The Middle East has a militia problem

TO BE lebanese is to see, in every event, the seeds of a new civil war. Recent months have provided ample cause for worry. In March residents of Rmeish, a Christian village in the south, confronted members of Hizbullah, a Shia militia and political party, as they tried to set up a rocket launcher in the town centre. Then on April 7th Pascal Sleiman, an official from the Lebanese Forces (LF), a right-wing Christian party, was abducted near the northern city of Byblos and murdered. The party’s leader was quick to hint at a Hizbullah role (it denied responsibility).

Both incidents raised fears of Christian-Shia fighting. They also spoke to the same underlying problem: the state’s inability to control militias, specifically Hizbullah. The villagers in Rmeish could not seek help from the army, which has little authority in the south. And if Hizbullah was behind the murder in Byblos, it would never be held to account: the group has enjoyed impunity for decades of killings.