million to an all-time high of 80 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration announced Monday.

A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services snapshot showed combined enrollment in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) jumped by 13.9% between February 2020 and January 2021.

Enrollment in Medicaid alone soared 15.2% to 74 million during the same period.

The record-high numbers show that for parents who may have lost a job or experienced another adverse event during the pandemic, "having access to coverage for themselves and their kids is life-changing," CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in an issued statement.

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The administration, she said, "is committed to ensuring our nation's marginalized communities and low-income families have the coverage they need."

"This pandemic taught us that now more than ever, we must work to strengthen Medicaid and make it available whenever and wherever it's needed using the unprecedented investments Congress provided," added Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

CMS officials said the massive enrollment jump is attributable to a surge in demand caused by the economic fallout of the pandemic, as well as to increased federal funding provided by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which was enacted by Congress in March 2020 as the first of a series of COVID-19 relief bills.

The legislation provides states with a temporary 6.2% increase in their medical assistance payments as long as the health emergency remains ongoing. In exchange, states needed to promise to not remove anyone from the rolls until the emergency is declared over.

The Biden administration has indicated the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration will likely remain in effect at least through the end of this year.

Households that host social gatherings have higher rates of COVID-19 spread


New research shows that small gatherings -- specifically linked to birthdays -- preceded increases in COVID-19 case numbers during the pandemic. Photo by profivideos/Pixabay

June 21 (UPI) -- Small social gatherings can fuel the spread of COVID-19 in areas with high infection rates, an analysis published Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine found.

This is particularly true in areas in which spread of the virus is high, the researchers said.

Infection rates were 31% higher among households in high-transmission areas in which a member celebrated a birthday, the data showed.

They were about 57% higher in households in which a child celebrated a birthday and about 22% higher in those in which an adult did so.

"Informal gatherings, such as birthday parties, are still an important source of COVID-19 transmission that have received less attention up until now and should not be overlooked by the public," study co-author Christopher Whaley told UPI in an email.

"Many policies designed to slow COVID-19 spread previously were targeted at formal gatherings [such as] work, travel, dining, etc., but our findings suggest that [informal] gatherings may have deserved additional focus," said Whaley, a researcher with the RAND Corporation in Berkeley, Calif.

The findings are based on an analysis of COVID-19 in 2.9 million households nationally, from the beginning of the pandemic through Nov. 8 of last year, using a health insurance database from Castlight Health, a healthcare research company.

The goal of the study was to assess the risk for COVID-19 spread associated with "small social gatherings" by comparing changes in infection rates following "important life events, specifically birthdays," researchers said.

The overall prevalence of the virus at the time of the study was 28 cases per 10,000 people in the general population.

Households located in areas with high virus spread in which a member celebrated a birthday within the past two weeks had 8.6 more cases per 10,000 people in the general population compared with households without birthdays in low-spread areas.

There were 16 more cases per 10,000 people in the general population among households that celebrated a child's birthday and six more in those in which an adult's birthday was observed.

The findings suggest that birthdays, which "likely correspond with social gatherings and celebrations," are associated with increased rates of diagnosed COVID-19 infection within households in counties with high COVID-19 prevalence, the researchers said.

"Choosing safe activities depends on whether you have been vaccinated for COVID-19," Dr. Dena Bravata, chief medical officer at San Francisco-based Castlight, told UPI in an email.

"Every family or group should discuss and evaluate what's best for their specific circumstances, [but] if you haven't been vaccinated, you must continue to take prevention measures such as wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart and washing your hands," she said.

U.N.: 'Alarmingly high' number of violations against children in 2020


The recruitment of children, to do things like perform work and fight wars, was responsible for the highest number of violations, the report said. File Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA-EFE


June 22 (UPI) -- The number of grave violations committed against children last year was "alarmingly high," according to a United Nations report that stated the COVID-19 pandemic worsened existing vulnerabilities children face.

The annual Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict said Monday that the United Nations had verified 24,000 grave violations committed against about 20,000 children in 2020 in 21 conflict areas.

"Escalation of conflict, armed clashes and disregard for international humanitarian law and international human rights law had a severe impact on the protection of children," the report states.

The recruitment of children, to do things like perform work and fight wars, was responsible for the highest number of violations (8,521), with nearly 7,000 being recruited to fight wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria and Myanmar.

The second highest violation last year was the maiming (5,748) and killing (2,676) of children.

Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria and Yemen were the locations where the highest number of violations were committed, the report said, as more than 8,400 children were either killed or maimed in ongoing fighting.

