سلسلة
مقالات جنرالنا بعدو في باريس، جنرالكم في الرابية/بقلم الياس بجاني/الأمين
العام للمنسقية العام للمؤسسات اللبنانية الكندية
By: Elias Bejjani
LCCC
Chairman
December 22/06
The Maronite Patriarch,
Mar Nasrallah Sfeir -(AsiaNews) – on December 18/06: "It is time to put a
stop to the opposition sit-in that has blocked the centre of Beirut since 1
December, because it is harming the economy. “Unchecked” gatherings taking
place throughout the sit-in should also be stopped because “they could
endanger the family”.
General Lahoud, Lebanon's
Syrian-appointed President on December 18/06 - Daily Star: "I agree Aoun
should become the next president."
In the above two statements, both His Beatitude the Maronite Patriarch and
the Lebanese Maronite President are addressing General Michel Aoun's
grandiose
delusions and lust for power, but from different perspectives and
contradicting aims. While the Patriarch is calling on him to put an end to
his role as a mere destructive and chameleon cover for the Iranian-Syrian
sit-ins spearheaded by Hezbollah, Lahoud, who is himself a Syrian cover and
a subservient tool for the Iranian coup against the legitimate institutions,
is playing on Aoun's grandiose delusion in a bid to keep him stranded from
his own Patriarch and Christian community.
The grace of heaven is rarely bestowed upon oppressed and suffering people
whose existence and identity are threatened, with honest and capable
leadership to
guide their steps wisely and safely towards the shores of deliverance.
Benevolent leaders that can secure for their people the means of freedom,
respect, recognition, dignified existence, and independence. The Lebanese
Christian community in particular, and Lebanon's eighteen other officially
recognized communities in general, have always pleaded to Almighty God to
grant them such leaders who are capable and willing to lead with knowledge,
faith, compassion, conscience, transparency and wisdom.
In Lebanon's modern history, several such gifted leaders emerged, among whom
the late Dr. Charles Malek (Lebanon Foreign Minister in the later fifties
and one
of the main authors of the UN Charter and Human Rights Covenant), Fouad
Efrem Boustani (writer, historian & educator), Bashir Gemayel, (gifted
Christian leader who was assassinated a few weeks after he was being elected
President in 1982), and Michel Aoun (Lebanon's Army Commander and Prime
Minister between 1988-1990, and currently Member of Parliament and leader of
the Free Patriotic Movement party). But while Malek and Boustani ended their
intellectual and ideological mission before departing from this mortal life
because of old age, death kidnapped Bashir Gemayel early in his life at the
age of 34 and at the peak of his capabilities depriving the Lebanese people
of his superb leadership potentials. Meanwhile, Bashir's vision for a free,
united, democratic, and peaceful Lebanon (known as The Dream) never died and
remained alive in the conscience of all free and sovereign Lebanese people.
As to Michel Aoun, he successfully carried the flame of Bashir, from the
heart of the military institution, as Army commander and head of a
transitional military
government between 1988-1990 in the darkest and most difficult moments. He
carried high the thought of Malek and Boustani for 18 long years of bitter
struggle. All the sovereignty partisans and the “Bashirists” (the supporters
of Bashir's national doctrine) gathered around Aoun, attracted by his steady
and firm stances, his courage in witnessing for the truth, self-respect,
patriotic platforms, transparency, honesty, audacity, bravery, and most
importantly for raising high the flags of freedom, sovereignty and
independence.
However, and after the liberation of Lebanon from the Syrian occupation in
2005, and upon his glorious and victorious return from exile (he was living
in forced
exile in France since 1991), Michel Aoun shockingly exhibited a “double
personality” syndrome coupled with a blatant “selective memory loss”. This
psychiatric
disorder (Double Personality) that Aoun has been lately acutely suffering
from is well known to professionals in the Mental Heath field. Aoun has been
exhibiting all its signs and symptoms.
The man has turned 180 degrees from his political and ethical past record,
he even with a numbed conscience buried his own name. He reneged on his 18
years of
honorable patriotic record and betrayed with cold blood all his promises and
covenants. Viciously and venomously, Aoun played demagogically on the
multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Lebanese construct. With
all the dirty tactics and evil manipulative destructive strategies, he hit
hard and maliciously on peoples' emotions, fears, denominational
affiliations, and on the very delicate Lebanese demographic fabric. Suddenly,
with a drugged and stony conscience, and a calcified heart, he joined
Hezbollah, the Iranian army in Lebanon and became not only an ally for this
fanatic terrorist group, but also a mouthpiece for the two Axis of Evil
countries, Syria and Iran. He adopted the role of a dirty cover for the
Syrian-Iranian military onslaught to execute a coup through Hezbollah and
take over the country.
n this realm, he started to deliver fiery, below-the-belt, instigative
and threatening speeches in which he has been advocating publicly to attack
and storm the headquarters of the Lebanese Prime Minister, topple the
legitimate and elected Saniora government by force, and form a second
government. With a dead
conscience, he is executing Hezbollah's scheme in killing the country's
economy, destabilizing the national peace and paralyze all governing and
legislative institutions.
He shamelessly defied the Maronite Patriarch's instructions and
recommendations calling for putting an end to the sit-ins. He stood against
the will and aspiration of the majority of the Lebanese Christian community
that strongly opposes Hezbollah's religious Iranian doctrine and fears its
attempts to tumble the government by force in a bid to abort the
implementation of UN resolutions calling for its disarmament, and to block a
UN international tribunal legislation aiming to try the killers of late PM
Hariri and all the perpetrators who killed or tried to kill fifteen MPs,
journalists and media men and women, all of whom were anti-Syria.
After finding internally, regionally and internationally that his chances
for being elected president are a big zero, the man decided to play the role
of Samson and to bring the temple down on himself and the country. He did
not only become neurotically afflicted with double personality disorder, but
he also became preoccupied with a psychotic grandiose delusion revolving
around the presidency post and his greed and lust for power.
In his sickening and nauseating endeavor to be the next Lebanese president,
Aoun has negated every word that he had uttered during the past eighteen
years. In
one of his published editorials before his return from exile he wrote:
"Lebanon will be again an
independent, sovereign and free country without any Syrian tutelage
and influence. All those serving Syrian interests are puppets and will not
have any future saying in the country's liberation. All of them should know
that those who side with Syria are in fact doing so against nature and no
matter what they do, they ultimately will be defeated". This same
man is now allied with all the parties, politicians and groups that he
himself used to tag as Syrian subservients and agents among which are the
Baath, the Syrian National Socialist, the Nasserists, Hezbollah, the
Communists, and the Workers parties. He is also allied with his worst
previous enemy, the Syrian handpicked current President of the Republic,
General Lahoud, in addition to an assortment of fundamentalists and
collaborators from feudal, and financial-fundamentalist Mafias.
Before shifting sides and forging a secret deal with the Baathist Syrian
regime and its puppets in Lebanon, Michel Aoun had built his popularity for
the last 18 years, and earned his credibility, reputation, and patriotic
record by fighting the political forces that are his current terrorists and
pro-Syrian allies, especially Hezbollah and the Syrian puppet president,
General Emile Lahoud. Aoun had hit hard on Syria and its Lebanese puppet
politicians and parties for their corrupt practices, heresy, fundamentalism,
and subservience to Syrian-Iranian schemes. He has written hundreds of
editorials, given tens of lectures and conducted dozens of interviews,
cautioning in all of them against Syria's evil intents to uproot Lebanon's
distinctive identity and civilization, and empty, marginalize and destroy
its institutions, meddle in its ethnic and religious demographic composition,
terrorize, persecute, starve, and force its people into exodus, erase its
history, oppress freedoms, abort democracy, and abuse human rights..
The lust to power has blinded Aoun's eyes, mind, conscience and discretion.
He can only see the ragged seat of the presidency, polluted with the last
two Syrian-picked Presidents Hrawi and Lahoud. The worst ever Presidents in
Lebanon's remote and contemporary history. He only hears the voices of those
men playing
for him day and night the mantra of the presidency. He is only entertained
by, and relaxes over, the songs glorifying him as “The Great Leader”, and
the “Savior”.
His nerves are tense, and he has become detached from the tangible reality.
He started behaving as if he actually is the inspired and obeyed leader,
becoming
through his media appearances a moral catastrophe, all ending with shameful
military terms, empty verbal threats, and disgusting boastful postures. His
nervous, emotional and adversarial style exhibited boldly in all his public
appearances became so evident even to the blind. He now needs one of his
mouthpieces to constantly “clarify, justify and verify" after every
announcement, message or speech.
Aoun's Syrianized-Iranianized Syndrome came to the surface with his
“Memorandum of Understanding” with Hezbollah, the fundamentalist group with
the highest
degree of hostility to Lebanon the identity, the being, the freedoms, the
coexistence, and the rights. His memorandum realistically and practically is
worthless from the national doctrine perspective and is not worth the ink
that was used to write it. It gave Hezbollah a free Christian “coverage” to
launch its “Godly” July war and now to go ahead with its coup to topple the
Saniora legitimate government and rule the whole country.
Very few Lebanese, even in
their dreams, had imagined to see Aoun standing next to Sheik Naim Kassem,
Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary General at a Beirut downtown rally on Ryad
Al-Solh Square while roaring and chanting "Death to America, death to
Israel" (Sunday December 6/06)
Aoun, and in another attempt to escape forward, he signed another
"Memorandum of Understanding. This time with the Communist party. One
wonders how low his national priorities have fallen. Aoun is almost in a
position of enmity with all the five pillars of the Lebanese Christian
community (The Maronite Patriarch, The
Maronite Bishops, The Christian congregations, The Christian Schools and
Universities and the Christian NGO's/Parties). He has failed to reconcile
with his own people. It is well known that he who is unable to reconcile
with himself, his family and surroundings, is unable to reconcile with other
people. As long as Aoun is at odds with his own Christian society, he won’t
reap any benefit from these memorandums that could get him elected president
or regain the confidence and trust of the Christian intellectuals. His
defiance has reached a stage where is now locking horns even with the
Maronite Patriarch. Although he continuously boasts that he represents the
vast majority of the Lebanese Christians, the question is: aren’t the
Christian parties who are harshly criticized by Aoun, worthier than his
memorandums of understanding?
As I wondered in my previous editorial, how could Aoun remain quiet
regarding the threat by the Hezbollah Shiite cabinet Minister Trad Hamadeh
that his “Godly”
party will seek control of the presidency if the majority remains against
the national unity government and the conditions of Nasrallah. (According to
the Lebanese constitution, the Presidency is designated to the Christians,
the Prime Ministership to the Sunnis, and the Speakership of Parliament to
the Shiites). Today, I wonder again, why is it that Aoun, the
self-proclaimed protector of the Lebanese Christians, never bothered to
answer, even for the sake of form, on the statements of his ally, the former
pro-Syrian Minister Sleiman Frangieh, who unashamedly attacked in an
unprecedented manner, the Maronite Patriarch Sfeir, through the Hezbollah
Manar TV station?
I also ask, what is left of Aoun's credibility and sincerity and those of
his Parliamentary block when clarifications, verifications and corrections
of statements have became a requirement after each one of Aoun's
pronouncements? What good is derived from their lip-service to the latest
Maronite Bishops declaration of convictions, while Aoun and his
parliamentary block remain a Trojan horse providing Christian cover and
décor to Hezbollah’s Syria-Iran revolution/coup
d’etat, against the Lebanese state right from the Beirut Downtown Ryad Solh
square? These deceiving positions insult the intelligence of our people.
These
are astonishing contradictions to all Aoun's record and platforms for all
through 18 years.
I, with my psychiatric professional background, wonder what has actually led
Aoun to be afflicted with this Acute Double Personality Disorder? From 1988
till
January of this year, Aoun had promised emancipation after liberation of the
country. Now and after the country was liberated from the Syrian occupation,
Aoun
assumed with a numbed conscience the Trojan role, the witness to falsehood,
the chameleon cover to kidnap Lebanon underneath the Hezbollah yellow flags,
and
dragging it to the deserts and under Hezbollah's tents from the Stone Age.
Above all, through his 180 degrees turn, Aoun has been marketing Hezbollah’s
Iranian plan and weapons, which according to its members of parliament,
shall remain, remain, and remain as long as there is a Bible and a Quran!
While Hezbollah makes
no secrets of its goals for the war and every Lebanese is aware of this
destructive reality, Aoun, and despite all these facts regarding Hezbollah's
weapons and hunger for power, deludes himself thinking that people are sheep,
cannot recognize where Hezbollah is dragging the country to, and that he can
herd his supporters anywhere he pleases without any objection.
One wonders what is the common denominator, in ideas, culture, and practices
between Aoun and the master of the “Holy Resistance” and his “God party”
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah? Truly nothing is common except that Aoun is driven
by his desire to become Lebanon's next president. His vision has become a
tunnel one, and he desperately is trying through his alliance with Hezbollah
to impose a new Lebanese internal equation, that quenched his desires for
the presidential post.
He is playing this last resort card, after it was explained to him clearly
that his candidacy has been rejected by the US, France, the European and
Arab countries, other Lebanese Christian parties, the Maronite Patriarch,
and the March 14 parliamentary majority group in Parliament.
Aoun has himself pointed this Syrian tactic in an editorial entitled “The
Continuation of Blackmail" (5/19/2001).
