Although the south was quiet Friday, the residents of Kfar Shuba, facing the Shebaa Farms, are bracing for further violence. Lebanese students staged a large anti-Syrian rally on Tuesday, adding to recent demands that Damascus withdraw its 35,000 troops and stop managing Lebanon s politics. Around 3,000 students blocked the landmark Museum intersection area between West and East Beirut. They said Lebanon's independence, which will be marked on Wednesday, will be meaningless as long as the Syrians are in control.
Villages remain half empty, the economy is in a shambles and the fear of violence has returned.
That is a far cry from the wild enthusiasm that accompanied the May 24 pullout, which theoretically opened the way for a social and economic revival in a region that for two decades had been the stage for an unrelenting guerrilla war against the Israelis. Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said Monday that his two-day visit to Libya would have a 'positive effect' on Lebanon and on relations between the two countries. Questioning Syria s presence in Lebanon at this specific time offers Israel a free service, not only at Syria s expense, but first and foremost at Lebanon s expense,' Lahoud said on the eve of Independence Day. It isn't just any old pile of rubbish. It could prove an investors' gold mine.