"The wars of adults have taken away the childhood of millions of boys and girls again in 2020," Virginia Gamba, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative on Children and Armed Conflict, said in a statement.

RELATED U.N. Report: Record number of people were displaced in 2020

"This is completely devastating for them, but also for the entire communities they live in, and destroys chances for a sustainable peace."

The violations that experienced the greatest growth last year were abduction and rape and other forms of sexual violence, the report said, explaining that abductions increased by 90% while forms of sexual violence rose by 70%.

While three out of four violations were committed against boys, girls accounted for 98% of all victims of rape and sexual violence, it said.

"If boys and girls experience conflict differently and require interventions to better address their specific needs," Gamba said. "What the data also showed is that conflict doesn't differentiate based on gender."

The report also noted that COVID-19 "aggravated existing vulnerabilities," including hindering children's access to education, health and social services. It also found that the pandemic's impact on socioeconomics exposed more children to being recruited, abducted and sexually violated.

RCMP investigating 'suspicious' fires that burned down two B.C. Catholic churches

ON FIRST NATIONS LANDS

Two Catholic churches were burned down Monday in the same Canadian province where late last month the remains of 215 bodies of children were found at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Photo by Murray Foubister/Flickr

June 22 (UPI) -- Canada's national police service said two Roman Catholic churches on First Nations land were burned down by fires they consider "suspicious."

The fires were spotted early Monday, which was National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, and in the province of British Columbia where less than a month ago the discovery of remains of hundreds of children buried at a former Indian Residential School reignited the nation's anger over Canada and the Catholic Church's treatment of indigenous people.


Sgt. Jason Bayda, Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman for the region of Penticton South Okanagan, said Monday in a statement that both wooden churches burned to the ground.

"Police are treating the fires as suspicious," he said.

The first fire at the Sacred Heart Church on Penticton Indian Band land was spotted by an officer at around 1:20 a.m., he said, while the St. Gregory's Church on Osoyoos Indian Band land was discovered at 3:10 a.m.

The two churches are separated by some 27 miles.

"Should our investigations deem these fires arson, the RCMP will be looking at all possible motives and allow the facts and evidence to direct our investigative actions," Bayda said. "We are sensitive to the recent events but won't speculate on a motive."

The fires came after the Tk'emlupste Secwépemc First Nation said late last month it discovered the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which was operated by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1969 before it was taken over by the Canadian government until it was finally shuttered in 1978.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission report published in 2015 said based on records the death toll at the school had only been 51.

The commission said there were 139 residential schools nationwide that were conducted on a policy that "can be best described as 'cultural genocide,'" resulting in the deaths of 4,100 children it had been able to verify though the number is believed to be as high as 6,000

Canada first apologized to its indigenous citizens over running the residential schools in 2008 but despite repeated calls to do so the Catholic Church has yet to offer an apology.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Catholic, called on the church to offer its apology following the recent discovery, but Pope Francis only expressed his "sorrow" and "closeness to the Canadian people" over the tragedy.

Standing before the charred Sacred Hearts Church on Monday, Penticton Indian Band Chief Greg Gabriel said his community is angry over the discovery of the remains but they do not condone the destruction of the church, Penticton Western News reported.

"I understand there is a lot of anger in our community with the discovery of those 215 innocent, poor children's graves," he said. "There is a lot of hurt. But this type of action doesn't help if in fact it is found to be deliberate."

WW3.0

China's military warns of 'war' if Taiwan pursues independence


China's defense ministry warned Thursday that Taiwanese independence would mean "war" as relations remain at a low point between the two sides. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

June 24 (UPI) -- China's defense ministry warned the United States Tuesday against interfering with Beijing's Taiwan policy.

Any Taiwanese move toward independence would also spell "war" for the island nation, Beijing said.

Chinese defense ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Thursday at a regular press briefing that Taiwan's unification with the mainland is a "historical inevitability." Attempts to declare Taiwanese independence would be a dead-end road, and seeking independence means "war," the spokesman said.

Ren's remarks come after U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said earlier this month that the United States "won't abandon Taiwan," after a trip to Taipei to confirm a U.S. shipment of 750,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses.

Duckworth's trip to Taiwan with Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Ark., was part of U.S. efforts to strengthen ties with Taiwan. Beijing condemned the trip at the time.

Relations between Taiwan and China have declined as Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has pushed back against Beijing's one-China policy, which does not recognize Taiwanese sovereignty.

Tsai's advisers also have put forward new proposals that have drawn the ire of the Chinese government.

