Lebanon Clans, State Within a State, End Deadly Feud : Vendetta: Heads of Muslim and Christian families put aside differences after slaying, hail ‘historical and brotherly ties.’

When Hussein Amhaz lost his 16-year-old son Muhammad in a vendetta attack last September, he pledged not to cut his hair or shave his beard until he got vengeance.

Muhammad was killed in a shootout between the Muslim Shiite Amhaz clan and the Christian Maronite Touk family near his village of Nabha, north of the ancient city of Baalbeck, 52 miles east of Beirut.

For seven months, members of the 6,000-strong Touk family waited anxiously for the 15,000-strong Amhaz clan to exact their revenge.

In April, four Touk men opted to end the tension by putting themselves at the mercy of the opposing clan leader, Abdel Mawla Amhaz. They went to his house in Nabha at sunset and offered their lives to end the struggle.

The Amhaz leader did not kill them. Instead, it was the start of a long-awaited reconciliation.

“Their humiliation is a sufficient reward,” said Abdel Fattah Amhaz, a 31-year-old agricultural engineer and professor at the American University of Beirut.

“But this was the only way to prevent more bloodshed,” said his father, Abdel Wahab.

Lebanon’s clans have built a state within the state. Some of them came to Lebanon hundreds years ago and settled in the mountainous zones away from direct contact with civilization.

Their personalities became harsh as the land itself, but they remained hospitable to strangers and staunch in defending their honor.

Recently Hussein shaved his beard, cut his hair and put on new clothes preparing himself for the reconciliation ceremony.

“Nothing could satisfy my thirst to . . . avenge my son’s blood, but this was a clan’s decision and I willingly yield to it,” he said.

Hussein’s other four sons refused to accompany him.

The reconciliation included a lunch feast organized in their honor by the Touk family in the Christian town of Bcheri, 20 miles north of Baalbeck.

“The Touks came to us a week ago and we are going to return their visit in a way to complete the reconciliation,” said Abdel Mawla Amhaz as more than 400 people joined him for the journey to Bcheri.

“The issue of taking revenge was settled since the Touk family will pay a reparation to the victim’s father,” Abdel Mawla said. He refused to reveal the amount of the indemnity but another mediator said it was the equivalent of $25,000.

Abdel Mawla said mediators were also trying to solve the problem that initially triggered the feud in 1959: water rights. At that time, the Touk family living in high lands seized the spring that was the sole source of water for Amhaz farmers to irrigate their land.

In Bcheri, residents lined the village’s streets to greet the Amhaz motorcade with showers of rice and rose water.

Jubran Touk, chief of the Touk family, received his guests at the yard of his three-story villa. He hugged his long-time rival Abdel Mawla Amhza and praised the “historical and brotherly ties” between the two clans.

Ironically, both Abdel Mawla Amhaz and Jubran Touk are members of Parliament, but when it comes to tribal quarrels they prefer to resolve their differences by clan laws instead of using the Lebanese judicial system.

“I cannot 100% reject the tribal system,” said Abdel Fattah Amhaz. “After all, there are some good things. It provides protection especially under the prevailing state of lawlessness.”

He said the Baalbeck region is a poor, depressed area.

“If it were not for the tribal system, it would have turned into a jungle. It is like a safety valve or even a balance of terror,” he said.

Traditional politicians and even the government have in the past used tribal disputes and exploited vendettas to consolidate their control on these areas.

In 1958, the late President Fouad Chehab, a Maronite Christian, appointed Butros Abdel Satter as a counselor for tribal affairs.

“All that Abdel Satter did was to distribute weapon licenses to members from all clans in order to incite violence,” Abdel Wahab Amhaz said.

Even the various leftist and Muslim parties that emerged as powers during the civil war failed to impose their rules or change the traditional tribal mentality.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who have been stationed in the eastern Bekaa Valley since 1982, have had some success in getting the clans to use Islamic law to settle disputes.

“Somehow, they (Iranian Guards) succeed. Even the bloodiest and most stubborn clans began to refer to Islamic law to settle their dispute,” said Hussein Musawi, an official of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah or Party of God.

For the Amhazs, their tribal system is beyond religion.

“We are faithful believers but we defend our rights by our own means. We do not need clerics,” said Abdel Wahab Amhaz.

The chief of police in Baalbeck, Col. Muhammad Al Halbawi, said the police role has always been limited in dealing with vendettas. He said Lebanese authorities usually prefer to remain neutral and to back attempts to settle disputes between families.

Halbawi said vendetta incidents sharply dropped to one or two per month after the outbreak of the civil war in 1975.

“People are exercising self-restraint since everybody possesses at least a rifle and can defend himself,” he said.