Lebanon: Poll Shows 51% want Hezbollah Disarmed
Monday, 28 August, 2006 @ 7:02 PM
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2006/08/post_18.php

[ www.lorientlejour.com/page.aspx?page=article&id=320696 for original
article in French]

Beirut- Lebanese are split down the middle on U.N. demands for the
disarmament of Hezbollah following the month-long war between Israel and the
group, a poll published Monday suggested.

The poll by IPSOS for the French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour found 51
percent of respondents supported the group's disarmament, with 49 percent
against, a difference within the survey's margin of error.

However, the poll found a wide divergence of views among Lebanon's various
religious communities.

Among the Shiite community -- Lebanon's largest and the support base for
Hezbollah -- the poll found 84 percent of respondents wanted the group to
keep its weapons.

But among the Druze and Christian communities, 79 percent and 77 percent
respectively wanted the group to surrender its arsenal.

Among the Sunni community, the poll found a slender majority of 54 percent
in favor of the group disarming.

"This shows that a gap exists on this issue between the Shiite community and
the Christians and Druze while the Sunni position is much more nuanced," the
newspaper said.

It said the poll found that Hezbollah was more popular among people aged 30
years or younger and in regions with a Shiite majority.

As to the deployment of extra U.N. troops in south Lebanon to enforce a
two-week-old ceasefire that ended the 34-day war between Israel and
Hezbollah, the majority of respondents -- 81 percent -- said they favored
such a force.

However, 67 percent said they believed the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon
should act as observers rather than an intervention force.

The poll found that only 38 percent of those questioned feared a new civil
war in Lebanon as a result of the recent conflict as opposed to 62 percent
who thought otherwise.

The poll was conducted between August 14 and 17 among a representative
sample of 600 men and women drawn from the country's various communities.

Source: Naharnet