Yao Chia-wen, a senior adviser to Tsai, proposed in April changing the country's name to "Republic of Taiwan" from "Republic of China," Taiwan News reported.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, vowed to retaliate if Taiwan adopted a new name.

Ren said Thursday Taiwan is an "inalienable part of China," and that China is "firmly opposed to any form of official exchanges or military contacts between the United States and Taiwan."

Ren also said that the United States "cannot stop Chinese advancement" or economic rise, and that the United States should abide by the one-China principle and three U.S.-China joint communiqués.

#NOTOKYOOLYMPICS

Japan shrugs off Emperor Naruhito's concern about COVID-19, Olympics


The office of Japan's Emperor Naruhito expressed concerns Thursday about health and safety during the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

June 24 (UPI) -- Japan's central government dismissed remarks from the emperor's office after the Imperial Household Agency said Emperor Naruhito is concerned about a surge in coronavirus cases during the Tokyo Olympics.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Thursday Tokyo is confident it will hold a safe Olympics.

"I would like to ask the Imperial Household Agency for details, but as I have said, we will realize a safe and secure games," Kato said, according to Kyodo News.

Kato also played down the emperor's remarks, which some local observers see as the withdrawal of royal support for the Summer Games.

The Japanese spokesman for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said that the emperor's office was expressing personal views, according to local press reports.

Doubts about a COVID-free Olympics have been building in Japan, where medical experts have warned the event could lead to a surge in new cases as athletes from around the world mix and mingle during competition.

Yasuhiko Nishimura, the grand steward of the agency, had said Thursday the emperor shares the public's concerns, Fuji News Network reported.

RELATED Organizers bar consumption, sale of alcohol at Tokyo Summer Olympics

Naruhito "harbors concerns that the hosting of the Olympics may lead to the continued spread of COVID-19," Nishimura said, according to the report.

"His majesty is very worried about the current infection situation of the COVID-19 disease."

Japan confirmed 1,779 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, a number that is greater than the daily caseload of a week ago reported on June 16, according to NHK. The increase in the number of cases is correlated with the lifting of a state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas, the report said.

RELATED Organizers limit local spectators at Tokyo Olympics to 50% capacity

Tens of thousands of Olympic volunteers have quit, according to CNN. On Saturday Japanese officials confirmed a coach in Uganda's Olympic team tested positive for COVID-19.

Uganda Olympic Committee President Donald Rukare has said the Ugandan delegation had all been fully vaccinated with two shots of AstraZeneca vaccines.

Lebanon may need a savior, but it likely won't be Syria this time

TO PUT IT BLUNTLY THEY ARE BOTH BASKET CASE POLITICAL ECONOMIES

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma, cast their votes in the presidential election at a polling station near Damascus, Syria, on May 26. Bashar al-Assad was elected to a fourth term, spurring speculation that Syria may once again play a role in stabilizing Lebanon. Photo by Youssef Badawi/EPA-EFE


BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 23 (UPI) -- Lebanon, which has for decades relied on outside powers to help solve its problems, is again waiting for "a savior" to pull it from its worst political and financial crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

With the failure of the Lebanese leaders to form a new government, the re-election of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a fourth term last month has fueled speculation about a new Syrian role in stabilizing its crisis-stricken neighbor.

Some analysts in Beirut have argued that handing over Lebanon again to Syria was a possible option based on shifting regional dynamics, including recent Saudi-Syria rapprochement to limit Iran's influence and Arab-European desire to normalize ties with Assad, who survived the war and remains in power. But others say that seems unrealistic, at least for now.

"I don't think that Syria now is capable or ready to play a role in Lebanon while it suffers from large destruction and the regime is not in control of all the country," Fares Boueiz, who served as Lebanese foreign minister for two terms under Syria's rule in the 1990s, told UPI.

RELATED EU foreign policy chief threatens sanctions if Lebanon can't form gov't

"A major part of the problem in Lebanon is related to the big role Hezbollah is playing in Lebanon and Syria," he said. "Redefining Hezbollah's role and size in Syria will reflect directly on Lebanon...That could be a way" to restabilize the situation in Lebanon.

Syria of the 1970s

Syria today is not the powerful Syria of the 1970s, when it first sent its troops to Lebanon, with U.S. encouragement and tacit Israeli approval to help stop raging civil strife.

RELATED Iran's Ali-Akbar Mohtashamipour, co-founder of Hezbollah, dies of COVID-19

As the war lasted 15 years, Syria consolidated its military presence with up to 30,000 troops deployed across most of the country and imposed itself as the most powerful player after battling Palestinian armed groups, various Lebanese factions and Israeli forces.