He wrote: “The bitter truth that we sense today is the transformation of the
resistance (Hezbollah) into a political instrument used by Damascus in
creating internal Lebanese equations to solidify its policies in Lebanon and
support its regime back in Syria. Syria’s scare tactics are geared to serve
these goals. This is apparent through their grandiose theoretic propositions
and the lowering of economic production until annihilation".
Aoun's actual anti-Hezbollah stances in regards to its resistance, arms, the
Syrian-Iranian fabricated lie of Shebaa Farms, the so-called liberation of
the South
Lebanon allegations etc. are all well documented in dozens of articles,
speeches, and communiqués. What follows are verbatim samples that shows how
Aoun has
backed off on all his platforms, promises and national convictions, and all
for his presidency obsession.
Aoun at the US Congress September 18, 2003.
“After the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, we realize that the
Syrian regime will leave behind scores of its terror and destruction
instruments, as well as its intelligence operatives. It is therefore
mandatory, that the withdrawal is simultaneously executed along with the
full disarmament of the armed elements. Only the Lebanese legal armed forces
can provide the security to the Lebanese citizens.”
Aoun in an editorial on July 14/2002 entitled "Syria: Lebanon's soft
flank":
"Syria has resisted the Israeli withdrawal (from South Lebanon,
prior to its unilateral withdrawal in May 2000), and when it did not succeed
in preventing its
occurrence, it aborted through pressuring Lebanon the implementation of UN
Resolution 426 (which stipulates the obligations of both Lebanon and Israel
once UN
Resolution 425 is implemented). Syria had invented the Shebaa Farms case in
a bid to keep Lebanon a soft flank for Israel and a protective zone for
itself.".
In same context of negating all Hezbollah's and Syria's sincerity, trust and
credibility, Aoun in another editorial dated November 11/2000, wrote: "The
Syrian regime has found its desire and goal in the Southern resistance (Hezbollah
in South Lebanon), and accordingly alleged its protection in its liberation
mission".
Aoun on June 23, 2000. in an editorial titled “The return to Clam”
“ In this occasion, we advise those who want to keep arms, to
withdraw it from all hands and store it. For resistance to occupation has
ceased after it has ended
. There is no hope of extending it (the resistance) beyond the borders. From
now on, these weapons will only harm those who carry them. And a liberation
remain meaningless unless it is transformed to an absolute national
sovereignty.”
Aoun on December 10, 2000.
“In all cases, those (Lebanese) who own cannons (possess arms in
Lebanon) are all on one side facing all those others who are not armed. The
cannons are
all in the possession of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Government and the Syrians.
All of them are on one side in the same line facing the rest of the unarmed
people. Meanwhile the people are stubborn and persistent in claiming their
rights. Or is it that we are back to the concept of force where we have no
choice but to accept what Syrian imposed or be exposed to extinction."
Aoun on December 31/1999:
"The squad composed of the US, Syria, Israel, the Lebanese
Government and the resistance (Hezbollah), is playing an
international-regional show that has
nothing to do with the reality of the Lebanese people except what disastrous
results it dictated. Meanwhile the Lebanese regime does not represent
Lebanon and it
is part of the show that started and had emerged ten years ago. In the
negotiations, it (the Lebanese Government) represents the doorkeepers' role.
It gets
in and out according to signals. This role will not change by the change of
the negotiating delegation members because this role is assigned to them and
of
their own making."
Aoun on September 17/1999 in an editorial entitled "The Israeli
withdrawal":
"In case the resistance (Hezbollah) continues (after an Israeli withdrawal
from South Lebanon), in the international point of view, Israel will be safe
from
being denounced when using its deterrent destructive power in respond to the
resistance even if it exceeds the limits of the appropriate response."
Aoun on August 4/2000:
"When the national education gets low in the society, and when the
citizen loses his capability to differentiate between the nation's permanent
convictions and the political unstable and moveable matters, he is then
dragged to stances that contradict what he wants to express, he is used to
fix what he wants to change and to change what he wants to fix although
playing with words and endorsing stances in contrary to its truth."
The alliance between Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah's General
Secretary Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is so odd, bizarre and does not by any
means
bridge the two individuals' publicly declared views about each other, e.g.:
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on November 11/1989 (Annahar Newspaper)
"Palestine belongs to the whole nation "Al Umma", and not to a bunch
of leaders who got exhausted, old and sold themselves to the devil. We
emphasize that there
is no means except to continue the struggle "Al Jihad", till total
liberation of our holy country". "In the midst of the events in Lebanon
emerges a problem whose name is the "Taef Accord", and a problem whose name
is Michel Aoun. It is not true that he who rejects the Taef Accord is with
Michel Aoun. The Taef Accord is a problem because it dedicates the
denominational system without reforms, but an increase in the number of the
MPs. The cabinet was given power while the President remains the Army Higher
Chief Commander. Our problem in Lebanon is the denominational system through
which deprivation remains. The alternative as the leader of the Iranian
Islamic Republic Ayatollah Al Khomeini has said, the system should fall and
the people decide on the course of the new system. What we hope is that the
people and public in Lebanon will choose without pressure the system they
want and we are with the people in deciding their our fate. As for that Aoun,
he is a problem because he is an Israeli destructive and confrontational
condition. He does not see except his individual interests and those of his
denomination. He is the racist Maronite course in Eastern Beirut (the
Capital's Christian sector)." Nasrallah stressed in his speech that the
alternative to the Taef
resolutions is the resistance.
Aoun in an editorial dated May 27, 2000 entitled “When will the
Liberation be”
In the aftermath of the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon
Aoun described Hezbollah as an organization that cuts open bellies and
slaughters people's necks while in their own beds. This statement was a
response to a public threat uttered by Hezbollah's General Secretary Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah who, a few days before the Israeli withdrawal, warned the
Lebanese Southern citizens through all media channles that that Nasrallah's
organization, Hezbollah Party, will get to their bedrooms to slaughter their
necks and cut open their bellies.
Aoun wrote in his editorial: “What are the Lebanese State (Lahoud puppet
regime) and its deceitful ruling class proud of after the Israeli withdrawal,
now that
thousands of innocent Lebanese citizens have fled to Israel? Why did the
women flee scared with their children to the Israeli camps? Isn’t this the
result of Nasrallah’s threats to slaughter people in their beds, under the
watching eyes and ears of a State running after this rhetoric because of its
failure to perform its duties, and then adopt this rhetoric by its silence,
therefore abandoning all its security and judicial responsibilities. And how
could a “President” (General Lahoud) give assurances to his people to return
to their land, when he has no sovereignty over it and is characterized by
his constant absence from executing his responsibilities. And until the true
celebration of liberation arrives, we refuse to participate in the
“drugging” celebrations, and we leave its pleasure peak to the drug addicts
to enjoy.”
For Heaven's sake, how could these two men trust one another and forge an
alliance with each other? There is no logic, common sense or rationale in
such a bizarre alliance. But, in the end it is so sad and so disappointing
to watch a great leader like General Aoun committing political suicide
through forging an alliance with the Axis of Evil via its Iranian army in
Lebanon, Hezbollah. The question remains: Is the man sane? Many of those who
knew him so close reply with a big NO and continue to bitterly say the man
is not himself.
6-General Michel Aoun: An improvised political version of Dr. Jekyll &
Mr. Hyde
By: Elias
Bejjani/LCCC Chairman
November 30/2006
(Part 6 of the Aoun series of editorials)
In this editorial - part six in my Aoun series - the focus will be solely on
the text of a lengthy audio interview that the Lebanese MTV channel
conducted with General Michel Aoun on October 9, 2002 while he was
still in exile in Paris - France. This is another lengthy text of 40
pages that shows without a shadow of doubt, and by this man's own words,
that he has in cold blood buried under 12 feet all his declared
national and political convictions whose banner he carried for 18 years,
only to back off completely on all his promises in the end. He simply made
a 180 degree turn without even bothering to explain himself or at least
to his supporters the rationale for such a drastic turnaround.
He is still claiming boldly to be the most popular Lebanese Christian
politician, and accordingly he acts in an extremely aggressive and reckless
manner as he elaborates his national and political choices and alliances.
His demagogic attitudes, approaches and speeches are still appealing to
many young Lebanese, especially in the Christian community, because he is
hypocritically playing on sectarian fears while portraying himself as a
secularist and the savior and protector of the Christian community. This
metamorphosis had the effect that many intellectuals among his close
supporters have either left him or just backed off and are not involving
themselves in political activity any longer.
The Lebanese people in general and the Christian community in particular had
hoped for many years that General Aoun's return from exile would be a very
constructive push forward and a solid patriotic cornerstone for reclaiming
the country's confiscated sovereignty, independence, freedoms and security.
But to their disappointment and frustration, the man lost all focus on
national priorities except for his unabated drive for the presidency.
Everything he does or says revolves around this apparently unreachable
ambition.
And instead of working genuinely for unity in his own Christian community
after he got almost 80% of its votes in the last parliamentary elections,
he became his community's main problem and element of division after he
backed off on his electoral platform and forged an alliance with Hezbollah
and all the pro-Syrian parties, officials, and militias in Lebanon. He
turned into a Syrian mouthpiece defending the Damascus regime's conduct and
atrocities, aborting all efforts to replace the Syrian hand-picked Lebanese
President, General Emile Lahoud.
In his blind pursuit of the presidency, he turned against France, the US,
UNIFIL, and all UN resolutions, and took a hostile stance against the
Maronite Patriarch after his Beatitude and the Maronite Council of Bishops
expressed their disapproval of his alliances. He continues to issue threats
to topple the Siniora government by force and through street demonstrations
side by side with Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian parties.
On Sunday November 26, 2006 and because Aoun was still persisting to
join forces with Hezbollah and topple the Lebanese government, His
Beatitude the Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir urged the Lebanese
Christians to close ranks although he acknowledged that such a unity is
difficult to achieve, (mainly because of Aoun's stubbornness): " We are
going through miserable days, but we hope they will be followed by happy
days in which the Lebanese will reunite…We mean by that the Christians who
are divided," Sfeir told his visitors on Sunday. "It seems that their
reunification has become hard," Sfeir added. He said the Lebanese should
join hands since "our leaders are being killed one after the other."
Because of Aoun's individualistic, selfish and uncalculated ambitions,
Lebanon's Christians are divided between those who support Fouad Siniora's
government and those who are revolving around Aoun and are calling for the
toppling of the government.
Below are a number of selected quotes from Aoun's MTV October 2002
interview which shows Aoun's own description of Hezbollah's fundamentalist
doctrine, weapons, ties to foreign countries, power balance between Arab
countries and Israel, Lebanon's borders with both Israel and Syria, the big
lie of the Shebaa Farms, suicide operations, reckless military skirmishes
against Israel through Lebanon's borders, rules of negotiation, acceptance
of others, civil and military societies, Syria's criminal role, terrorism
and the pressure it exerts on the Palestinians, Dhimmitude attitudes,
extermination of Lebanon's Christians, inefficiency of Lebanon's current
pro-Syrian president, General Lahoud, and many other opinions and stances
in the same context.
The prime objective from this illustration is to show - using Aoun's own
words - the educated and intellectuals among his supporters, as well as
within his party's members, and in particular the young and university
students, how the man since his return from exile last year has backed off
from all his political advocacy of the past 18 years and reneged on all
his platforms and promises. All what is required from the reader is to just
compare, with an open mind and without any kind of sentiment or bias,
Aoun's platforms during the exile years which they admired and supported,
with those after his return from exile. The Lebanese people owe it to themselves
and to their country to only support politicians based on platforms and not
on emotions or blind sentimentalist fanaticism. Only sheep can be lead
blindly to slaughterhouses, but not the Lebanese people.
Below are
selected excerpts from General Aoun's interview with MTV on 09/04/02.
Journalist Elie Nakouzi conducted the interview (Below also some writer's
comments)
1-General Aoun: "By the way,
I remind you here that the Syrian regime had said that it came to Lebanon
to save its Christians from extermination. I want to ask this regime who,
apart from it, in fact wanted to exterminate us?"
2-General Aoun: "I sure am very
optimistic with the Palestinian people's victory, but not the way some
envisage it. Not by the extermination of Israel as Hezbollah and Bashar
Al-Assad say, because this kind of policy is globally rejected".
3-General Aoun: "The best that Syria has
offered is rejected by us. What can Syria offer us? Its liberal regime,
freedoms, or economic system? All of these are rejected because they do not
match our thinking. For the Syrian regime to be accepted by us, it has to
be like us in Lebanon, and not vice-versa".
Writer's Comment: Does the General have
any assurances from the Syrian Baathist regime that its leadership has
scraped their schemes to exterminate the Lebanese Christian community, or
at least their intellectuals and leaders who oppose their interferences and
hegemony? If he does, the Lebanese people are entitled to be informed,
especially that the horrible Syrian crimes continue to target Lebanon's
national leaders, journalists and officials one after the other. Needless
to remind the General that he himself has accused Syria and its Lebanese
agents to be behind three assassination attempts that targeted him
personally.
4-General Aoun: "The Arabs have gained the
experience. I noticed that whose who got the experience are acting wisely
at this stage. Meanwhile, there are those who don't own the experience,
mostly the young, are enthusiastic for war, like Hezbollah and his
Excellency president Bashar Al Assad".
