Children flock to terror suspect’s shrine
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008
NABATIYE, Lebanon — The children crowd forward around the glass case, eager for a glimpse of the militant’s bloodstained clothes. His belt is on display, along with the shoes he died in, scarred with shrapnel. The battered desk where he planned military operations still has his box of pencils on it, his in box, his cell phone.
“May God kill the one who killed him,” an old woman says, wiping tears from her eyes as she stares through the glass.
The dead man being shown such veneration is Imad Mugniyah, the shadowy Hezbollah commander. Until his death in a car bombing in Syria in February, he was virtually unknown, his role in the militant Shiite group clothed in secrecy. But since then Hezbollah has hailed him as one of its great military leaders in the struggle against Israel.
Now, the group has opened an exhibit in this southern town in honor of Mugniyah, who is widely accused in the West of masterminding devastating bombings, kidnappings and hijackings in the 1980 s and ’ 90 s. His stern, bearded face towers over the transformed parking lot where the exhibit is taking place, along with banners exalting him as “the leader of the two victories” — the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and the 2006 summer war with Israel.
The presentation, which opened Aug. 15, is Hezbollah’s most ambitious multimedia exhibit to date, meant to dramatize the group’s bitter conflict with Israel on the second anniversary of their latest war. Schoolchildren pour in throughout the day, absorbing the carefully honed message of heroic resistance. At night, light and laser shows illuminate the weaponry and tanks, and overflow crowds have been keeping it open until after 1 a.m.
At first glance, the exhibit could almost be taken for an outdoor children’s museum. The green entrance awning is a huge replica of Mugniyah’s signature cap, and visitors then pass over a “victory bridge” made partly from artillery shells. But it soon takes on a more grisly cast.
A fake skeleton stands upright in a torn uniform and helmet beneath the legend, “The invincible Israeli soldier.” There are captured Israeli tanks jutting upward from the ground at odd angles, their hatches burned and broken. As visitors crowd from one display to another, a soundtrack blares overhead, mixing the sounds of bombs and machine-gun fire with mournful operatic voices and warlike speeches. There is also an impressive array of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missiles and artillery, all neatly labeled. There are even display cases containing the eyeglasses, letters and clothes worn by two other major Hezbollah figures, both assassinated by Israel. But the eerie heart of the exhibit is the glass-encased room displaying Mugniyah’s possessions — including his prayer mat, his slippers, even his hairbrush — as if they were a saint’s relics.
AK-47 ‘PART OF HIS SOUL’ On a recent afternoon, a crowd of onlookers stared through the glass in awe, some of them weeping openly. “Look, there’s his gun !” shouted a small boy dressed in army fatigues, leading his parents in for a closer look.
A young Hezbollah guide, standing nearby, explained that the gun was a modified AK-47, more powerful and capable of firing faster than the standard model. “He never went anywhere without it — it was part of his soul,” said the guide, who like others working at the exhibit, declined to give his name, in accordance with Hezbollah’s policy of secrecy about its members.
This is a tense moment in Lebanon. Israeli leaders have issued warnings that they would carry out a more devastating attack than the 2006 war if Hezbollah were to lead Lebanon’s government. Last month Lebanon formed a new transitional government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition has enough Cabinet seats to wield veto power. New elections are scheduled for next year.
Hezbollah officials have recently renewed warnings that they will retaliate against Israel, which they blame for Mugniyah’s death. Indeed, last week, newspapers in Israel reported that intelligence agents had foiled at least five attempted kidnappings of Israeli citizens in foreign countries.
Israel has denied any role in the Mugniyah killing, which took place in Damascus, the Syrian capital. But Israeli and Western agents had spent 25 years pursuing Mugniyah, who was blamed for a series of attacks, kidnappings and hijackings, including the 1983 suicide bombing of a U. S. Marines barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen. APPEAL TO NEW GENERATION Mugniyah was believed to have spent much of his time in Iran and Syria, though his whereabouts were unknown. If the exhibit is testimony to Mugniyah’s new public status as a Hezbollah hero, it is also evidence of the group’s increasingly sophisticated efforts to capture the hearts and imaginations of a new generation.
Hezbollah has organized similar exhibits before, most notably a mock-up of a military bunker that opened in southern Beirut a year ago to commemorate the first anniversary of the 2006 war.
But the new presentation is more extensive. It was conceived by the architect Ahmed Tirani and built in just three weeks by a staff of 290 working around the clock. In addition to an extraordinary array of weaponry and militants’ paraphernalia, it includes a large room that was remodeled to resemble “what we believe the martyrs’ heaven is like,” according to one of the guides on duty.
In the darkened room, a figure representing a dead Hezbollah fighter lies on his back on a large sloping bank of white flowers. A sound of exploding bombs gives way to patriotic anthems as a screen shows a brilliant sunset and a coffin being carried through a dark forest. Later, a laser show illuminates the darkness. Other videos braid together images from the 2006 war, including some showing Mugniyah, along with scenes of Hezbollah soldiers training in the green hills of southern Lebanon.
On a recent afternoon, busloads of schoolchildren were arriving to see the exhibit, with a group of Boy Scouts.
“I came here to teach my kids the culture of resistance,” said a visitor who gave his name only as Ahmed, as he stood with his wife and two children. “I want them to see what the enemy is doing to us, and what we can do to fight them, because this enemy is not merciful.”
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