In Lebanon's Druze mountain, mothers mourn

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

SHOUEIFAT, Lebanon (Reuters) - Flowers cover the bodies of two young Druze men laid out in a tree-lined courtyard among the hills overlooking Beirut, their mothers weeping over victims of Lebanon's latest civil strife.

"The happiest moment for me every day was when Alaa came back home. No other mother in Lebanon should go through this," said Lina Shaban as she stroked the neatly trimmed hair of her son before burial on Sunday.

"I hope their death will be a step towards the unity of Lebanon," Alaa's father added stoically.

But calls for reconciliation were drowned out by Kalashnikov-toting friends of Alaa Shaban and Afif Nasser, firing their rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the air. Panicking residents ran for cover.

"We will revenge the death of Alaa and Afif. If the state does not do justice then will do it ourselves," one man told the crowd at the funeral.

The two, in their early 20s, were members of the opposition Lebanese Democratic Party, led by aristocrat Talal Arsalan.

They were stopped last week and shot by government loyalists in scenes Lebanon had last known during the 1975-1990 civil war, their relatives said.

"They thought they were Hezbollah members and simply shot them on the spot. There was not even a battle," one of the relatives said.

Scores of Druze clerics attended the funeral, including some loyal to rival sect leader Walid Jumblatt.

The Druze are an offshoot of Islam, comprising less than 10 percent of Lebanon's population. They have traditionally punched above their weight, leading a major revolt against French mandate rule in 1920s.

"When the Druze come under threat they stick together," one of the clerics said.

HAUNTING PAST

The area was scene of some of the worst bloodshed in the civil war. In the 1980s many Christian villages were stormed by Druze fighters. Shi'ite areas were spared.

Unlike most of the Druze community, the Lebanese Democratic Party supports the Shi'ite Hezbollah opposition group and is a rival to Jumblatt's larger National Socialist Progressive Party.

But the specter of another civil war has brought them closer together.