5-General Aoun: "There are rejectionist
factions (in the region), Hezbollah and Syria are such well-known
rejectionists. They are the factions that pressure the Palestinian people
and the Palestinian resistance in a certain direction".
6-General Aoun: "We can't live today
according to Bin Laden's school (doctrine). We can't live in the East or in
the West with a war slogan against Jews and Christians".
7-General Aoun: "Whenever the
Palestinian problem get close to a solution, we feel that the Palestinian
people are exposed to pressure from outside bidding factions striving to
corner and embarrass the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority and make him
reject the solution. They put him in a weak position and at times tag him
with treason if he accepts the proposed solutions".
8-General Aoun: "I am against any suicide
operation (for any target) if you can bombard or explode the target. In any
kind of military operation the soldier should always have a good chance to
return alive. No one (fighter, soldier) should detonate himself. As far as I
am concerned, this (suicide operations) is against my human and faith
beliefs".
9-General Aoun: "We are the country that
was struck by 258 booby-trapped vehicles during the unfolding events.
The Lebanese people remember very well these cars that exploded in all (the
Lebanese) regions. We are against this kind of thinking, the thinking of
annihilating the society because it does not distinguish (between military
and civil societies)"
Writer's Comment: The General has so far
not cleared the rejectionists from what he accused them of doing in
2002. Does his alliance with them simply mean that he was wrong at that
time, or that they have abandoned such practices? Aren't these
rejectionists the General's new allies? How could he now sell his
supporters such an alliance? Aren't they still rejectionists?
One wonders whether the General's new allies, especially Hezbollah, have
abandoned this kind of thinking, or if they have succeeded in convincing
the General himself to adopt their own doctrines in this regard. It is
worth mentioning that Hezbollah has fired tens of its missiles against
civilian targets during its last war with Israel.
10-General Aoun: "I consider these
martyrdom operations wrong because, as I previously stated, they freed the
Israeli military destructive power and legitimized its usage."
11-General Aoun: "Israel owns a mighty
military and destruction power. By using the booby-trapped vehicles weapon
against them (the Israelis), we give Israel a free hand to use its power
and even legitimize it".
12-General Aoun: "The Palestinians
should know that their case can't be solved through violence. They have
45 years experience of violence and mutual wars".
13-General Aoun: "Once engaged in
negotiations, this simply means the parties recognize each other. One
cannot, by the end of a peace process and because of not agreeing on some
issues, turn around and again deny the existence of the other party, and
accordingly make this existence a questionable matter. We can't adopt an
argument that advocates for Israel's cancellation (annihilation)".
Writer's Comment: Does the General have
any doubt that Hezbollah, his new ally, has fully freed the Israeli mighty
destructive military power when its men crossed the Lebanese border into
Israel to kill and kidnap Israeli soldiers? The perplexing question for the
General remains: Did Hezbollah and President Bashar Al Assad change their
way of thinking, or is it the General who did?
14-General Aoun: "I say the military
escalation does not help, especially when power balance (in the Middle
East) is to a great extent subjected to international constraints and not to
Arab power in the face of Israel’s power" .
Writer's Comment: If this is the
situation, how could the General justify his adaptation for Hezbollah's
latest “divine victory?”
15-General Aoun: "In Lebanon there was a
UN Resolution (452), meanwhile the resistance (Hezbollah) has
prolonged the time of occupation (for South Lebanon). There was a proposal
from Israel in 1994. Would the Lebanese government tell us why at that
time it withdrew from the negotiations when the Israeli proposal for
withdrawal (from South Lebanon) was submitted".
Writer's Comment: If actually Hezbollah
did not liberate the South and instead it prolonged its Israeli occupation,
how does the general instruct his followers to share with Hezbollah and Hezbollah
supporters all over the world their annual festivities of the so-called
liberation?
16-General Aoun: "Lebanon's frontiers
were originally never closed. All Lebanon is open (not guarded). Where are
the closed frontiers? They are neither closed with Syria nor with Israel.
The Lebanese state does not exist on the frontiers. These frontiers are
open and every night skirmishes take place. I am with closing the frontiers
and not with abandoning responsibilities. But what is happening today? All
are washing their hands from all responsibilities".
Writer's Comment: Are these frontiers
closed now to make the General refuse the deployment of UNIFIL forces on
the Lebanese Israeli borders, and to oppose putting UNIFIL under the UN’s
chapter seven?
17-General Aoun: "The Shebaa Farms is a
big lie; I am fully responsible for what I am saying. We can't adjust the
map in accordance to our mood. Shebaa Farms are not Lebanese. Even if they were,
this land was confiscated by Syria since a long time and Lebanon has been
silent about it. The Lebanese government did not state once that it has an
occupied land subjected to UN resolution 242 ".
18-General Aoun: "Let them leave the
Shebaa story which is originally a fabricated one, they want to keep the
borders open. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the Shebaa Farms
is Lebanese, and that we have the right to fight for it, and that we don't
want to implement the UN Resolution. But what about the Golan Heights? Why
doesn’t our sisterly neighboring Syria open its front (with Israel) at a
time when it made of itself a trustee over Lebanon?"
Writer's Comment: Based on the General's
own words, how could he and his parliamentary bloc members allege that
Hezbollah's weapons are a result of the occupation of Shebaa, and not the
cause for Lebanon's current problems? And how could he support a lie and tie
the fate of Hezbollah's disarmament with the fate of the armed Palestinian
militias in Lebanon and the erection of a strong, fair and resistant
Lebanese state? One wonders how could a strong Lebanese state be erected
when Hezbollah has its own Iranian-Syrian militant state inside the state
and uses force to deny any Lebanese efforts to rectify peacefully this
bizarre imposed status.
19-General Aoun: "Emile Lahoud, as he
says, is not qualified to be president of the Republic or to head the
Arabic summit conference".
20-General Aoun: "Didn't you hear the
speeches threatening us with a civil war in case we call for a Syrian
withdrawal (from Lebanon). Hezbollah is the one that threatened and who else
has weapons. Hezbollah said we want to erect another Kosovo (in Lebanon)
and it intents to confront this matter. Hezbollah said that they are on the
front at the border to defend Syria. This is exactly what Al Syassa Kuwaiti
newspaper quoted Sayed Hassan Nasrallah as saying. It seems that he was
threatening us with a civil war if we called for a Syrian withdrawal".
Writer's Comment: Isn’t Nasrallah now
resorting to the same kind of speeches and threats? And is it not true too
that the General is now on Nasrallah's side? And aren’t both Aoun and Nasrallah
threatening the Lebanese people with a civil war if the Siniora government
does not give them the power to run the country?
21-General Aoun: "We have the
independence pact, as well as the foundations of the country. None of them
could build on any contracts Hezbollah forges with foreign countries. The country's
foundations are sovereignty, independence and the unity of both the people
and land".
22-General Aoun: "What is the military
value of the Syrian Army in the power balance in case a war erupts with
Israel? Do you really believe peace and tranquility in the East are
sustained by power balance? What actually preserved tranquility up till now
is the international will. Military skirmishes (on the borders with Israel)
occurring these days could lead to the freeing of these constraints. We
live these days a very delicate situation because if Hezbollah and Syria
are serious in their escalation and not merely theoretical, then the
possibility of the plight of war is serious".
Writer's Comment: Here the General has a
great deal of explaining to do in regards to his groundless and
non-military support for Hezbollah's last devastating war against Israel. Hezbollah
did or did not free the destructive Israeli mighty military power when it
kidnapped the Israeli solders from inside the Israeli borders? Meanwhile
and based on his own words in 2002 how could he declare Hezbollah
victorious in the last war? Isn’t the General contradicting himself between
2002 and 2006? In 2002, he said that Hezbollah’s skirmishes
with the Israelis could lead to war. Now he says that the July War was a
war that the US had been preparing for regardless of what Hezbollah does or
does not do in the south?
23-General Aoun: "Hezbollah can not
forge partnerships (with foreign countries) and then tie all the country (Lebanon)
to its opinion. Such partnerships are unacceptable. I refuse both religious
and political Dhimmitude. These days we live a state of political Dhimmitude
in Lebanon".
Writer's Comment: The General, for the
sake of credibility, ought to inform at least his party members and
supporters if Hezbollah has severed its financial, military, strategic, and
ideological ties with Syria and Iran? He should also tell them if he
approves today of political Dhimmitude? [A “Dhimmi” is a second-class
non-Moslem citizen in a State ruled by Moslems].
"Did the General renege on his own words when he signed the so-called "Paper
of Understanding" with Hezbollah while its leadership openly and daily
declares that they are allies with Syria and Iran? Didn't Hezbollah’s
General Secretary loudly say over and over that if and when Syria is forced
to withdraw from Lebanon, we [Hezbollah] will be its own army? Does the
General recall to whom Sheik Hassan Nasrallah bestowed the recent so-called
divine victory? It was for Syria and Iran. He should remember that because
his delegation was in the front seats during that huge victory celebration.
24-General Aoun: "No one is armed except
the state's parties: the Syrian National Social Party, the Baath Party and
Hezbollah. These are the supporters of the authority. All of this is used
under the resistance tag. They keep the weapons in a bid to threaten others
with killing and a civil war. We do not fear killing, but if violence is
forced on us we will defend ourselves".
Writer's comment: "Aren't these same
armed parties the General's new allies today on the ground in Beirut?
Aren't he and them threatening the rest of the Lebanese with massive
demonstrations and aren't they threatening the Siniora Government to resign
or otherwise?".
25-General Aoun: "It is impossible to
tag those who want to go to the West Bank for help as agents. What is this
complex? Are all the Palestinians there Israeli agents. This same complex was
practiced in South Lebanon when its citizens were dealt with as agents and
put in jails".
Writer's Comment: "It would be great if
the General tells our people that his current ally Hezbollah was the
authority that tagged and still tags the South Lebanese Army members, their
families and many other security zone citizens as Israeli agents".
26-General Aoun: "And this subject, the
dialogue I have put it forward for others and in particular for Hezbollah.
That was through our youth who were engaged in a dialogue with Hezbollah between
1993 and 1994. These youth visited me at that time in France (Haute
Maison) and asked for my opinion. I requested that they put forward this
same question for Hezbollah: "If we reach the national borders (Israeli-Lebanese
borders) tomorrow by one way or another, does the role of the rifle end
there and the Lebanese state is erected, or we will keep holding to the
rifle for other things? The Hezbollah response was:" the matter will be left
for an assessment of the situation at that time". This simply means and in
a very diplomatic way that they don't want to give up the rifle".
Writer's Comment: The irony here is that
the General has kept a blind eye on his own theory and prediction when
signing the so-called "Paper of Understanding" with Hezbollah, which subsequently
linked its weapons to the “Sacred, honor, dignity, defense strategy, a
strong, fair and resistant State and until a time when Israel would not be
able to fly a kite over Lebanon”. Does the General recall who ignited the
last war?
27-General Aoun: "I know that Lebanon
will not be divided. It will return again a country for all of its people,
even in the presence of supporters for Syria whose role in the end will
cease to exist because they can't stand against nature on the account of
the country and its foundations. But if one does not believe in a sovereign,
free and independent Lebanon, then everything is finished".
Writer's Comment: "What is funny here is
that the General himself, and after his return from exile, has aggressively
and enthusiastically joined the Syrian supporters through his alliance with
Hezbollah, General Lahoud and the rest of Syria's agents in Lebanon,
including the pro-Syrian Baath Party...One wonders if the General's
perception of what is ‘nature’ and ‘the foundations of the country’ has
been revolutionized, Syrianized, and baathized?".
28-General Aoun: "Up till today I notice
that the Lebanese Forces Party and the "Qornet Chehwan" (political
Christian coalition) are very persistent in their support of the "Taef
Accord" as if it is another bible, while in fact it is a ploy that they
were dragged in. Some do not know how to get out because they refuse to
admit they were cheated and that their choice was wrong".
Writer's comment: “It is no secret that
the General has revolutionized his position on the "Taef Accord" and became,
like those ploy victims, one of its major supporters. He even scolded some
of his prime supporters when publicly they reiterated his original "Taef"
opposition stance. Is his new choice righteous in his own eyes? And if so,
how could he in 2002 say that the accord was a ploy? I believe he owes
our own people a great deal of explanation.”
29-General Aoun: "We start from the
southern region. If it does not return back to the (state's) legitimate
authority, to the jurisdiction of the law and to the legitimate Lebanese
armed forces, then we can't consider it liberated, but still under the
control of a militia and that it has been transferred from two occupations
to one.
Writer's comment: "It is worth noting
that when the General signed his " Paper of Understanding" with Hezbollah,
this armed militia was still in full control of the southern region (now it
is under the control of the UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army), and at that time
too there was no existence there whatsoever for the state's authority,
jurisdiction of law, or Lebanon's legitimate armed forces. This same
militia is the one that still holds tight to its 40,000 missiles and to
its destructive arsenal, refusing to disarm with the full support of the
General. This is the same militia with which the General has forged with
not a mere “understanding” as both parties allege, but a full alliance
accord".
30-General Aoun: "The issue is not that
of an ally, I am America's ally. I went there (to the USA) to call for
Lebanon's independence. We do not forget that America is the sole mighty
country and its policies affect the whole world whether we like it or not.
