South Lebanon Army

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South Lebanon Army
Participant in 1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict
SLA patch.png
SLA patch.
Active Until 2000
Leaders Saad Haddad, Antoine Lahad
Area of
operations		 Southern Lebanon
Allies Israel Defence Force (IDF)
Opponents Hezbollah, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

The South Lebanon Army (SLA), also "South Lebanese Army," (Arabic: جيش لبنان الجنوبي‎; transliterated: Jaysh Lubnān al-Janūbi. Hebrew: צבא דרום לבנון, צד"ל‎; transliterated: Tzvá Dróm Levanón, Tzadál) was a Lebanese militia during the Lebanese Civil War. After 1979, the militia operated in southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad's Government of Free Lebanon[1]. It was supported by Israel during the 1982–2000 South Lebanon conflict to fight against both the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hezbollah.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1976, as a result of the civil war, the Lebanese army began to break up. Major Saad Haddad, commanding an army battalion in the south, broke away from the army and founded a group known as the Free Lebanon Army. The Free Lebanon Army was initially based in the towns of Marjayoun and Qlayaa in southern Lebanon. SLA fought against various groups including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Amal Movement and, after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the newly emerging Hezbollah. While the group was no longer under the direct control of the Lebanese army, from 1976, its members were still paid as Lebanese soldiers by the government until 1979.

The 1978 Israeli invasion allowed the Free Lebanon Army to gain control over a much wider area in southern Lebanon. On April 18, 1979, Haddad proclaimed the area controlled by his force "Independent Free Lebanon". The following day, he was branded a traitor by the Lebanese government and officially dismissed from the Lebanese army. The Free Lebanon Army was renamed the South Lebanon Army (SLA) in May 1980. Following Haddad's death due to cancer in 1984, he was replaced as leader by Antoine Lahad (a retired lieutenant general). The SLA was composed of Christians, Shias and Druze from the areas that it controlled but the officers were mostly Christian. After 1980, the fighting strength of the SLA became progressively more Shia in composition[citation needed].

Saad Haddad (right) in a conversation with Norwegian Norbatt IV field priest major Ole Askvig Øgaard and other Norwegian UNIFIL personnel in a hotel in the Israeli town of Metula, 1980

The SLA was closely allied with Israel. It supported the Israelis by combating the PLO in southern Lebanon until the 1982 invasion . After that, SLA support for the Israelis was mainly by fighting against other Lebanese guerrilla forces led by Hezbollah until 2000 in the "Security Zone", the area kept under occupation after a partial Israeli withdrawal in 1985. In return, Israel supplied the organization with arms, uniforms, and other logistical equipment.

The SLA hosted the Christian radio station "Voice of Hope", set up and funded by George Otis, the founder of High Adventure Ministries, Inc. Starting in 1982, the SLA played host to Middle East Television which was also set up, funded and operated by High Adventure Ministries. George Otis gave Middle East Television (METV) to Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson, founder of CBN. On May 2, 2000 Middle East Television relocated to Cyprus.

In 1985 the SLA opened the Khiam detention center in Khiam. Torture was a common tactic and occurred on a large scale in Khiam. Israel rejects any involvement, even though the SLA and Israel were very intertwined at this point in history, and claims that Khiam was the sole responsibility of the SLA: this has been contested by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International [2]. The SLA also applied a mandatory military service program where males over 18 living in the territory it controlled were forced to serve a whole year as a military recruit.[1] While the SLA received funding, weapons and logistics from Israel during its entire existence, the SLA carried out a lot of the fighting independently of Israeli forces. The SLA also handled all civilian governmental operations in Israel's zone of control.

During the 1990s, Hezbollah carried out increasingly effective attacks on it, aided in later years by Lebanese army intelligence which had thoroughly penetrated the SLA. These changed circumstances led to a progressive loss of morale and members. In 1997, Israel maintained approximately 1,000 to 1,200 troops in southern Lebanon and supported another 2,000 in the SLA.[3] By 2000, the SLA was reduced to 1,500 fighters as compared to 3,000 ten years earlier. In its peak during the early 1980s, the SLA was composed of over 5,000 fighters.

