One year after the last summer war between Israel and Hezbollah, BBC Brasil spoke to a former soldier who decided to quit from the military wing of the Lebanese Shia group.

The 34-day conflict, that broke out after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the border, killed 1.200 Lebanese (mainly civilians) and 157 Israelis (mainly soldiers).

Khalil Akl, 23, is a young Shiite from Libbaya, south of the Bekaa Valley. His village sits on a hill, close to the Lake Qaraaoun, from where it is possible to see Israel.

In 2000, he was 16 when the Israeli Army ended the 22-year occupation in southern Lebanon.

He was told about stories of Hezbollah fighters’ martyrdom, heroism and sacrifice against the enemy. He had decided, together with other friends, to be a soldier for the Shia militia, considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and some Western countries.

But the selection process of Akl and other young men had started much before.

“I was 10 and used to join in camping’s and recreational activities with other boys of my age. We learned how to pray, how to develop a disciplined life.” he said.

According to Akl, as they were getting older, local leaders were observing the most interested, disciplined and the smartest. They used to gather in local meetings and learn lessons about politics and religion.

“We all had something in common too – the hatred for Israel and the suffering that the Israeli occupation did to us.”

According a source from Hezbollah, who wanted to stay just identified as Jihad, the process to select the future fighters begins indeed when they were young.

“Local party leaders keep their eyes close on the most active and intelligent boys. Each village sends us a quota of boys who are willing to join in many activities. First, we want to check out if they are ready to other levels and if they are able to go further,” Jihad said.

He said that each one chooses if he wants to go ahead with his ‘lessons’. “If he wants just entertainment, he is out. We want people who faithfully believe in our cause.”

“Don’t tell mom”

But for Akl, the will of being a fighter had started differently. “We used to watch videos at the meetings showing the training and the fighting against Israel. We wanted to be soldiers to feel important, to feel ourselves like heroes.”

Soon, however, his objectives had changed and started to be focused on the ‘cause’. Akl said that people in his village and region have always liked Hezbollah due to the aid it has provided, like building schools, clinics and roads and helping families in need.

“We have never heard from the government. They have never asked if we were in need of something.” he said.

“My family didn’t know I was involved in deeper activities with Hezbollah, but just meetings about religion and politics.”

His father, according to him, had got worried when he told him he was going to a camp to receive a ‘short training’. “Just don’t tell mom. Tell her that I only went camping for some weeks,” Akl told his father at that time.  

Camps on the border

Jihad said that Hezbollah training camps were located in Lebanon, not Iran, a country accused by the United States of financing the Shia group.

“Just professional soldiers, the elite troops, go to Iran. The reservists fighters train here in Lebanon, and only after some years they can be honoured with a chance to receive a training in Iran”.

Akl said they travelled during the night, initially by car and then they joined a larger group in a bus. Everybody was searched for cell phones or cameras, not allowed by Hezbollah. He said that all knew they were still in Lebanon by the landscape.

“There were people between 20 and 30 years old. A colleague and I were the youngest, we were almost 17.”

“As soon as we arrived at the camp, it was still dark, they gave us our uniform and equipment. They told us to walk into the forest and stay there for hours, sleeping on the ground.” Akl said.

Life in the camp, according to Akl, was hard, with tasks that pushed all the recruits to the maximum of their psychological and physical strength. They had weapons and tactical combat lessons, first aid and surviving teachings.

In their break time, they used to dedicate it to pray and reading the Koran.

Akl said the recruits were submitted to tough sessions of real combat, not surprising at the end of the day having scars and marks all over their bodies. Instructors fired on them, according Akl, with real munitions to simulate real battles.

Some days, he said, they were obligated to walk over 30 km, including cross the border with Syria (the accent of some Bedouins they met proved they were in Syrian territory, he said)

 “During the night, each group should sleep in holes dug on the ground and always about 150 meters from each other, for the case of an air strike from Israel would not kill everybody at once,” he said.

“Sometimes we talked to each other about how it would be afterwards, about how we would be welcomed as heroes by our friends.”

Giving up

The training lasted for 45 days, and some gave up in the middle. Akl finished his training and went back home.

During two more years, he helped Hezbollah with militancy tasks. Israel had already gone from southern Lebanon and, for the first time in his life, he could visit some places that he never knew in his own country. His faith, however, started to break up and he no longer was sure about still being a fighter.

Many Hezbollah combatants were studying at the same time, but Akl wanted to walk only one of the paths. “I asked myself what I really wanted to my life. I decided just work and study, having a different future. And besides, I no longer felt myself religious, I wanted another kind of life.”

Local leaders instructed young Akl to go talk to his superiors and communicate his will to quit from the party. Nevertheless, he took the road to Beirut and did the admission exams to join the university.  

“I was grateful what Hezbollah did for me, but in the last years they stopped to give much attention for the needs of my village. Thus, I wondered to myself if I should still fight for them,” he said.

But Akl told that his faith for the cause didn’t disappear. “I am still helping through other means, with social work. However, if Israel invaded my country, and Hezbollah called me to fight, I would do it with no doubt.”

Today, Akl just visit his village on weekends, he is majoring in information technology in Beirut where he made new friends and sometimes he goes out to have fun in the cosmopolitan capital of Lebanon. He dreams of leaving the country to find a job and a better future.

But one thing has never changed, Akl said, his hatred for Israel.

*This article was first published on BBC Brasil website on 14/08/2007.

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