America has a power formula. If one can make this formula to his advantage
he will be able to save his country. Although America and Israel had hurt
me the most in the world, I can't ignore America' power and influence in
the world. We should understand that a mistake was committed against Lebanon
who fell a victim for terrorism. The mistake should be rectified. I showed
them (the USA) the assassination and explosion schedule that Lebanon had
been exposed to. I told them, I did not want to accuse anybody, but
requested they ask their Intelligence. I asked them not make parties
accountable because these parties have ties with regimes. The organizations
that you consider terrorists are tied to regimes. These organizations
should be disarmed and the regimes rendered democratic and to help in
developing the poor people".
Writer's comment: The General instead of
working hard to disarm these organizations, and in particular Hezbollah,
has forged an alliance with them and has become a guardian angel for their
weapons.
31-General Aoun: "Not at all, attacking
Hezbollah is not requested. Our call for Hezbollah has always been a
peaceful one. We told Hezbollah's leadership, ‘Your liberation role has
finished and you should not be a tool in the hands of others. Come and play
your political role’. It is true that I reject many of their ideas, because
they have somewhat strange ideas as far as our society is concerned. These
ideas do not comply with our society nor with Lebanon's traditional
mission. But they are a part of the Lebanese society. I call on them not to
be an outside (foreign) dimension n Lebanon, but a Lebanese dimension
abroad. It does not bother me whether their religious loyalty is in Qom or
in Iraq. This a religious authority with whom we have no relations. But
what is rejected, is the turning of any Muslim or Christian faction into a
dimension in Lebanon for the outside (foreign countries).
Writer's Comment: Hezbollah's ideas are
still the same and even more crystal clear. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is not
only an internal dimension for outside powers, but in fact an Iranian-Syria
armed militia in Lebanon. Its leadership is not hiding this fact, can the
General do otherwise?
10/04/02:
Below are Excerpts from the Aoun MTV interview, the subject of our editorial,
as published in the As-Safir Lebanese Arabic-language daily one day after
its airing.
("Aoun: The Shebaa Farms are not Lebanese and the Resistance (Hezbollah)
has prolonged the Occupation.
General Michel Aoun appeared live yesterday from Paris and presented his
views and positions regarding the developments in the region. Aoun
described the martyrdom missions executed by the Palestinian resistance
against the Israeli occupation as "suicide missions" and not "missions of
martyrdom". He added that such operations "reveal an uncivilized conduct,"
and that the use of booby-trapped vehicles against Israel is an act of
terrorism.
Aoun, in a televised interview with MTV, fiercely attacked Hezbollah and
Syria and accused them of nurturing the rejectionist discourse of the
Palestinians. He also accused them of wanting to annihilate the Israelis,
and of prodding the Palestinians to destroy a whole population. Aoun
criticized the military operations undertaken by the resistance (Hezbollah)
in the Shebaa Farms stating that "the Farms issue is a lie: the Shebaa
Farms are not Lebanese; let Syria give us an official document that these
Farms are Lebanese then we will work at liberating them."
Aoun described Hezbollah's and Syria's position regarding the developments
in occupied Palestine as "an extremist position stemming from either
political recklessness or collusion with Israel." Aoun criticized “the
rejectionist discourse that rejects even the human Israeli existence, such
as the Hezbollah discourse that considers the killing of anyone in the
Israeli society as ´fair game', and the discourse of President Bashar Assad
that is identical to Hezbollah's and proclaims that ´there are no civilians
in Israeli society'. Aoun added: "We reject this kind of discourse. We
reject such policy of extermination. Such things are contradictory to any
human or civilized conduct. They are calling for the destruction of a whole
people through terrorist means, and this is unacceptable. The use of such
means released the destructive military power of Israel and legitimized
it."
He also stated that the military victory of Israel "will not eliminate the
Palestinian State nor the rights of the Palestinian people. However, those
goals cannot be reached by the extermination of Israelis and wiping out
Israel, as Hezbollah and Bashar Assad want." And regarding the resistance (Hezbollah)
that liberated the South from Israeli occupation, Aoun said: "The resistance
prolonged the occupation. There was an Israeli proposal of withdrawal in
1994. Why did Lebanon withdraw from the negotiation process? Lebanon
attached itself to the Syrian tractor and dissolved its own political and
diplomatic identity… the resistance prolonged the occupation and damaged
Lebanon economically". He called for the "disarming of Hezbollah that keeps
threatening us with civil war."
Aoun attacked Syria fiercely and said: "Is it allowable for Syria to kill in
the name of brotherhood? Is it allowable for Syria to occupy Baabda (Presidential
Palace) in the name of brotherhood? Why did it greet me with hostility from
my first day as head of the interim government?"
Aoun described the Lebanese constitutional institutions as "farms" (in a
veiled reference to the Shebaa Farms) and said: "The Baabda farm (Presidential
Palace) needs to be liberated, so does the Qoraytem (Prime Minister’s
Office) and the Nejmeh Square (Parliament) farms. There is no free decision
in any of these places."
On the future of the region, Aoun said: “Peace in the Middle East is a
civilization condition that must evolve against the politics of violence.
It rests on the acceptance of the "other", the right to be different, and
the democratization of the political systems. It is impossible to build a
new Middle East with a war mentality. Competition through development and
pluralism, which arises from the acceptance of those who are different, the
plurality of races, genders, and origins, and the freedom of creed, is
consistent with the stipulations of the Charter of Human Rights.
I do not trust States that engage themselves in the path of peace and try to
develop their systems, but that do not recognize the right of freedom of
creed, which by the way is not limited to religion, but also includes
political and all other forms of freedoms. There are underdeveloped
autocratic and theocratic states that are anachronisms and are incompatible
with the times in which we live. The Bin Laden School is such a belief
system and it cannot survive. The slogan of war on Christians and Jews is
an aberration that cannot survive, neither in the East nor in the West.
Lebanon is the only oasis for the reconciliation of cultures because of its
Moslems and Christians who have lived the experience and found it to be
viable. Aoun said his return to Lebanon is tied to "changes on the ground"
he expects to happen soon and which are linked to regional developments."
)
5-General Michel Aoun's Alliance with Hezbollah: A Bizarre
and Groundless Marriage of Opportunism
By: Elias
Bejjani-LCCC/Chairman
November 20/2006
"The positions of those afflicted with contradiction
between acts and words cannot be reassuring. Such individuals desire one
thing and its opposite at the same time" (General Aoun on 16/06/2000).
I would like to tell my readers that I am really happy and
extremely pleased with the many emails, phones and faxes, both negative and
positive, that I have been receiving from the Diaspora and back home since I
started publishing this series of editorials. In response to those who are
accusing me of creating division among the sovereignists' ranks, I borrow my
reply from Edmund Burke, the well known English statesman and political
philosopher (1729-1797):
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do
nothing."
In this fifth episode from General Michel Aoun's series, the prime focus
will be on a set of miscellaneous selected quotations from the man's
documented speeches, theses and political positions that focus all on
Hezbollah's weapons, south Lebanon, Lebanon's sovereignty, independence and
security.
My prime objective is to give our people, as well as our world wide friends,
the chance to examine thoroughly General Aoun's positions, promises, pledges,
convictions, his party's 2005 parliamentary electoral platform, his
alliances and then check these against the extent of his sincerity and
commitment to all of the above. This study aims to fairly and openly
pinpoint the General's post-exile trend of contradictions between his acts
and his words.
A very simple and straightforward comparison between his pre- and post-exile
attitudes and stances makes it very clear, and without a shred of a doubt,
that the man has molted, turned against all his positions, and accordingly,
allied himself with Hezbollah and the Lebanese agents of Syria in Lebanon.
Needless to say that he has built his leadership and popularity all through
the past eighteen years on fighting all of them, initially militarily, and
then politically.
Six years ago, and while he was still in exile, the General denounced
similar patterns of behavior and accused his opponents of adopting them for
personal
gains, power and status. On 16/06/2000 he said: "The
positions of those afflicted with contradiction between acts and words
cannot be reassuring. Such individuals desire one thing and its opposite at
the same time".
One wonders if General Aoun, who has recently joined forces with the "Evil
Axis" through his alliance with Hezbollah and Syria's agents in Lebanon, is
the same
man who enthusiastically and staunchly sponsored, advocated and worked hard
with the Lebanese lobbyists in the US to prepare, promote and then pass the
"Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003". An
Act that stipulates: "To halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its
occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction,
cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil and illegal shipments of weapons
and other military items to Iraq, and by so doing hold Syria accountable for
the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle
East, and for other purposes."
One wonders why the US ambassador to Lebanon had to warn Aoun of 'Grave
Consequences' over an alliance with Hezbollah, as Naharnet posted on its
Internet site on Friday November 3, 2006: {"Beirut-U.S. ambassador Jeffrey
Feltman has allegedly warned General Michel Aoun of 'grave consequences'
over his alliance with Hezbollah, accusing the Shiite group of plotting to
obliterate Lebanon."Feltman was quoted as saying: "Hezbollah is constantly
working on destroying and obliterating Lebanon as well as sowing chaos,"
according to the Lebanese daily As-Safir. It said his remarks were made
during a visit to Aoun at his house in Rabieh on Thursday. The paper quoted
leading sources in Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) as saying that
Feltman also slammed the so-called "political understanding" between Aoun
and Hezbollah. But Aoun has reiterated his adherence to the "political
understanding," the sources said. They said
that Feltman has indirectly threatened Aoun that his alliance with Hezbollah
would bear "grave consequences on his political future." As-Safir said that
this was
a tortuous reference to the presidency issue, in which Aoun, a Maronite, is
eligible for under the Lebanese constitution. The paper also said that the
FPM has
previously received similar threats from the American administration warning
Aoun against establishing any "material or financial ties with Hezbollah, or
be
blacklisted for assisting terrorists".
Aoun's supporters and followers in the Diaspora and back
home have an obligation, at least towards themselves to rationally and
intelligently question his post-exile new plans, positions and alliances,
and decide if he actually is still the leader whom they supported as far as
platforms, convictions, and promises.
Below are selected excerpts from Aoun's
documented writings, speeches and interviews that delineate his pre-exile
anti-Hezbollah, anti-terrorism stances.
1) January.3/2005- An excerpt from Aoun's speech (via
the phone) in the inauguration of his party's office in the Lebanese
Northern city of Zgharta:
"We should not compromise on the country's
cause. The cause is not a bet in a race, nor an issue of trade. It is a
matter of existence for everybody (Lebanon's people), and not the existence
of a one segment and not the other. If you want the country, make it a
priority in all your thinking. Everything else is secondary; this is the
salvation. As from today, we will not accept any loyalty that supersedes
that for our country. We will not accept that all matters be given two
meanings and two specifications, especially the national convictions. We
cannot be with Syria or the Palestinian cause more than we are with
ourselves and with our country. We cannot love the neighbors' children more
than we love our own family members. In our relations with each other, we
should get rid of lying & dodging, as well as of ambiguity and the every
day planting of mines in a bid to improve and develop our national life, or
otherwise we will remain wedged in ongoing problems."
2) Excerpt from General Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement
Party Parliamentary 2005 electoral platform, "Annex number one, Hezbollah's
issue":
"N Resolution 1559
and the 'Taef Accord' both stipulate that all militias (in Lebanon) must be
disarmed. This matter raises the paradox of Hezbollah's military existence.
Regardless of different opinions on Hezbollah's ideological choices and its
relations with Syria, that is suspicious in its intentions towards Lebanon,
Hezbollah's military activities were seen in the UN Resolutions frame as
resistance acts against occupation until the day Israel withdraw from
Lebanon's southern region (May 2000). After the Israeli withdrawal,
legitimacy for Hezbollah' military operations dissipated. Meanwhile, since
then, it created a crisis on national and international levels. This status
put Lebanon in a confrontation with the international law, while at the same
time exerted a threat to the national unity as it indicates that one group
Monopolizes Lebanon's national decision making process."
Doubts in regards to Hezbollah's actual
objectives and hazards of its strategy are not by any means going to
dissipate through avowed relations with hardliner Iran, or through its
alliance with (Palestinian) Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movements that are
both classified by the West as anti-peace movements. In this same context,
the Shebaa Farms ploy is not a convincing proof (to justify Hezbollah's
military anti Israel Acts) and it did not succeed in concealing Syrian
intentions that hide in the back. Keenness on the national sovereignty is
not one religious denomination's monopoly and should not be so."
3) January.3/2005-An excerpt from
Aoun's speech (via the phone) in the inauguration of his party's office in
the Lebanese Northern city of Zgharta:
"We hear at times an MP saying that UN Resolution 1559 is an
internationalization for the "Taef Accord". This Accord has no relation with
the UN. It is a tribal
accord forged between the Lebanese themselves and has no execution mechanism.
Where is the Taef Accord execution mechanism? Is it the withdrawal to the
Bekaa Valley? What is the Bekaa fate than? What is the fate of both regions,
the North and the South? If they want to keep any rifle that is not the one
with the
Lebanese army, then where is the State's centrality of security while
Hezbollah keeps holding on to its arms? They invented the Shebaa Farms tale
as an excuse to keep the arms. Why weapons should remain (with Hezbollah)
and nobody says anything? Are all these things found in the conduct of some
opposition figures
or in the majority of the new opposition that lately joined its ranks? All
of this makes us adopt reservations on the topics they circulate in a bid to
attract people. Definitely in the future they will reach dead ends. You ask
them the questions: What after the Bekaa Valley and when? What is the style
that will be implemented in the Bekaa Valley to make the Syrians leave? And
what is the style that will follow with Hezbollah? When will the country
reassume its security responsibilities? All these questions must be answered.
