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Episode details

World Service,05 Feb 2013,10 mins

A change of heart in Lebanon

From Our Own Correspondent

Available for over a year

What does it take to renounce a lifetime of violence? For one man whose life has been spent slugging it out with rival gangs in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, a change of heart was prompted by a little girl – his only daughter. Abu Rami has been a militia leader for decades. But now as war in neighbouring Syria threatens to worsen Lebanon’s sectarian divides, he is searching for a way out of the violence. He told his story to BBC Arabic reporter Darius Bazagan, who was covering both sides of the conflict in Tripoli. 'Let them kill me, I'm ready,' Abu Rami says. 'But I don’t want my kids and their kids to pay the price.' Unfortunately for his daughter and the other children of Tripoli, things aren’t that simple. Presented by Pascale Harter.

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