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Tensions continued to run high in the northern Bekaa Valley Thursday despite several promising developments in the hostage standoff that has troubled the region since Saturday. The Jaafar clan released three of their seven remaining hostages, but issued a stern warning to the people of Arsal that they would not free the rest until their own Hussein Kamel Jaafar was returned to them. The four remaining hostages were identified as Hussein Rayed, Mohammad Rayed, Mohammad al-Hujeiri and Nimr al-Fliti. Hamza and Mustafa Ezzedine were both released. Jaafar was kidnapped from the Arsal area Saturday night and reportedly taken over the border into the Syrian town of Yabrud. Since then, his notoriously protective clan has kidnapped no less than 11 people from Arsal, releasing all but four over the course of the week. After four days of silence, Jaafar’s kidnappers finally contacted the family late Wednesday night to assure them of Jaafar’s safety and demand $1 million in ransom. Several hundred clan leaders met in Sahlaat al-Maa, Hermel, Thursday morning to discuss a plan of action. “We’re not going to pay the ransom, and Arsal is responsible” if Jaafar comes to harm, Nafez Jaafar, one of the clan leaders, told The Daily Star following the meeting. “We are a tribe. Hussein Jaafar was kidnapped in Arsal. We have nothing to do with those who kidnapped him. The people of Arsal know who took him ... they are responsible for the fate of our son. This is our custom.” Although the clan leaders collectively decided to issue a ban on more kidnappings, Jaafar admitted that enforcing the decision for some 15,000 members of the clan can be difficult. Thursday morning saw the brief kidnapping of Khalid Hujeiri, an Arsal native, by renegade members of the clan who quickly caved to family pressure and turned him over to authorities. Both the Jaafars and local officials from Arsal have ruled out any political motive for the kidnapping that sparked the crisis. Some, such as top Lebanese military and security officials, maintain it stemmed from a personal dispute over smuggling revenues. Jaafar worked as a truck driver for a “company” involved in the semiofficial smuggling of scrap metal, fuel and other materials between Syria and Lebanon. While the black market in nothing new in the country’s remote border regions, local residents say illicit trade has skyrocketed since the crisis in Syria and the withdrawal of the Syrian army from border areas two months ago. The hostage crisis has strained the historically good relations between the Shiite Jaafar clan and the predominantly Sunni town of Arsal, where residents and community leaders deny any knowledge of or involvement in Jaafar’s abduction. An official delegation from the town has made three separate trips into Syria, most recently to Yabrud, to try and discover the fate of Jaafar and negotiate his release. “The people of Arsal, and particularly myself ... share very old ties with the Jaafar family,” said Mohammad Hujeiri, a local leader. Hujeiri was emphatic that if individuals from Arsal were implicated in Jaafar’s kidnapping, the town would not protect them, but the Jaafar clan had yet to present them with any names. “I extend my greetings to the Jaafar clan, and we ask them to help us discover the truth,” he added. “We are ready to make every effort to help, because as I said the Jaafars are good people and our relationship with them is good. We will not allow it to be damaged, by kidnapping or anything else.” Official statements from a local follow-up committee on the kidnappings have emphasized Arsal and the Jaafar clan’s shared history and brotherly relations, but interviews with some residents indicated a simmering resentment that could exacerbate existing divisions. “This innocent guy was going to work and the Jaafars kidnapped him,” said one man who declined to give his name. “The Jaafars are known for smuggling and drugs and dirty stuff. ... They should not have done that.” Others echoed Hujeiri’s sentiments and blamed a few bad elements for trying to ignite sectarian conflict where there was none before. “We live side by side and we will die side by side,” Myassar Hujeiri, a local dentist, said of the neighboring Shiite towns and villages.

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