Whose map is right? Syrian colonel insists his base is not in Lebanon

04 May 2005

DEIR AL-AASHAYER: The Syrian army colonel spread out the military map on the coffee table and jabbed at it with his finger."Right now you are sitting in Syria, not Lebanon," he said

The map marked the border in tiny red crosses that meandered across the contours of this remote mountainous stretch of south-east Lebanon. The military position, nestled at the foot of a rocky hill 1 kilometer south of this small Druze village, was clearly inside Syria - according to his map.

But Lebanese maps, both tourist maps and Lebanese Army maps, place the border several hundred meters behind the position. And the local residents insist that the Syrian compound is on land owned by Lebanese.

"The Syrians say it is part of Syria, but we say we are not convinced," said Fahd Ayoub, the mayor of Deir Al-Aashayer.

The anomaly will be discussed by a joint Lebanese and Syrian military committee Wednesday to adjudicate once and for all the delineation of the border near Deir Al-Aashayer.

The recent press attention over the Deir Al-Aashayer border dispute clearly was of annoyance to the post's commander, a colonel. Giving a surprisingly warm welcome to The Daily Star, he sat inside his office out of the icy wind to explain why the Lebanese media reports were all wrong.

"People should double-check their facts first," he said indignantly. "The border is delineated. It's not disputed. Whoever said it is disputed doesn't know his facts."

The colonel said that a parade ground and training facilities which lay on the Lebanese side of the border were demolished before the April 26 completion of the troop withdrawal.

The soldiers have built a line of stone cairns, some of them whitewashed, to mark the frontier on the ground. The cairns were dotted across the sloping valley every 200 meters. The Syrian position, with its trucks, tents, huts and armored personnel carriers, lies about 100 meters from the line of cairns.

"We don't cross the border at all anymore," he said. "The facts on the ground say we are in Syria. The Lebanese know this as they have the same maps we do."

Well, not quite. In fact, the most recent edition of the army's maps of Lebanon indicate that the Syrian colonel and his men are on Lebanese soil. Indeed, the Lebanese and Syrian maps of the Deir al-Aashayer area differ quite significantly. The Lebanese army map, like tourist maps, places Deir al-Aashayer within a broad fist-shaped expanse of land protruding into Syria. The Syrian map, however, shows Deir al-Aashayer contained within a narrow finger of Lebanese territory poking into Syria, with the hills north of the village annexed into Syria.

Ayoub, the village mayor, said that a delegation from Deir al-Aashayer plans to inspect the property records kept in Zahle to prove whether the land on which the Syrian military post is based is owned by Lebanese or not.

"We hope to prove that that land belongs to Lebanese people living in Deir al-Aashayer," he said.

The military position was established before Syrian troops entered Lebanon in 1976, according to a senior Lebanese Army officer.

"The position was not within the command of Syrian forces in Lebanon that's why it's still there," he said. "This is a disputed frontier."

He said the joint Lebanese-Syrian military committee would soon resolve the dispute.

"If the position is found to be in Lebanon, they will move it inside their border. If it is in Syria, it will stay where it is," he said.

The border between Lebanon and Syria has never been properly demarcated on the ground. Other disputed locations include Tufail, east of Nabi Sheet, which until recently could only be reached via Syria, Aasal, Al-Qaa, Al-Qasr and Kfar Kouq.

A further potential dispute could arise over the status of Ghajar, the village lying at the foot of the Shebaa Farms which is split by the UN-delineated Blue Line. The upper third of the village is in Lebanese territory, the southern two-thirds in what is generally accepted as Israeli-occupied Syria. The residents are Allawites and proudly claim Syrian nationality. But the new Lebanese Army map, which was compiled last year, places Ghajar inside Lebanon. The map amends earlier editions by including the nearby Shebaa Farms within Lebanon. Because of the nature of the tri-border area between Israel, Syria and Lebanon it is impossible to place the Shebaa Farms inside Lebanon while leaving Ghajar in Syria.