Lebanon’s "state-sponsored amnesia" towards its 15-year civil war has left communities segregated and without justice or reconciliation, a non-governmental organisation reported Tuesday. The International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) said real peace and reconciliation in multi-sectarian Lebanon requires "meaningful accountability" for violence during the war and "institutional reform." "Lebanon has made no serious attempts to comply with its international legal obligations to pursue perpetrators of serious human rights violations" in the nearly 24 years since the war ended, the group said in a report released Tuesday.

 

The state has also failed to address "the culture of impunity that has pervaded Lebanese society." Lebanon’s civil war killed some 150,000 people before it was ended by the power-sharing Taif Agreement, but many warlords and other protagonists of the 1975-1990 conflict are now active, influential politicians. [Link]