Table Of ContentPost-Conflict Transition in Lebanon
Addressing one of the most pressing issues of the Lebanese Civil War
(1975–1990) that is still unresolved almost 30 years later, this book adopts a
political, sociological, and anthropological approach to look at periods of
transition from conflict to peace in Lebanon.
Inducing a set of questions about the social and political system, the
post-conflict state has been pushing for a politics of amnesty and amnesia.
The case study delves into the notion of transition from conflict to peace in
Lebanon by looking in the case of the estimated 17,000 people who disap-
peared during the Civil War. Using the concept of liminality to understand
the evolution of the issue over the years, the book follows the trajectory
of the relatives of the missing, who have formed a communitas – a group
sharing strong feelings of comradeship and brother/sisterhood by virtue of
finding themselves in the same situation.
Offering a novel way of looking at transitions, the book is a significant
contribution to peace studies, and it will be an interest of students and
academics working in human rights, political science, and the Middle East
disciplines.
Lyna Comaty is a lecturer in Sociology, Development and Transitional Jus-
tice at the American University of Beirut and a social and political activist
through various projects she leads with civil society organizations and po-
litical parties in Lebanon. Her research interests include political reform,
peacebuilding, and development.
Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Society
This series seeks to examine the various developments and changes in con-
temporary Middle East society. From a variety of disciplinary a pproaches it
includes books on issues such as globalization, the impact of e conomic, reli-
gious and political change on people’s lives, the family and gender relations in
the region.
1 The War in Darfur
Reclaiming Sudanese History
Anders Hastrup
2 Israeli Identity
Between Orient and Occident
Edited by David Tal
3 A Political Economy of Arab Education
Policies and Comparative Perspectives
Mohamed Alaa Abdel-Moneim
4 Syrian Refugee Children in the Middle East and Europe
Integrating the Young and Exiled
Edited by Michelle Pace and Somdeep Sen
5 Post-Conflict Transition in Lebanon
The Disappeared of the Civil War
Lyna Comaty
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/middleeaststudies/series/MESOC
Post-Conflict Transition in
Lebanon
The Disappeared of the Civil War
Lyna Comaty
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Lyna Comaty
The right of Lyna Comaty to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-23041-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-38602-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
To Ayla and Ray, in the hope you do not inherit the
mistakes of our past.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Notes on transliteration xi
Introduction 1
1 Taif: between a peace agreement and a political project 21
2 Relatives of the disappeared, a communitas in liminality 50
3 The relationship between the state/regime and the
communitas 84
4 The local external environment and the communitas 124
5 The communitas and the global discourse of human
rights and transitional justice 149
6 The slide from global to local: mechanisms of liminality
and unintended outcomes 173
Conclusion – Looking beyond the transitory state:
Lebanon three decades into the post-conflict 189
Epilogue 197
Bibliography 201
Index 215
Acknowledgments
This book is based on my PhD in Development Studies, obtained in 2014
at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in
Geneva, Switzerland. The research was carried out from 2009 to 2013
between Geneva and Beirut. In a way, it is the closure of a journey that
started in 2009 and reached a first milestone in 2014 with the PhD, to end
today with this publication.
Many, many people deserve a special mention here. The research would
not have been thorough without the wonderful people I met during my two
years of research in Beirut, and whom it will be difficult to name all here.
I would like to extend thanks to Carmen Abou Jaoude, Wadad Halwani,
Justine Di Mayo Houry, and Lynn Maalouf, as well as Wadih Asmar and
Nizar Saghiyeh – all of them were really exquisite activists. A special thanks
goes to Ghazi Aad, may he rest in peace, who left this world in 2016 without
witnessing a major success this year with the passing of a law for the missing
and forcibly disappeared in parliament in November 2018. I would also like
to thank all those whom I had the chance to meet and converse with in
Beirut back in 2010–2012, particularly Christine Rechdane and Benedicte
L’Eplattenier at the ICRC for their interest in my work. Of course, my grat-
itude also goes to those who facilitated the research, particularly Lokman
Slim for granting me access to UMAM’s extensive newspaper archives and
Rasha el Amine for her help in finding various sources. I would also like
to thank Hassan, at the Arab Center for Information, for his help with the
newspaper archives. Most importantly, my warmest regards go to the rel-
atives of the disappeared, be they 1,000 or 20,000, for their strength, their
courage, and their perseverance. With all my heart, I hope that this study
contributes to serving their cause, even if it is really only a drop in an ocean
of political complexity.
A key person this decade has been without a doubt Professor Riccardo
Bocco who made the whole process so much more interesting – and less
daunting! – than I thought it would be. I am lucky to have worked with
a director as knowledgeable, interesting, and, most importantly, under-
standing as Riccardo. I would like to also extend my thanks to the members
