Document #1227025
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
The Arab Democratic Party is a mainly
Alawite organization (The Middle East and North Africa,
1999, 622). This factor explains their political alignment with
Syria's Alawite ruling minority (Political Parties of the
World, 1988, 330). This information is corroborated in a report
carried by the BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (3 June 1988).
According to one report, in 1988, the Secretary Gen. of the Party
was Ali Id (BBC, Summary of World Broadcasts, 4 Oct. 1988). The
Party is a member of the Lebanese National Front (BBC, Summary of
World Broadcasts, 5 July 1989). This organization is also reported
to be pro-Syrian (The Xinhua General Overseas News Service, 4 July,
1989).
The Party's militia is called the Red
Knights and in 1980 was reportedly involved in fighting alongside
with Syrian troops during an operation to crush the Tawheed,
(Islamic Unification Movement) a Sunni fundamentalist group
(Political Parties of the World, 1988, 622). Fighting was
also reported between the Arab Democratic Party and Tawheed in the
northern port of Tripoli (A Country Study, 1987, 213). One
of the Party's clinics was bombed in Tripoli in 1988 (The United
Press International, 5 February 1988).
No Further information is currently
available to the IRBDC in Ottawa.
Bibliography
Degenhardt, J., Political Parties
of the World, Chicago: St-James Press, 1988.