“The track, gouged with ruts and flanked by gnarled dust-shrouded olive trees, meandered along the hillside for a distance of 1 kilometer from the edge of Rihan village to the back entrance of the Sojod outpost, one of the most heavily hit positions in the occupation zone. “This is the road to Vietnam,” chuckled Bassem, a local resident.

“The outpost, manned by militiamen of the South Lebanon Army*, looked disarmingly innocuous in the soft morning light, the dome of the small tomb of Nabi Sojod beside the compound imparting an ambiance of serenity rather than violence.

“Yet only hours earlier during the night, Hizbullah fighters had waged a fierce gunbattle nearby against “Israeli” troops and SLA militiamen. “Israeli” warplanes had fired missiles in six sorties into the brush-covered slopes of Jabal Safi above Rihan, while helicopter gunships prowled above the steep wadis, hunting down the resistance guerrillas as they slipped out of the zone.

“This place is the source of all troubles and violence,” said Ali, an off-duty SLA militiaman dressed in an olive-green “Israeli” uniform.

The announcement that the peace process is about to resume between Syria and “Israel” appears to have had as little impact on the Shiite residents of Rihan as it has on the battles waged in the remote ravines and hills of the northern sector.

“When asked his reaction to the renewed peace process, Ibrahim Shoukar, 72, shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

“Everyone’s waiting for peace. Like everyone else, I think that whatever comes is good,” he said as “Israeli” warplanes rumbled overhead in the deep blue sky.

Like most of the 100 remaining residents, Shoukar’s optimism and vitality have been battered out of him by years of bloodshed and misery.

“Evidence of the occupation is impossible to avoid in this bedraggled village. The “Israelis” occupy an outpost in the center of Rihan beside another position manned by SLA militiamen. A row of concrete T-walls was recently positioned along the entrance to the “Israeli” post to protect soldiers from Hizbullah’s anti-tank rockets. The rusting remains of a Syrian tank destroyed in the 1982 “Israeli” invasion lies to one side of a road pitted by exploding mortar shells.

Ali said he was not worried for his fate following the return of state control to the occupation zone.

“I don’t think the government will charge me for anything because I was forced to join the militia. Maybe militiamen who killed people will be tried for murder but the only thing I’ve killed is a bird,” he said. “I haven’t gone after Hizbullah to fight them but when they come for me, then I have to defend myself.”

“The Christian village of Aishieh, 3 kilometers south of Rihan, is in a better state of repair than its neighbor, doubtless helped by the absence of an “Israeli” outpost in the heart of the community.

Electricity pylons along the main street have been wrapped in Christmas lights. The village’s main church is finally being rebuilt after it was destroyed in the 1982 invasion.

But hopes for a lasting peace are tinged with the fears and uncertainties that an end to the occupation could bring.

“There is only 10 percent of the population here so we’re anxious for the occupation to end and for peace to prevail,” said Nassib Aoun, a former university professor and resident of the village.

“In Rihan, however, Ali expressed confidence that once a comprehensive peace had been achieved on all fronts there would be no further fighting in the south.

“Once the “Israelis” have left there won’t be a reason to fight,” he said. “The troubles began in the south in the 1970s with the arrival of the Palestinians. Now the troubles will end in the south with the departure of the “Israelis”.”