We are the front opposition and have the right to ask. In 1990 the US
offered Lebanon as a gift for Syria in return for its participation in the
Gulf War. What price will we pay the US in return for its help?"
4) Quotation from Aoun's (via the phone) meeting with
the Free Patriotic Movement's school students third annual conference on
April 5/2003. Journalist Katia Srour moderated the dialogue.
*Question by one of the students: The US considers Hezbollah
a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is the son of our country. What will be
our position?
"Aoun's answer: "I had previously invited Hezbollah to a solution. I am not
willing to assume the results for the policies it follows and for its
external ties. I
advised them to abandon the military work and return a political party, for
then we congratulated them on liberating Lebanese land. But when Hezbollah
wants to stand outside the Lebanese framework for other objectives, we
cannot bear the results of its policies.
Then I cannot engage in a
dialogue with Hezbollah while it is carrying the rifle. Let it put the rifle
aside, then we sit down and talk.
I call on Hezbollah to turn
into a political party and we will cooperate with it. We don't want to
eliminate this part, but it too can not enmesh us; from the Palestinian
resistance to the Lebanese resistance, to others. [As the Lebanese proverb
says]: "We brought the bear to our vineyard and then gave ourselves the
credit for pushing it out". And everything is on our account. Taking out the
Palestinian bear, taking out the Israeli bear, all on our account. To where
will we continue? I don't know."
"If what they (Hezbollah leadership) want are the Shebaa
Farms, they have to get a small paper from the Syrians saying that these
farms are inside Lebanese territory so we can liberate them. And then there
is no need for the canon and the parades. But if carrying the rifle aims for
Hezbollah's hegemony over Lebanon and if it becomes a Syrian tool for
hegemony over Lebanon's decision, then Hezbollah would have abandoned much
of its Lebanese affiliation and abandoned the fact that it is our brother,
because we don't see him acting like one.
He (Hezbollah) did not have
any forgiveness or any understanding in the southern issue after the Israeli
withdrawal.. The result was thousands of refugees in the south. Why were
they treated like this? Because the State has neglected them for many years
and accordingly they were forced to deal with an imposed status quo".
"We then,
cannot bear the results of a wrong policy when we have been giving Hezbollah
advice from its first days. It is enough for us that we have postponed the
solution in the Southern region since 1994 till year 2000. Today we want to
liberate Jerusalem, as if Jerusalem is Hezbollah's responsibility. There are
one billion and two hundred million Muslims who say Jerusalem is theirs. Let
them step in and liberate it. For us in Lebanon alone to bear responsibility
for this is a matter that is not at all acceptable anymore. It is a matter
that is beyond our capabilities and not a normal one. Because of this wrong
policy, look how many Lebanese have emigrated and how they are dispersed all
over the world, both Muslims and Christians. We do not consent and support
blindly. Let Hezbollah step in and explain to us its policy."
5) Quotations from Aoun's meeting with NDU University
students on March 26/2002. Journalist and FPM senior official, Mr. Elias
Zoghby (who has now left the FPM) moderated the dialogue.
"*Question from one
of the students: There is a paradox in the fear of the
Lebanese. They are afraid from the occurring tranquility in the South that
Hezbollah has abided by, because of American threats (made by Colin Powell,
U.S. Secretary of State) and in accordance to advice from Iran's Foreign
Minister Mr. Kharazi. Is this tranquility a pretext for a new status similar
to the one that prevailed 12 years ago, or it is the tranquility that
precedes the storm?
Aoun's answer:
Today, in the new American policy, America and its allies would not anymore
be satisfied with only a tranquility status. The Americans want to
dismantle the capabilities of those they classify as terrorists. Dismantle
their action capabilities at the present time and also in the future.
Tranquility is a paralyzing act and will be followed by dismantling. This
tranquility, if not followed by dismantlement, would not last for long and
the status will return to be hot again. I stress that the importance here
lies in the result that we will reach. We are now one step far from the
final phase, and dismantlement will follow the tranquility.".
"In Lebanon many have dealt with Hezbollah through "Dissimulation" [Taqiyah].
They, within themselves, wish that [Hezbollah] would be attacked, while in
the
open they encourage and command its stances. They push Hezbollah towards
collision. This is a bad and wrong course. Meanwhile when we call on
Hezbollah to abandon weapons and turn into political practice, we do so
because we don't want it to be attacked. Or otherwise we would have
encouraged it on wrongdoing and pushed it as others do.
I said before and now I
will repeat it: A complete divorce with the rifle should take place in
Lebanon internally and externally. There is a solution for the Middle East,
it will be enforced. Why then increase the losses, and why increase the
casualties? Let everybody step in and go back to their selves under the
shade of Lebanese laws and constitution. Let them go back to their Lebanese
status. Do not be afraid. The tranquility will prolong the current status
and breakdown will occur before such a decision is taken in case there is
one."
6) Quotation from an Arabic editorial written by Aoun
and published on 08/04/2001 under the title "Lebanese Majority Crushed and
an Occupier who Masters Black Humor":
"The national occasion is Lebanese Army Day. We observe the memory, but we
don't celebrate before this army reclaims its normal position in the
country's
life, and before it reclaims the sole military power on its land. An army
that extends its nation's sovereignty on Lebanese soil without any partners
[militias]. An Army that is committed to a liberated Lebanese regime, free
from guilt and inferiority complexes towards Syria. Up until these righteous
circumstances are provided there will be no festivities, and no talk about
sovereignty is acceptable, specially from those who sold and infringed on
all (national) taboos.
7) Quotation from an Arabic editorial written by Aoun and published on
14/07/2001 under the title: "Syria is Lebanon's Soft Flank":
"Syria has resisted the
Israeli withdrawal (from South Lebanon), but was not successful in stopping
it. with its pressure on Lebanon, it aborted the implementation of UN
Resolution 426. It invented the Shebaa Farms' case in a bid to keep Lebanon
an Israeli soft flank and a protective zone for Syria. Israel decided to
deal militarily with Hezbollah (the dominant power on Southern Lebanese
land) after the understanding neared its end. Hereupon starts the stage for
change in both game and roles."
8) Quotation from an Arabic editorial written by Aoun
and published on 29/05/2001 under the title: "Continuation of Blackmailing":
"The bitter reality that we
are sensing today is the transformation of the resistance (Hezbollah) into a
political tool geared by Damascus to create internal (Lebanese political)
equations in a bid to solidify its policies in Lebanon and support its
regime in Syria".
9) Quotations from Aoun's Lecture that was delivered in
France - Lyon on January 3/2001:
A)" For the Lebanese, the Shebaa Farms farce was not enough
to justify the continuation of the military struggle, while negotiation
channels were always open.
This land that Syria has annexed long time ago, and the Israelis occupied
after the 1967 war, was never before an official Lebanese issue of property
claims,
not before nor after 1967. On top of all this, the irrational and
unjustifiable refusal by Lebanese Authorities for the return of Lebanese
sovereignty to
the Southern region has isolated Lebanon politically from the international
community and even from its friends. Those (Friends) countries were never
convinced with the vague excuses that Syria who controls Lebanon's
decision-making process has produced. As a result Western countries decided
to
freeze their economic aid to South Lebanon as long as the legitimate
Lebanese authorities are not in control of the liberated land (In may 2000,
Israel
unilaterally withdrew its forces from South Lebanon).
B) "The Lebanese had hoped that the end of the military conflict in South
Lebanon would bring back to their country more tranquility, assurance and
trust that could reflect positively on reclaiming peace and economical
prosperity. But Syria has decided otherwise. By not allowing the Lebanese
authorities to reclaim its southern region, (after the Israeli withdrawal in
May 2000), it has dragged the country back into the same pre-liberation
status, and even worse. The ghost of the Palestinian camps (Syrian sponsored
militias) sharply emerged with full Syrian coordination and became a threat
to stability and a tool in Syrian hands for compromising and blackmailing.
All this has come as a compensation for the weakening of the Syrians
resistance card (Hezbollah) or its loss in the power balance between them
and the Israelis.
C)" We can add up to the national peace illusion, the regional one, and also
the promised coming spring and the wishes for tranquility that the Lebanese
people
have deserved through these last years which were tagged, erroneously, as
the post-war years. Nonetheless, if we do not take in consideration the
Syrian control over the resistance card in south Lebanon and the motto that
became holy in the past, the "Unity of track and fate" between Syria and
Lebanon. This motto that was a mere maneuver orchestrated by the Syrians to
keep holding on to the resistance card between their teeth and forbid
Lebanon from reclaiming its sovereignty on its southern region through
peaceful negotiations. For the Syrians, this is a very important maneuver
because an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory would expose the
shameful Arab/Syrian withdrawal from the military confrontation with Israel.
The military conflict in south Lebanon has been hiding primarily the Syrian,
and in general the collective Arab, withdrawal from the military
confrontation with Israel.
D) "On May 2000, and in a bid to split the Lebanese Syrian track and achieve
security on its border after failing to reach peace (with Syria and Lebanon),
Israel withdrew its army from South Lebanon. In the absence of the whole
peace, this new status was supposed to provide a great deal of tranquility
and
stability for the Lebanese Southern citizens in particular. But instead, and
contrary to all their expectations, the Lebanese harvested disappointment
and frustration. The Southern Lebanese residents of the zone from which
Israel withdrew had expected to be warmly welcomed for returning under the
patronage of their Lebanese state after a long and forced exile, during
which the state had left them facing their fate alone without help or care.
But instead, they sadly discovered the state's hostility and its accusations
to them with treason and treachery. Many of them were hunted and arrested.
What made the humiliation even worse are the practices of the status quo
militias (Hezbollah) who took the state's role. They interrogated and
imprisoned many Southern citizens before handing them over to the (State's)
judicial authorities.
E) "The Southern Lebanese citizens had hoped too that the State's legitimate
authority, as reason and logic dictate, would return to the land that the
Israelis have withdrawn from. But, the Lebanese state, instead of enforcing
back its authority over the liberated land, bowed to Syria's demands and
dictates and refused to deploy its armed forces there. It handed over the
land to the control of the militias, the only master over the area there
since day one of liberation (May 2000).
"Official statements issued by Hezbollah in regards to its continuation of
the fight up and until the liberation of the Shebaa Heights that soon
translated into reality led to the dissipation of all hopes for the return
of normal status and stability. In the absence of peace talks that the
citizens have been longing for in the aftermath of an occupation that lasted
for quarter of a century, and because of the frequent counter military
attacks (between Israel and Hezbollah), the Lebanese in general and the
southern citizens in particular, were again preoccupied with fear of a
comprehensive war, and today, they still do.
10) On 17/11/2000, Aoun's wrote:
"The
Syrian regime found its long pursued desire in the Southern Resistance (Hezbollah).
Syria claimed protection for this resistance in its liberation mission. But
in spite of the destructive many wars waged on Lebanon by Israel in response
to the resistance attacks (Hezbollah), the Syrian Army remained idle".
11) On 03/07/2000, Aoun wrote:
"It is our right to inquire where is this republic (Lebanese
Republic)? Is it in the South that is void from all sovereignty and its
people are moving from the occupation yoke to the party's (Hezbollah)
despotism?"
12) Quotes from an Interview with Aoun conducted by
Journalist Hyam Qusayfi (An-Nahar, 18.1.03):
Q: Are you at all concerned about the impact of a regional war on Lebanon
and its inability to absorb the impending changes?
A: The issue is that the Lebanese depend on the Syrians, in spite of the
latter's faults, to resolve their question. They just don¹t understand that
the Syrians will have to deal with the regional changes, which in turn will
have repercussions on Lebanon. The state is non-existent and is unable to
contain people because the leaders have no popular base whatsoever they can
rely on. The authorities have starved their people and rule them with forces
of repression. Without the backing of the Syrians, these forces do not have
the backbone to repress people. So if the Syrian presence is suddenly
dismantled, and absent any agreement among the Lebanese for a substitute,
there is bound to be a number of disturbances.
Q: Some are concerned about a convergence of fundamentalist movements into
Lebanon.
A: This is the only thing that I am not worried about. Fundamentalism is
being challenged and confronted globally, and it can barely protect itself.
Q: So what worries you therefore about the Lebanese situation?
A: Internal chaos. People are lost and feel defeated, and there is no role
model around which to gather. People have become moving skeletons. Period.
Hezbollah will cease to
exist.
Q: There is talk about a regional deal of which Hezbollah will
pay the price.
A: There won¹t be any
deal over Hezbollah, because a decision has been made to end the military
wing of Hezbollah without trade-offs. It will cease to exist without any
deal.
13) Quote from an editorial Aoun
published On 27/05/2000 under the title "When is the Liberation?"
A) "We wonder if South Lebanon has actually returned back to
Lebanon, and if so under what sovereignty it is now to justify the joyful
drum-beating and
jubilation celebrations?"
B) "What is there for the
Lebanese regime and its deceitful society to be proud of, when the Israeli
withdrawal had forced thousands of innocent Lebanese citizens to flee out
side the country’s borders? Why were the Southern women scared and the
mothers escaped with their children to the Israeli camps? Is it not because
of the threatening speeches’ uttered towards the Southern residents
promising and voicing revenge and cold blood murder? This blood shedding
savage policy has been hailed and adopted by the regime because of an
apparent inability to assume its security and judiciary responsibilities".