[edit] Withdrawal, collapse and surrender

Antoine Lahad, commander of the South Lebanon Army, at his home in Marjayoun, Lebanon. c.1988

The increase in Israeli casualties in Lebanon over the previous few years led to growing domestic pressure for an end to Israel’s military presence in Lebanon. Ehud Barak’s Labor Party pledged during his March 1999 election campaign for Prime Minister to withdraw Israeli troops from Lebanon by July 2000. Barak won a sweeping victory in the May 1999 elections with this pledge. On March 5, 2000, the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously for a full troop withdrawal from Lebanon by July. The expectation then, was that such a withdrawal would be part of an agreement with both Lebanon and Syria. These negotiations with Syria broke down, however.[4][5]

On May 22, Israeli forces unilaterally started handing over its forward positions in the occupied zone to the SLA. As the "chaotic" nature of the withdrawal became obvious, civilians from the zone overran SLA positions to return to their occupied villages, while Hezbollah guerrillas quickly took control of the areas the SLA had previously controlled. The SLA in the central sector of the security zone, collapsed in the face of these crowds and from Hezbollah's rapid advance.[6] The next day, SLA forward positions in the eastern sector collapsed, and Israeli forces began their general withdrawal from the remaining areas of the security zone. With the Israeli retreat, the SLA totally collapsed. Withdrawal was complete on Wednesday, 24 May, 2000, and the sight of Saad Haddad's statue being dragged through the streets of the Lebanese town of Marjayoun was a sure sign that the South Lebanon Army was gone.[7]

As the Israeli withdrawal rapidly progressed, SLA militiamen were left with few choices. The Lebanese government, as well as Hezbollah and many civilians in the area, considered them to be traitors and collaborators. In addition, they were told that Israel's border would be closed following withdrawal completion. Many were terrified of being captured (and possibly killed) by Hezbollah guerrillas or vengeful mobs, or being jailed or executed by the Lebanese government.

Many members of the SLA, including some with their families, fled to Israel; the majority feared being suspected of the serious offences committed by SLA members, and was Christian. Reportedly, a number of the members were granted asylum in European countries, mostly in Germany.[citation needed] The others, who remained in Lebanon, either gave themselves up to the Lebanese authorities, or were captured by Hezbollah and handed over to the Lebanese police. SLA members captured by Lebanon and Hezbollah were tried by Lebanese military courts for treason.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak was criticized in Israel by the Jewish settler movement on the grounds that his decision to withdraw without consulting his SLA allies led to the rapidity and confusion of its collapse.[4] Hezbollah was also criticized for preventing the arrest of some members of the SLA; it justified this on the grounds that it was in a position to know which of them had been informing.[8]

By the next month, June 2000, three thousand former members of the SLA were in the custody of the Lebanese government. By the end of year, about 90% of them had been tried in military courts. It has been estimated that a third of the SLA members were sentenced to less than a month and a third received one-year sentences. Two members of the SLA accused of torture at Al-Khiam prison received life sentences. Twenty one members of the SLA were initially recommended for the death sentence, but in each case the military reduced the sentence. Certain other individuals were barred from returning to South Lebanon for a number of years.[9]

Of those who initially fled to Israel, many SLA members and their families eventually chose to return to Lebanon after Hezbollah promised they would not be harmed. Others accepted Israel's offer of full citizenship and a financial package similar to that granted to new immigrants, and settled permanently in Israel. On April 6, 2006, the Israeli Knesset Finance Committee approved the payment of 40,000 shekels per family to SLA veterans; it is to be paid over the course of seven years.[10]

Israel continues to host the Government of Free Lebanon on whose behalf the SLA had operated. The Government of Free Lebanon has operated from Jerusalem since 2000 and still claims to be the true government of Lebanon.[citation needed]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Government of Free Lebanon in exile
  2. ^ Amnesty International
  3. ^ US State Department Congressional Testimony, June 25, 1997
  4. ^ a b Jerusalem Journal Israel's Withdrawal From Lebanon
  5. ^ War on Lebanon Edited by Nubar Hovsepian Section 4 by Lara Deeb p 61
  6. ^ Domont and Charrara, Le Hezbollah: un mouvement Islamo-nationaliste
  7. ^ BBC News Bitter retreat for the SLA
  8. ^ Palmer-Harek, Judith, Hezbollah: the Changing Face of Terrorism, London, IB Tauris.
  9. ^ "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices". US State Department. 6 April 2001. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8270.htm. Retrieved 2006-04-06. 
  10. ^ "Knesset okays grants to SLA families". Jerusalem Post. 6 April 2006. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1143498813020&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. Retrieved 2006-04-06. 

[edit] Bibliography

  • Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28716-2

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

  • Le Hezbollah: un mouvement Islamo-nationaliste, Frédéric Domont and Walid Charrara, Editions Fayard: Paris, 2004 ISBN 2-213-62009-1
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