Media reports state that on 18 December 1997 about 500 Lebanese university students, mostly Christians, walked through Beirut's streets to protest the Lebanese government's media policy following the government's banning of a TV broadcast of an interview with Michel Aoun on 14 December (DPA 18 Dec. 1997; AFP 16 Dec. 1997). Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) added that about 66 of Aoun's supporters were arrested at a demonstration in front of the offices of the private MTV television network on 14 December, but they were all released on 16 December (18 Dec. 1997). The demonstrations were part of a widespread public reaction against the government's media policy after the cancellation of the Aoun interview, including a one-day strike by the Beirut Engineers' Union and a three-day strike by the Lawyers' Union (ibid.; AFP 15 Dec. 1997). The DPA dispatch also stated that "[m]embers of the [Lebanese] government were unanimous in agreeing that the Aoun interview should not have been banned" (DPA 18 Dec. 1997). The dispatch did not state whether any demonstrators were arrested on 18 December.

According to a 17 December 1997 Agence France Presse (AFP) dispatch, the banning of the Aoun interview led to strikes and student rallies at several Lebanese universities, including the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese University and St. Joseph's University, where hundreds of students staged a sit-in and chanted anti-Syrian slogans. On 16 December students from four Christian universities sent delegations to the Maronite patriarchate, where they met with the Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. According to the AFP dispatch, the number of Aoun supporters arrested on 14 December was 63, of whom 30 were released the following day. The remaining 33 were released at the request of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq (Rafic) Hariri on 16 December after the cases of 23 were referred to a civil court and 10 were referred to a military court (ibid; AFP 16 Dec. 1997). According to AFP, the demonstrations marked "the first time since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war that Lebanese demonstrators shouted slogans hostile to Syria in a public place" (ibid.). Neither AFP dispatch stated whether any demonstrators were arrested after the initial incident on 14 December (16, 17 Dec. 1997).

On 13 March 1997 AFP reported that 13 supporters of Michel Aoun were sentenced on 12 and 13 March to prison sentences varying from ten days to one year. The sentences were handed down by a military court after the defendants were convicted of distributing literature which called for sedition and was likely to harm relations with a friendly country ("distribution de tracts appelant à la sédition et portant atteinte aux relations avec un pays ami"). The convictions stemmed from a September 1994 incident when leaflets were distributed in the areas of Metn and Kesrouan calling on Lebanese citizens to practice civil disobedience against "pro-Syrian" power. Among those sentenced was the secretary-general of the Engineers' Union, Hikmat Dib, who received a three-week sentence. According to the dispatch, supporters of Michel Aoun had succeeded in being elected as officers in the professional associations of Lebanon's lawyers, engineers, and doctors, as well as in student councils (ibid.).

In the wake of an 18 December 1996 machine-gun attack on a Syrian minibus in Tabarja, north of Beirut, which left one dead and one wounded, "48 members of the Christian opposition, most of them supporters of General Michel Aoun or Dory Chamoun's National Liberal Party, were arrested. Eleven of them are believed to be still behind bars" (Manchester Guardian Weekly 12 Jan. 1997; Mideast Mirror 23 Dec. 1996). It was reported that Christian opposition had estimated the numbers of those arrested at between 200 to 500, and the Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, while condemning the Tabarja attack, criticized the arrests, which he said had the effect of making Lebanese "feel undesirable in their own country" (Manchester Guardian Weekly 12 Jan. 1997; Mideast Mirror 23 Dec. 1996).

On 5 April 1996 Reuters reported that about 50 supporters of Michel Aoun staged an anti-Syrian demonstration at the Maronite patriarchate in Bkerke, Lebanon, where visiting French President Jacques Chirac was attending a mass held by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. The demonstrators had passed several military roadblocks on the route to the patriarchate with the help of a priest. About 30 buses full of protesters had not been allowed past the army roadblocks, according to witnesses (ibid.).

Specific information on low-ranking or Muslim supporters of Michel Aoun could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Agence France Presse (AFP). 17 December 1997. Najib Khazzaka. "Interview Aoun: le mouvement de protestation se poursuit au Liban." (Internet: AFP MAIL topic@alc1.par.afp.com )

_____. 16 December 1997. "Pro-Aoun Demonstrators Freed." (NEXIS)

_____. 15 December 1997. "Arrestation de partisans du général Aoun: grève de 3 jours des avocats." (Internet: AFP MAIL topic@alc1.par.afp.com )

_____. 13 March 1997. "Treize partisans du général Aoun condamnés à des peines de prison." (Internet: AFP MAIL topic@alc1.par.afp.com )

_____. 5 April 1996. "Christians Stage Protests During Chirac Visit." (NEXIS)

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). 18 December 1997. BC Cycle. "Lebanese Students in Freedom of Speech Demonstration." (NEXIS)

Manchester Guardian Weekly. 12 January 1997. Lucien George. "Political Tension Rises in Beirut." (NEXIS)

Mideast Mirror. 23 December 1996. "Wave of Arrests in Lebanon Linked to Israeli-Backed Destabilization Scheme." (NEXIS)

Electronic sources: IRB databases, Global News Bank, REFWORLD (UNHCR database), World News Connection (WNC).