Lebanese Army soldiers during an operation in North Lebanon. (Courtesy of Lebanese Army website)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Army was responsible for the death of one of the two men shot dead near Qornet al-Sawda in northern Lebanon last weekend, the army revealed in a statement Saturday evening. According to the statement, the man was shot as army troops were intervening to "implement security measures."
"In the aftermath of the painful incident that took place on 1/7/2023 in the Qornet al-Sawda region between citizens of the towns of Bsharri and Bqaa Safrin, which resulted in the death of the young Haitham Tawk, army units intervened to implement security measures, and soon after they were shot at," the army statement said.
"[The army units] responded with the same and arrested a number of people. At that time, it was revealed that the citizen, Malek Romanos, was wounded and later died of his wounds."
It was not immediately clear why the man, who was named in a previous statement and in media reports as Malek Tawk, was referred to as Malek Romanos in Saturday's army statement.
On July 1, two brothers — Haitham and Malek Tawk — from the predominantly Christian town of Bsharri, North Lebanon, were killed in an apparent long-standing conflict between residents of nearby Bqaa Safrin over water sources on the heights of Qornat al-Sawda, Lebanon's highest peak.
Some relatives of the victims, as well as the Lebanese Forces through its spokesperson, had claimed since last week that the army is responsible for the fatal shot that killed Malek Tawk.
Hezbollah’s opponents had accused the armed group of deliberately exacerbating the situation, amidst a backdrop of growing political polarization.
Saturday's army statement added that "based on the Public Prosecution’s discriminatory signal, the Intelligence Directorate launched an immediate investigation and arrested a number of those involved," following the incident.
"After the completion of the investigations, and based on the signal of the Public Prosecution Office of the Court of Cassation, a number of detainees were released pending investigation and 11 detainees were referred to the competent judiciary," the statement said.
“If the army is involved, it would have been unintentional, as the soldiers were attempting to restore calm to the situation,” William Tawk, MP for Bsharri and a close friend of the victims’ family, told L’Orient-Le Jour last week.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai commented on the dispute around the Qornet al-Sawda on Sunday, during a mass in memory of the two victims at the patriarchate's summer headquarters in Diman.
''Haitham and Malek Tawk were victims of the lack of respect and non-application of administrative and judicial decisions issued since 1998 concerning Qornet al-Sawda and the disputed plain of al-Samara, which prohibit all public and private works on the surface and underground, as well as the drawing of water and the installation of artificial lakes, in order to preserve the underground water that feeds the springs and to facilitate the demarcation of the land," he said.
He went on to denounce "political interventions" surrounding activities carried out illegally on Lebanon's highest mountain peak.
''If the administrative texts had been respected, the problem would not have persisted to the point of having the tragic consequences of last weekend.''
The patriarch also called on "political leaders to put an end to their interventions, which are hindering the work of the security forces responsible for enforcing justice and administrative decisions" concerning the waters of Qornet al-Sawda.
He also demanded that the localities of Bsharri, Bqaa Safrin and Ehden-Zgharta "respond to the request of the real estate judge in the north, facilitate the work of the surveyors in the region and provide the documents in their possession, so that the demarcation of the land can be carried out.''