Beirut Breathes A Sigh Of Relief With Poster Disarmament

In polarised Lebanon, a poster depicting the leader of one of the country's rival political factions can spark a fight - or even a gunbattle.

So shopkeepers on Beirut's Al Maamoun Street are breathing a little easier now that a "poster disarmament" has been declared.

Most of the movie posters once plastered on Beirut's walls and lampposts have come down by agreement between the main factions of Shiite and Sunni Muslims - part of a broader attempt to ease nearly three years of sectarian and political tensions that almost dragged the country back into civil war.

The move is giving a new look to a city where political posters and banners once were far more numerous than advertising billboards. It's not just symbolic, either.

Posters have sparked battles with sticks and stones - or more lethal weapons.

In the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighbourhood of Basta, several people were injured in fights along Al Maamoun Street earlier this year when a portrait of slain former Sunni Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his son Sa'ad was torn down.

And last month, two people died in a gunfight between rival Christian groups over the hanging of a political banner in a village in north Lebanon.

October 13, 2008