C) "Under what
jurisdiction the head of the state (President Lahoud) has uttered rhetoric
empty assurances to his scared fleeing people, and how could he ask them to
return to their land and homes? Who would trust his reassurances when he
personally has no say in any of the state’s affairs, and when his official
role has been characterized by an ongoing shameful phenomenon of abandoning
responsibilities and breaking oaths?"
D) "What delight is in
the triumph liberation festivities when the people of the liberated land
have been forced by the liberators to flee the country fearing for their
lives? The Southern people have been fighting
courageously for the last 25 years, refusing to abandon the land they
worship and the identity they honor. The successive Lebanese governments
have abandoned them for quarter a century and left them isolated
encountering unbearable circumstances. They are now paying the price of the
occupier’s withdrawal in which they had no say as they have paid previously
the price of the occupation that was forced on them."
E) "The Beirut regime is making the residents of the liberated territories,
who are actually the victims, legally accountable for the occupation. The
heroic
Southern residents who resisted the occupation and refused to leave their
land are now the target of reprisal and savage official campaign spearheaded
by
officials and politicians who were originally responsible for the occupation
of the Southern region and for the pain, destruction, poverty, displacement,
loses and sufferings of all the Lebanese people since 1975. The free world
countries and UN should not allow this judicial mockery to be inflict on our
innocent
patriotic southern people."
F) "In the meantime what we are now witnessing in occupied Lebanon is a
biased, selective, unfair, revenge, double standard and politicized
judiciary".
*End of the editorial
N.B: All quotations listed in this editorial were translated by the
writer from the original Arabic version.
4-General
Michel Aoun: Fading Halos & Falling Masks
By: Elias Bejjani,
LCCC Chairman
November 12/06
In a public gathering held on October 28/06, with
mayors and dignitaries from the Lebanese regions of Keserwan and Jbeil,
General Michel Aoun said: "There is another important matter, for every time
someone slaps someone else, Syria is accused. Fourteen crimes took place in
2005, and Syria was accused, the truth remains similar to Rajeh's Story, (A
Lebanese folk tale in which all wrongdoings, bad behavior and acts are
attributed to an imaginary person named Rajeh)
The frame of mind and tunnel vision in which General
Michel Aoun has imprisoned himself during the last 10 months are sad and
extremely shocking. He has assumed the role of a staunch advocate and
guardian angel for the Syrian regime and its Lebanese agents. He brags
loudly about this mission wherever he goes and whenever he delivers a speech,
gives a statement or even engages in private conversations. He has not only
allied himself with Hezbollah and adopted its Iranian- Syrian schemes for
Lebanon, but he has become an umbrella that gathers under its shade the rest
of the pro-Syrian Lebanese officials, parties and politicians from all
categories of Arabists and fundamentalists.
Among those new allies and comrades are his previous
worst enemies, President General Lahoud, Dr. Salim Al Hoss, the three Syrian
notorious mouthpieces in Lebanon, Ex MP Nasser Kandiel, Ex MP Elie Ferzli,
and ex Minister Weam Wahab, and the list goes on and on.
The puzzling question that all of General Aoun's
intellectual supporters are sadly asking: Isn't he himself who stated
loudly in hundreds of statements, interviews, articles, testimonies lecture(
many of them in the USA), that Syria through its agents has engineered and
executed three assignations against him personally?
One wonders what has happened to this big leader's
credibility and memory after his return to Lebanon in May 2005 after 16
years of exile in France.
How could he even think that the Lebanese people will
buy his fishy and questionable endeavors to label the Syrian regime and its
Lebanese agents as pure and innocent? How could he simply expect that they
should not be automatically tagged as main suspects in any crime,
assassination attempt, booby-trapped vehicles or any sort of chaos in
Lebanon.
Isn't he the same man who, all through eighteen years,
has been building his popularity and reputation on courageously exposing
their evil and criminal terrorist roles?
No the Lebanese people are not that naive and their
memory is extremely vivid; they can not forget that Syria has occupied their
country for almost thirty years, destroyed its institutions, stole its
fortunes, forced its youth to emigration, messed with its delicate
demographic balance, enslaved, persecuted, kidnapped, imprisoned and killed
thousands and thousands of innocent civilians.
How can they forget that Hezbollah, Lebanon's major
threat, was and still is, nurtured, sponsored and used by Syria and Iran?
In this editorial the focus will be on the text of a
lecture the General delivered at The Foundation For the Defense of
Democracies-Washington DC, March 7, 2003 in the realm of his political
advocacy campaign to convince the US Congress to pass the "Syria
Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003".
The main aims of this piece are:
1- To rationally and objectively compare between what
General Aoun stated and preached in that lecture, and what he has since
delivered and practiced in real life and with whom he has been forging
alliances.
2- A genuine and conscientious review of General Aoun's
platforms, declared national convictions, promises, statements, practices
and alliances in two separate eras, the first one while he was in power as
PM (1988-1990) and in exile for 16 years (1991-2005), and the second one
since his return to Lebanon on May/7/2005.
For 18 years he proudly and courageously carried
Lebanon's cause of freedom, sovereignty, human rights, liberation and the
Lebanese Christians’ attachment to the Land of the Cedars. His struggle was
successful and was crowned by Lebanon's liberation from the Syrian
occupation in early 2005. But sadly and to the surprise of many of his
supporters, especially among his own Christian community, he suddenly turned
against all his declared convictions, negated all his long time documented
platforms, abandoned all his previous pro-state sovereignty stances, sided
with Hezbollah and with all the rest of the pro-Syrian Lebanese officials,
parties and politicians. His only focus became merely the presidency post,
and accordingly he resorted to manipulation, propaganda, demagogy and
denominational instigation tactics. He fell under the false belief that the
Lebanese people in general and the Christians in particular will blindly
walk his heretic tracks and swallow his new political choices that are in
sharp contrast to their 1,500-year recent history, conscience, values and
nationalism. He has ignored the solid fact that the Lebanese patriotic cause
makes the Leaders and not otherwise. He has selectively forgotten that the
GREAT Lebanese people are not only great in love, sacrifices, sincerity,
devotion, love to their country, longing for freedom and human rights, but
also great in accountability, questioning, and judgment when they sense that
the leaders and politicians they trusted have betrayed that trust. They
adopt harsh opposition stances towards those who underestimate their
intelligence, do not honor the sacrifices of their martyrs and overstep in
their political practices the boundaries of safeguarding their country's
independence, sovereignty, identity and freedoms.
3- Remind the General who enjoyed our full support for
many years, as well as other Lebanese politicians and leaders, in particular
those of the Christian community, that their national duty and obligation is
to serve both their country and people and not vice-versa. To put him on
notice too that the people’s mandate given to him during the last
parliamentary election is revocable at any time. Meanwhile only the Lebanese
people are the custodians of the Lebanese cause and defendants. Leaders who
drift away from the cause are exposed and not elected again. In this realm,
Saint Peter has said: "If I wanted to cajole and appease the people’s status
and ranks, I would not have been a servant for Jesus Christ".
4-Send a bold message and a notice to all Lebanon's
leaders and politicians, in particular the Christians, that their Lebanese
communities honor freedom, democracy and human rights. They should know that
their people are not sheep that can be led blindly to slaughterhouses, and
definitely not a kind of a merchandise offered in the markets for trade and
for wheeling and dealing. They should never ever forget that the Lebanese
people are intelligent, political well informed and, when the need arises,
they can be very harsh in accountability. They are the main power that
chooses the country's legislatures as well as its political leaders.
Meanwhile, the people are also the power that revokes mandates given to
politicians and withdraws the trust granted to them when they derail from
declared and promised platforms.
5- Desensitize our own people in regards to
constructive critiques and at the same time helping them to be more tolerant
and patient to peaceful and intellectual opposition. Encourage them to
practice accountability in its widest boundaries with each and every
politician and leader. No leader should at any time take the people for
granted and confiscate their free decision making process
Below are selective excerpts from the Text of General
Michel Aoun's Lecture that he delivered (en English) at the Foundation For
the Defense of Democracies- Washington DC, March 7, 2003. Below the excerpts
a set of the writer's short comment related to what the General has been
preaching since 1998 and what actually he has been delivering during the
last 17 months.
A) Aoun: "It is both a privilege and a pleasure for me to participate in
this symposium, where we can together think out loud about some of the most
important subjects of our time, namely human rights, democracy, economics,
and development. The fate of these issues has become increasingly worrisome
in many regions of the world that are in a state of a global and fateful
confrontation with terrorism. I say “global” because terrorism, by its very
nature, reaches into several aspects of public and private life and knows no
limit, and I say “fateful” because the outcome of this confrontation will
lead to one of two critical directions and set of consequences for human
civilization: either terrorism will be defeated under the leadership of the
United States, and thus a foundation for positive interaction will be built
among diverse societies, or, God forbid, terrorism prevails and humanity
enters into an age of darkness and decline.
B) Aoun: The right to self-determination was in most cases hijacked by
many regimes that adopted or continued dictatorial or theocratic systems of
governance. These regimes rejected the Human Rights Charter, marginalized
their people, and crippled their ability to develop and advance by
engraining in their societies antiquated customs that were inherited from
primitive and backward mentalities. These regimes are today fertile ground
for the sponsorship and incubation of terrorism, and the use of it as a
strategic instrument of influence in their foreign policies.
C) Aoun: Lebanon, a small country by size but much larger in mission, was
the first victim of terrorism. At the end of the sixties, Lebanon, a
multicultural society, began to absorb the shocks of the conflict between
the East and the West. In the early eighties it found itself at the
frontlines of confrontation with Islamic fundamentalists.
As a democracy and free market economy surrounded by autocratic regimes and
directed economies, Lebanon strived to live under its secular and democratic
constitution. I
D) Aoun: These universal values cherished in Lebanon presented a threat
to the single-ideology theocracies and dictatorships that dominated the
region. Lebanon became a target for these regimes which believed it
imperative to kill its pioneering role in the region. At the time, some
regional and international parties believed that some benefit could be drawn
from the demise of Lebanon. They remained silent and refrained from helping
it. The Syrian regime played the major role in this conflict. It first
claimed to protect the Palestinian Revolution against the Lebanese, and so
it allied itself with the Palestinian movement until it was able to
undermine the stability of the Lebanese society and destroy the country’s
security institutions. At that point, it changed direction and claimed to
protect Lebanon from the Palestinians, and it legitimized its entry into the
country under the banner of the Arab Deterrence Force in 1976.
Between 1976 and 1982, the Arab Deterrence Force was under the authority
of the Lebanese President, but the Syrian contingent – which was the largest
– operated independently of the other contingents and of the President. The
Syrians shelled the residential areas and carried out massacres; they
imposed censorship on the press and began shutting down some of the media.
They assassinated politicians, clergymen, reporters and diplomats. They
bombed embassies and chased out virtually all diplomatic missions from
Beirut. They kidnapped people, both individuals and groups, and liquidated
them. They incited massacres in some areas of the country and executed
military prisoners. Many Lebanese nationals remain incarcerated in Syrian
jails even as we speak.
For all these reasons, the other Arab contingents of the Deterrence Force
left Lebanon, and the Syrian regime managed to achieve an exclusive solid
grip over the majority of Lebanon. The Syrian regime transformed Lebanon
into a refuge and a breeding ground for all types of international terrorist
groups operating in areas under its control. It was in this environment that
a massive drug cultivation, processing, and distribution industry prospered,
and the Lebanese coast became peppered with illicit harbors controlled by
various militias that used them as a launching pad for terrorist activities
and other illegal activities.
E) Aoun: In 1982, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon evicted the PLO from
Beirut. The Lebanese government abolished the mandate of the Arab Deterrence
Force and requested Syria to withdraw its forces. However, the Syrian regime
ignored the Lebanese request in violation of UN Charter, and instead of
withdrawing it re-armed the Palestinian organizations and its allied
militias and political parties in Lebanon. This caused a return to the
situation that preceded the Israeli invasion, namely military clashes,
kidnappings and killings. It was at that time that the embassies of the
United States and France were bombed, twice each by the Syrian protected and
supported terrorists, and that the French and American contingents of the
Multi-National Force were attacked.
The Multi-National Force withdrew in the aftermath of these suicide attacks,
leaving Lebanon to confront its fate alone. Syria then forced Lebanon to
abrogate the May 1983 Accord that Lebanon had negotiated with Israel. Israel
pulled back to the border zone, and Syria returned to its task of gnawing,
destabilizing and disintegrating Lebanon. This period climaxed with the
Syrian invasion of the last free bastion in Lebanon on October 13, 1990 and
the resulting eviction of the constitutional government. Syria had thus
completed its takeover of Lebanon.
F) Aoun: The Syrian regime has all but eliminated Lebanon from the
international political map. It has halted all bilateral negotiations
between Israel and Lebanon, thus bypassing the bilateral nature of peace
negotiations. It rendered the prospect of peace between Lebanon and Israel
contingent upon the dragging and slow process of the Syrian track with
Israel. It forced the Lebanese government to submit to its will and not
implement UN resolution 426 which calls for the deployment of Lebanese Army
Forces alongside the United Nations Forces following Israel’s implementation
of resolution 425 and its withdrawal from South Lebanon. On the issue of the
Shebaa Farms, the Syrian regime created a pretext not to disarm its allied
militias, which it has used to maintain tensions at the Lebanese southern
borders and terrorize those Lebanese citizens demanding the withdrawal of
the Syrian army from Lebanese soil.
