The Syrian military has controlled Lebanon since 1976, amounting at times to a 30,000-strong occupying force. During this time Christians have lost their majority. The pro-Syrian outcome of recent parliamentary elections demonstrated the continuing influence of President Bashar Assad’s government.

On June 2, Lebanese Christian journalist and University professor Samir Kassir was assassinated in a car bomb attack. Kassir’s television and press statements criticizing the Syrian occupation had made him a thorn in the flesh of the Damascus rulers. Saad Hariri, son of assassinated ex Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, believes the murderers are to be sought in Syria: “God only knows what awaits us”, he said.

In the course of three decades of Syrian occupation, Christians have been steadily marginalized in political and social life. The constitution stipulates that the State President should be a Christian, while the Prime Minister and Parliamentary President are Moslems. Yet in 1990, powers were withdrawn from the Christian President and transferred to the competence of the Moslem Prime Minister and Parliamentary President.

Furthermore in 1994, 300,000 non-Lebanese Moslems living in Lebanon (ten per cent of the total population) were granted citizenship and voting rights. Conversely, around 900,000 predominantly Christian Lebanese fled the country during the civil war. Whereas Christians made up 50% of the population in 1943, they now only account for 30%.

Even after the Syrian withdrawal, over 400 mainly Christian Lebanese remain in detention, their fate unknown, among them students, doctors, lawyers and journalists who dared to protest against the Syrian presence in their land. The continuing influence of Islamic ‘Hezbollah’ militias, armed and financed by Syria as a bulwark against the arch-enemy Israel, spells a worrying outlook for Lebanon’s Christians.