In peacetime, when the 1990 Saudi-brokered Taef accord ended the civil strife, Syria was entrusted to fix the country, which allowed it to control it completely, exerting significant influence on Lebanese politics and every aspect of life, as well as forming long-term alliances with local parties.

Syria's 29-year heavy-handed control of Lebanon came to an end in 2005 when it was forced to pull out troops more than two months after the Feb. 14 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A critic of the Syrian presence in Lebanon, Hariri was killed in an explosion that targeted his convoy in Beirut. His killing was swiftly blamed on Syria, but an international court years later ruled that members of Hezbollah were behind it.

RELATED Lebanon's electricity crisis worsens, total blackout looming

Syria's departure further divided the Lebanese, while the mostly corrupt political elite, who have dominated politics for years, engaged in constant political disputes and failed to agree on how to run the country and solve its problems until its worst economic crisis broke out in October 2019.

Exhausted and fragmented

Boueiz said Lebanon emerged from the civil war "exhausted, largely destroyed and fragmented...with no state institutions and some 10 confessional mini-states ruled by the then powerful and heavily armed Christian and Muslim militias."

"An Arab-international decision ended the war at that time, but Lebanon did not have any mechanism to reunify the country, and the world was not interested in sending troops to fix the situation," Boueiz told UPI. "Syria was thus entrusted to put the country back together and rebuild the state with the blessing of the U.S., France and most of the Arabs."

Lebanon, he said, had no other choice at the time but to rely on Syria, although "it has its own calculations and interests, in addition to its big struggle with Israel, Lebanon being part of it."

Boueiz said "what we have achieved then" under the two terms rule of late President Elias Hrawi "was close to a miracle."

"Nobody had thought that Lebanon could be back after all the destruction," he said, noting that 90% of "the state components were restored," with a 40,000-strong army, 30,000-member security forces, hospitals, schools and state institutions rebuilt.

Without Syria, he argued, it would have been impossible to disband the war militias, which were 10 times stronger than the army at that time.

Hezbollah was the only exception for its fighting with Israel, which was occupying a so-called "security zone" in southern Lebanon, an equivalent of 10 percent of Lebanese territories.

"We were in an impasse: Should we consider Hezbollah as an internal militia and eliminate the resistance and the possibility of confronting Israel and liberating our land? That was not acceptable," Boueiz said.




Lebanese youths ride a motor scooter carrying both the Lebanese and Hezbollah flags beside a bridge in Beirut's southern suburbs that was bombed by Israeli jets on July 14, 2006. File Photo by Oussama Ayoub/UPI | License Photo


That logic was maintained until 2000 when Israel was forced to pull out its troops and southern Lebanon was liberated. Instead of reviewing Hezbollah's "resistance status" and finding a formula to contain it, the Iran-backed group, with Syrian backing, was not ready to relinquish its weapons or its fight with Israel, arguing that it was still occupying Lebanese land: the disputed Shabaa farms and Kfar Shouba hills, the northernmost strip of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 war.

Hezbollah further argued that its arsenal was meant to deter Israel and prevent it from continuing to be a threat. In the meantime, the militant group was growing stronger, boosted by large financial and military support from Iran and Syria.

"The change started when late Syrian President Hafez Assad lost hope in the possibility of achieving peace with the collapse of the Madrid peace process in the late 1990s and started to prepare for a long-term confrontation" with Israel, Boueiz said. "In fact, the size and power of Hezbollah started to grow significantly due to an Iran-Syria agreement" until it reached the point of engaging in the war in Syria in support of Assad.

U.S. sanctions on Iran had a toll on Hezbollah, which "finds itself obliged to fund itself from inside," benefiting from the state resources -- like the other Lebanese political parties -- as well as increasing its illegal activities through ports and land crossings..."that opened the way for the current economic crisis," he said. "Hezbollah's link to Iran and its struggle or conflict with the West and the Gulf countries led to Lebanon's isolation, which was boycotted by the West and most Arab countries."

Such a boycott and Lebanon's failure to implement reforms deprived the country of financial assistance badly needed to avert the country's total collapse, raising fears of security chaos and social explosion - a situation that would call for urgent outside intervention.

Mohanad Hage Ali, an analyst and fellow at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, said "there is room for one party to play a big role" in Lebanon because of the deteriorating situation. But the Syrian regime, which is under international sanctions, has emerged "weak" from 10 years of a destructive war on its territories.

"I can't see any development at least for the time being that would allow Syria to play a serious role in Lebanon except in one exceptional case: a total security collapse in the country that could necessitate fighting terrorist groups," Hage Ali told UPI.