G) Aoun: It is difficult to understand how Syria could have in the first
place marketed itself to the world as a stability factor in Lebanon, when
the reality is that it has subverted and destroyed that stability! We are
at a loss to understand how the world allows Syria to remain in Lebanon when
Syria has failed to meet any of its commitments!
H) Aoun: Syria has created restricted zones inside Lebanon where security
forces are not allowed. These areas, primarily the Palestinian camps, have
become shelters for terrorists and the heroes of organized crime where
radical Islamic organizations thrive, and where sectarian hate-crimes
against Christians and others opposed to this lawlessness continue to take
place. For example,
On July 31, 2002, an employee at the Teachers Mutual Insurance Fund in
Beirut killed eight of his fellow employees and injured another six. He
admitted to the judge that his attack was religiously motivated.
On November 25, 2002, an American missionary was assassinated in Sidon. The
crime was attributed to a religious motive having to do with her missionary
work.
On December 30, 2002, in one of the Lebanese Army barracks, an enlisted
soldier opened fire on five of his fellow soldiers in their sleep killing
one and injuring four. Subsequent investigation revealed that he was
attending religious course at a Koranic madrassa inside one of the camps,
where he allegedly learned that the killing of Christians and Jews would set
him on the road to paradise.
I) Aoun: This brief overview of the situation in Lebanon is a reflection
of the larger context of the region. Its roots are ideological, economical,
and psychological. And if we are to manage the present state of affairs and
avert future mistakes, we must address these roots. If we examine the
origin of terrorists, it is evident that they come from states and countries
with dictatorial and theocratic regimes that do not recognize or respect
human rights. A second point is the religious dimension of the suicide
operation considered as martyrdom that opens the gates of paradise to those
committing it. The autocrats, whether theocrats or dictators will not admit
any wrongdoing because theocrats consider that divine law is infallible and
dictators will not admit that their ideological discourse is at fault. In
both cases, these autocrats pre-empt the people’s quest for the reasons
behind their failure by shifting responsibility on their political opponents
whose liquidation becomes justified, or on external enemies to which the
people’s hostility is channeled, thus shielding the autocrats from it.
J) Aoun: If we are to effectively fight terrorism, we have to understand
that it is inseparable from the regimes that harbor it. Terrorism is an
internal safety valve for these regimes and a key instrument of their
foreign policy applied as blackmail to others. Therefore, the eradication of
terrorism must by necessity begin with the toppling of non-democratic
regimes that teach people to hate and kill and that push people to acts of
suicide. Only democratic regimes that respect human rights can provide
individuals with the opportunity for positive self-fulfillment, free from
hatred and violence. This is accomplished by guaranteeing their freedom of
speech and creed, and by holding them personally responsible and accountable
for their behavior, both in this world and the after-world.
K) Aoun: Indeed, democracy is not an infrastructure that one builds in
few months. It is not a topography that one draws on paper. And it cannot
be achieved through a simple voting exercise. It is first and foremost an
education of concepts. This is why any regime change must be accompanied by
a fundamental change in the system of education to facilitate the learning
of new concepts and applying them to public life. Democracy cannot survive
in the same environment as schools that call for the annihilation of others.
It is no longer sufficient to denounce the crime and arrest the criminal. We
must close the schools that are teaching the criminals.
L) Aoun: Lebanon’s experiment with democracy started in 1926 when the
constitution of the first Lebanese Republic was declared. That constitution
was secular in its letter and spirit, and was inspired from the Third French
Republic. The Lebanese immersed themselves in constitutional governance
under the French Mandate until they gained their independence in 1943. Following
World War II and the end of the French Mandate, the Lebanese practiced
democracy as a sovereign nation; adding to their written secular
constitution an unwritten National Pact of power-sharing between the
country’s constituent communities. Lebanon became a founding member of the
United Nations. Yet today, it is the only country in the world that remains
under occupation.
M) Aoun: I am personally convinced that the return of free democracy to
Lebanon is also the return of the true image of the United Sates of America.
This will pay genuine homage to the memory of the fallen Americans who gave
their lives for the defense of freedom and democracy in Lebanon. They came
to Lebanon for peace and real peace must be achieved; God bless their souls.
Below is this writer's short
comments related to what the General has been preaching since 1998 and what
actually he has been delivering during the last 17 months.
Unfortunately and sadly while the General has based his whole lecture on
Syria's destructive role not only in Lebanon, but in the whole region
through sponsoring, financing, harboring and using terrorist groups, he and
since his return to Lebanon in May 2005 has forged an alliance with
Hezbollah and all pro Syrian Lebanese politicians, officials and parties.
Aoun has made Hezbollah's disarmament conditional with what he and Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah call the “strong, fair and resisting Lebanese state”, an
anti-Israel defense strategy, and tied it with the fate of the Palestinian
armed militias stationed in the 13 Palestinian refuge camps in Lebanon. (The
Lebanese Government does not have kind of control and authority over these
camps). In contrast, in his advocacy in the US, he called for a complete
separation between Lebanon and the Arab Israeli Conflict.
Aoun has adopted Hezbollah's military doctrine in regards to its "Divine
Victory" in the last Israeli-Hezbollah devastating war, as well as the
organization's opposing and cautious stance on the UNIFIL forces mandate,
its deployment areas, and its military engagement rules. He has even adopted
their rejection for the deployment of the UNIFIL on the Syrian-Lebanese
borders.
At the present time, he has joined forces with Hezbollah and all the
pro-Syrian Lebanese politicians and parties in a bid to topple the Saniora
Government and accordingly give Syria and Iran through their Lebanese allies
and militias an upper hand and control on the country’s government. He is
threatening, along with Hezbollah and the rest of the Syrian-Iranian
sponsored Lebanese parties, to forcibly achieve this aim through ongoing
demonstrations and sit-ins.
Aoun has backed off on all the kind of advocacy that he presented in his
lecture at the
Foundation For the Defense of Democracies as well to all that he has
delivered in testimony in front of the US HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS in September 18, 2003.
He is now appeasing and cajoling the Syrian regime, embracing Hezbollah
and all the pro-Syrian Lebanese politicians and parties. He has reached a
state where openly and boldly he is refusing all accusations to the Syrian
regime and its Lebanese agents in regards to 14 horrible crimes that Syria
executed in Lebanon during the last two years among which the assassination
of ex-late PM Rafic Hariri, while he himself for the last 16 years has been
alleging that Syria and its Lebanese agents have attempted to assassinate
him three times, destroyed the country, kidnapped, murdered, and committed
in cold blood each and every atrocity ever heard of.
He has reached a state of extreme hypocrisy when he, in a TV interview,
even stated that his own party does not have any detainees in Syria, while
he has in too many documented speeches and lectures claimed that his party
initially was created more than 20 years ago among soldiers and officers.
(His FPM party was officially licensed this year)
In his lecture he spoke about education of concepts and stated that any
regime change must be accompanied by a fundamental change in the system of
education to facilitate the learning of new concepts and applying them to
public life. He also bragged that democracy cannot survive in the same
environment as schools that call for the annihilation of others. The irony
here lies in the fact that these schools in Lebanon are located in the
cantons of the General's new allies and in particular in areas that are
completely under Hezbollah's military control. Apparently the General has
been hit with a selective kind of amnesia to forget his own words: "It is no
longer sufficient to denounce the crime and arrest the criminal. We must
close the schools that are teaching the criminals".
In his lecture, the General gave the US a leading role in fighting
terrorism, yet he has allied himself with the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah axis
of evil. In the lecture he said: "I say ‘global’ because terrorism, by its
very nature, reaches into several aspects of public and private life and
knows no limit, and I say ‘fateful’ because the outcome of this
confrontation will lead to one of two critical directions and set of
consequences for human civilization: either terrorism will be defeated under
the leadership of the United States, and thus a foundation for positive
interaction will be built among diverse societies, or, God forbid, terrorism
prevails and humanity enters into an age of darkness and decline". One
wonders if the man is the same man at all and one actually questions his
motives for such a drastic change of both doctrines and tactics!!
N.B: To read the complete text of General Michel Aoun's
Lecture (subject of this editorial) that he delivered (en English) at the
Foundation For the Defense of Democracies-
Washington DC, March 7, 2003,
CLICK HERE
To read the Arabic Translation
CLICK
HERE
3- General Michel Aoun: Broken Promise & Blemished Record
By: Elias Bejjani
LCCC
Chairman
November 4/06
All through their 7,000 years of struggle and deep-rooted history, rich
culture, and radiant civilization, the Lebanese people have never ever
surrendered to despair or lost hope in safeguarding their beloved Lebanon
and carrying it always to resurrection and to a new life again and again
after each and every agony. They have always believed in themselves and
maintained their unshakable faith and hope and trust in Almighty God no
matter what hardships they encountered.
Hundreds of occupiers, tyrants, invaders and barbarians conquered their
country, the Land of the Holy Cedars, all through history, but ultimately
all these foreign powers were forced to leave with defeat and humiliation.
Meanwhile, they miraculously turned each and every difficulty to their own
country's advantage that rose alive from the ashes victorious exactly like
the phoenix bird. No power was able to kill or even tame the Lebanese
people's love for peace, their longing for freedom and solid belief in human
rights and democracy.
Last year another occupier, the Syrian Baathist, was forced to withdraw
from Lebanon after thirty savage years of occupation, persecution, merciless
destruction and murder on all levels. In the aftermath of liberation, many
Lebanese patriotic leaders and citizens returned from exile, while others
were freed from imprisonment. General Michel Aoun, an ex-Army Commander and
Prime Minister who spearheaded the liberation struggle during his 16 years
of forced exile returned as a great hero, while the majority of the Lebanese
people in general and the Lebanese Christian communities in particular
envisaged him as a saving leader. They fully supported him and invested in
his platform of advocacy, promises, and salvation plans. To their
disappointment, and merely a few months after his return, Aoun gave them the
cold shoulder, turned on all his convictions, changed skin and walked a
political and national track that totally negated all that he stood for
since 1988.
In a series of editorials, I am endeavoring, from my position as one of his
previous staunchest supporters in the Diaspora to honestly and fairly expose
the man's questionable and confusing change to the Lebanese people. I
intend to shed light on his record in all domains and on all levels (promises,
convictions, and platform) while in exile and after his heroic return to
Lebanon.
Readers' responses to the previous three editorials that I have already
published were numerous, colorful and educational. They ranged between
extreme approval, appreciation, opposition, denouncement and accusations.
But what was almost common among the majority of the readers responses is
their question: "if you say General Aoun is not worthy of our loyalty and
trust any more, then who is the substitute, what are our other options, we
do not trust his opponents?" My answer to all of them was and remains: "You
are the substitute, you made Aoun what he became, and you can no doubt help
new leaders and political parties to emerge. You can, and should, freely
pick the leaders and parties that genuinely speak your minds, empathize with
your pains, suffering, hopes and aspirations. In many of my answers I quoted
Saint Luke 13,18-21: "Then he said, "What is the kingdom of God like? To
what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a person took and
planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and
'the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.'" Again he said, "To what shall
I compare the kingdom of God? It is like the yeast that a woman took and
mixed (in) with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough
was leavened."
My dear Lebanese people in both Lebanon and the Diaspora, you are the seed,
you are the yeast. Do not fall prey to the already made and tailored choices
for
you. Trust yourselves, witness for the truth and work on your own choices.
Chose freedom, human rights, equality, democracy and, most importantly,
never
abandon your national, ethical and moral convictions. Support and side with
your Lebanon's deeply rooted cause and only the leaders who honor this
cause.
In this editorial I will dissect General Aoun’s testimony to the US
congress House Subcommittee on International Affairs given on 9/18/2003. It
is an extremely valuable factual testimony which sheds light on the
constants of the Christian Lebanese conscience and the suffering of Lebanon,
the Home of the Cedars, and its people. It is a documented record for all
Lebanon's pains, agony, dimensions and causes, and specifically as it
pertains to the destructive role of the Syrian regime in the murder of the
Lebanese state, entity, identity, economy, peace and coexistence for three
decades, as well as the criminal missions the Syrian regime has assigned to
its Lebanese and Palestinian agents and puppets including terrorist and
fundamentalist groups, Mafias, money sharks, politicians and parties,
officials and all symbols of its Hitlerian thirty years occupation of
Lebanon.
I do not exaggerate, when I state in clear conscience, that this testimony,
this covenant, shows verbatim the Parisian General Aoun before Lebanon's
liberation in
all his dimensions of steadiness, honesty, integrity, struggle, and vigor.
It shows the qualities that made him the first leader par excellence in the
Lebanese
Christian society, which granted him its full support, trust, and love. All
these attributes and the public affirmations of constants made him the
General that I
personally supported with full conviction. Me, the Lebanese living in the
Diaspora since 1966. I strongly defended his platform, struggle and thesis
and preached them truthfully and staunchly for 16 years on a daily basis.
