Beirut, 30 Nov. (AKI) - A bloody feud that broke out between families in a Lebanese town over 60 years ago has been further exacerbated by the warring sides' decision to stand on opposite sides of the pro and anti Syrian divide that has dominated politics in Lebanon for the last three decades. "Rival families have been at war in Zghorta for decades. Every family home has a cellar filled with guns," says Shawki Duwayhi, 60, a journalist based in this mountain settlement of 40,000, some 90 kilometres northeast of the capital Beirut.In the latest violence to hit the mostly Christian Maronite town, two men were injured on Tuesday in a gunfight between members of the Frangie and Muawwad family clans.
| "Git yur shooting irons, boys! We'ums gonna go git us sum Frangie!" |
"In the 40s and 50s the main rivalry was between the Frangie and the Duwahys," explains Shawki Duwayhi - himself a scion of the same named family - "At that time the Muawwad were allies of the Frangies but during the [Lebanese] civil war [1975-1990] the latter sided with the Syrians while the Muawwad chose the other side. This division has lasted to this day."
In the last decade the Frangies and Muawwad's have dominated public life in Zghorta, forcing the other major families in the town, the Duwayhis, the Karams and Makaris to choose sides in the feud. "Everything is divided up between the Frangies and Muawwads, the shops, the banks, the pharmacies and even the parking lots," Duwayhi says. "In Zghorta guns are seen as necessary, an nobody will get rid of the ones they have because besides needing them for self-defence, it [posession of guns] is a question of honour.
| Sounds like the plotline from "A Fistfull of Dollars". |