This Parisian General carried the heavy burdens of the Lebanese cause,
which manifested itself in the understanding of many through him, until he
delivered the cause to the beaches of Liberation, and returned as a hero to
a liberated Lebanon last year to start a new phase of his political
activity. A phase that sadly negated and blemished his entire record of
achievements. To the surprise of many of his supporters he turned into an
ally and a cover for the Shiite Hezbollah organization and all the parties
and politicians who were Syria's agents and tools of occupation and
persecution all through its 30 years of occupation of Lebanon, including the
Lebanese Syrian made and appointed president, General Lahoud.
However, and with the same truthfulness and transparency, I, myself, and
many other Lebanese activists in Lebanon and the Diaspora who had supported
the General all through his exile years all decided in faith and conviction
to peacefully, publicly and democratically oppose him strongly due to the
fact that we consider that he has changed his direction, sided with
Hezbollah and all of Syria's Lebanese made politicians, officials, militias
and political parties. In our measure of constants, propositions, alliances,
truthfulness, and practices, we cannot relate anymore to this man. He is not
the General that we knew and supported. He is a new man in both conduct and
speech. Meanwhile he has become quite disconnected in organizational
matters, and in the manner of relationships with others, especially with his
supporters who now oppose him and do not see righteousness, prudence or
wisdom in his new political choices and stances.
The General's testimony to the American Congress contradicts all his new
post exile positions and actions, practices and goals, constants and
promises, thesis and alliances. It clearly shows that he has turned a blind
eye, a cold shoulder, a numbed conscience and a deaf ear to all matters,
issues, principles, aims and beliefs that he defended and advocated since
1988 until his return last year to Lebanon, including his identifying the
participants and conspirators against Lebanon's freedom by their names
without any compromises or sweet talk, and most importantly his witnessing
for the truth, and the willful detachment from all individual interests and
personal gain.
Therefore, our people who are shocked by the General’s contradiction of his
own thesis, see in this testimony, a judicial case that comprises numerous
potential charges on whose basis they request to hold him accountable in
front of the Christian Lebanese conscience court. Charges that include the
breaking of
promises, the reneging of the cause and identity, the alliance with the
enemies of peace, freedom, and democracy, the joining of the Syrian-Iranian
Axis of
Evil, and the incitement of his followers towards objectives
un-comprehended by the people.
One wonders, is there truly any justification to the General's current path
which is contradictory to his history and struggle and all that he preached
since 1988?
Does he really believe that the Lebanese people, including and all his other
fervent previous supporters are naive, superficial, and ignorant, and their
vision blinded to the level that they fail to understand his newly adopted
objectives and goals?
Let us recall some of the new General's
puzzling and bizarre positions on the current unfolding events, and then
read carefully in the text of the testimony to see the deadly contradictions.
We can only sadly become bewildered and ask ourselves the following
questions
1- Was the General's statement wise when he recently declared publicly
that Syria is now in Syria, and that all problems between Lebanon and Syria
can simply be resolved over a cup of coffee in Damascus with Syria's
president Bashar Assad? And what about the General’s below statements in the
testimony:
A) Following a Syrian withdrawal, it is quite conceivable that the Syrian
regime will leave behind many of its instruments of terror and destruction
as well as its paramilitary/intelligence apparatus. Therefore, it is
imperative that Syrian withdrawal be accompanied by a complete disarmament
of all armed elements. Only the legitimate armed forces of Lebanon can be
entrusted with providing security to the Lebanese people. They are certainly
capable of doing so when provided with a strong political leadership duly
elected by the Lebanese themselves, rather than appointed by an occupying
power as is the case today.
B) Like an organized crime syndicate which uses fear, intimidation, and
violence as instruments of pressure to buy silence from otherwise good and
honorable
people, the Syrian regime uses these terrorist organizations as instruments
of pressure in a foreign policy strategy that has earned for Syria a "no
questions asked" attitude from the free world with regard to its occupation
of Lebanon and its persecution of the Lebanese people.
2- Is the General’s recent statement true, when he declared that the
criminal repercussions on the Syrian regime disappeared after the withdrawal
of its troops
from Lebanon, and since then the Lebanese government has become the
responsible party? But what about his testimony statements:
A) Equally important, Lebanon will need certified tribunals to investigate
and bring to justice all criminals who committed war atrocities and crimes
against humanity.
B) Two Lebanese presidents-both of whom can be accurately described as
unwilling to take their orders from the Syrian intimidators-were
assassinated
immediately upon their elections.
C) Ambassadors, journalists, and political and religious figures from all
denominations who dared to oppose Syria were kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned,
and/or assassinated. And this is in addition to the tens of thousands of
Lebanese who perished in countless massacres, in months upon months of
random
Syrian artillery shelling of civilian areas, and in countless booby-trapped
and bombed cars.
D) For twenty-seven years, the Syrian Regime has played the role of both
arsonist and firefighter. Syria starts fires in order to give itself a
pretext to extinguish them and thus justify its continuing occupation of
Lebanon. And any Lebanese who dares to expose or resist Syria's hegemony is
simply eliminated. Syria's occupation of Lebanon has been detrimental and
costly to both American and Lebanese interests in five major ways.
E) First, Syria's hegemony over Lebanon has turned the country into a
fertile ground and safe haven for terrorism. In the 1970s and 1980s, Lebanon
was the
first victim of Syrian terrorism. And this was one of the main reasons in
1978 to list Syria as the first terrorist country on the US Department of
State list
of terrorist states. Back then, Hizballah and Hamas did not even exist.
F) Under Syrian occupation the human rights of the Lebanese people have
been systematically violated. An exhaustive description of the crimes
committed by the Syrian Regime and its goons in Lebanon would take thousands
of pages and dozens of hearings.
2- Is it true what the General presently alleges in regards to his current
allies: (a) They are pure and honest Lebanese. (b) They are only friends
with Syria
while their decision making process is free and independent? Aren’t they the
same people who were called by him as “Syrian Instruments”? Wasn't he who
said in the testimony:
A) One cannot rationally dissociate the Syrian regime from terrorism.
Syria provides safe haven for a myriad of terrorist organizations, directs
their operations,
and uses occupied Lebanon as their main field of training and operation.
B) Most puzzling and frustrating for the Lebanese people is that there
are supporters of the Syrian Regime in positions of authority, both in
Lebanon and
in the U.S., who assert that Syria provides an element of stability in
Lebanon. These supporters turn a blind eye to the fact that Lebanon has
become unstable only as a result of Syrian hegemony over it. Today, the
Lebanese-Israeli Border is a lit fuse that can erupt into a regional war at
anytime. And why this present
state of affairs?
3- Isn’t it true that Syria and its instruments who have attempted to
assassinate the General himself three times are the same parties behind the
assassination of Lebanon's late PM Rafic Hariri, and behind the bloody
series of assassinations and explosions during the last two years, since the
attempted assassination of cabinet member Marwan Hamade and until today?
Aren't these the same allies of the General today? Let us recall two
statements in his testimony:
A) Let us not forget that Syria's proxies in Lebanon were responsible for
attacks against the American Embassy and the Marine compound costing
hundreds of
Lebanese and American lives.
B) One cannot rationally dissociate the Syrian regime from terrorism. Syria
provides safe haven for a myriad of terrorist organizations, directs their
operations,
and uses occupied Lebanon as their main field of training and operation.
4- Is what appeared in the General’s testimony in regards to the
principle of state, sovereignty, independence, and security, compatible with
the links that he has established between the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons,
the Palestinian weapons, the strong Lebanese state, and the public consensus
about a newly developed Lebanese defense strategy? Does he remember what he
loudly uttered in his testimony?:
A) Lebanon has been carrying an enormous burden as a consequence of the
prolonged Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Lebanese cause is a cause in and
of
itself. It is not and should not be linked to the resolution of any regional
or global conflict or crisis. Lebanon, alone, is a legitimate and pressing
issue by every standard of international law.
B) Only the legitimate armed forces of Lebanon can be entrusted with
providing security to the Lebanese people.
5- One wonders if the General, through his close alliance with Hezbollah,
the armed militia of the Axis of Evil in Lebanon, and through his
questionable stances in regards to the UNIFIL forces deployed in the South,
is now showing his gratitude for both President Bush and the American people
who through both their houses of Congress passed the "Syria Accountability
and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003"?
Does he so easily dismiss his below testimony statements:
A) I come before you today to urge you to be true to America's nature, to
aid those aspiring to freedom, to strike a blow to terrorism, and vote to
pass the Syria
Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003.
B) It is an honor for me to bring you the voice of the Lebanese people; a
people longing for freedom and suffering under occupation. I have come here
today to
convey their gratitude for your initiative in introducing the Syria
Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, and to urge the
immediate
passage of this bill into law. This piece of prospective legislation is
crucial, as it establishes for the first time a clear United States policy
regarding Syria's occupation of Lebanon.
C) Lebanon must be saved, because it is right to save Lebanon; a nation
which cherishes American principles and human values that we all believe in.
To save
Lebanon is to lend credence to what President Bush declared in his speech on
September 11, 2002 and I quote:
"We will use our position of unparalleled strength and influence to build an
atmosphere of international order and openness in which progress and liberty
can
flourish in many nations. A peaceful world of growing freedom serves
American long-term interests, reflects enduring American ideals and unites
America's allies."
All that I request from the Lebanese partisans, and specifically the
supporters of General Aoun, with many of whom I have deep friendship, mutual
respect, and
history of common struggle, to make a rational and calm reading, without
pre-judgment, pre-conceptions, or emotional justifications, to the General’s
testimony, and then compare it in the same framework with the truthfulness
of his present practices, alliances, positions, and thesis since his return
from exile, and specifically since his return from his unsuccessful visit to
the United States in the Fall of 2005.
To read the actual General Aoun's English tesimony the subject of this
critique CLICK HERE
To read its Arabic translation CLICK HERE
To read my first critique in the series CLICK HERE
2-General Michel
Aoun's Questionable Sincerity !!
By: Elias
Bejjani
LCCC Chairman
October 29/06
Lebanese MP Walid Khoury, a member of the "Reform & Change Parliamentary
Bloc", headed by MP, General Michel Aoun, claimed last on Saturday October
21/06, through "Radio Free Liban", that general Aoun had accepted the "Taef
Accord", and that his only objection pertained to the absence of any
schedule for Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon. In a call to the program,
I pointed out the untruthfulness of this claim which takes lightly the
Lebanese people’s intelligence and insults their memory. Mr. khoury’s claim
is a scandalous attempt to sap sacrifices and contributions, and a clear
negation of constants and facts. As to the documented truth, General Aoun's
cabinet had opposed the "Taef Accord" and rejected it for more reasons than
the withdrawal schedule. Although General Aoun then stressed this point in a
series of letters, one of them sent to the French President. The Arab
delegate, Mr. Lakhdar Ibrahimi, had explained to General Aoun and his
military transitional government with extreme frankness that what had been
decided in Taef-Saudi Arabia could not be modified - not even a comma - in
any fashion neither regionally nor internationally.
General Aoun, Pierre Rafoul, Minister Brigadier Issam Abou Jamra, Colonel
Fayez Karam, myself and numerous other Lebanese writers, politicians, and
nationalists have all published tens of articles, reports and studies
addressing numerous clauses rejected in the accord, among them the
overlapping of jurisdictions and their distribution with disregard to the
posts, the marginalization of the President of the Republic, the lack of a
mechanism to dissolve Parliament, the Arab identity, and many other issues.
General Aoun originally, and prior to his return from exile, never
recognized the legitimacy nor the legality of the accord along with all its
consequences and the regime that emerged from it. I will dedicate a future
article on the "Taef Accord" and present all the evidence that corroborate
my
statement.
Let General Aoun himself answer MP Dr. Walid Khoury, who, as far as I know,
was never a recognized Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) activist neither in
Lebanon nor in the Diaspora, that is until the last parliamentary elections.
General Aoun’s answer to MP Khoury can be found in an article General Aoun
himself published on 7/7/2001, under the titled “The guilt complex”:
“To all who claim that
Taef is a good accord that has been badly implemented, we reiterate that it
is a bad agreement that has been well implemented. Its damages have exceeded
all expectations. It is time for those who used Taef as a cover for their
political mistakes to have some courage and acknowledge that they have
committed a taboo, and all Lebanon’s calamities are the consequences of this
so-called Taef accord, after it pushed Lebanon towards extinction. Taef gave
us a paralyzed political system in constant need of an arbitrator in order
to make this contraption named the Troika function.”
Since General Aoun (the one that resides now in Rabiah, Lebanon) is an
“absolute leader”, as observed by MP Abbas Hashem, and since he is the
“primary”
Christian leader according to a warning issued by MP Ibrahim Kanaan to his
colleague MP Walid Jumblat lately, and since the FPM (Free Patriotic
Movement Party) has duplicated the Stalinist and Hitlarian style in its
rehabilitation/educational and doctrinal boot camps for its members, we
suggest that these sessions should include the FPM MPs, especially to those
who have been camped since 1990 on the opposite side, and all the transients
who joined the FPM through the Internet and PALTALK chat rooms!! What is
actually sad is that the vast majority of them were completely detached and
distanced from the FPM struggle and platforms. All of these decorated new
members were in general barricaded in hidden posts, far from view, waiting
to determine the winning side before joining in.
The credibility of any leader, politician, or activist in the public domain
is in his persistence in action and thesis. It also depends on his respect
of his own word and actions. And most importantly, not to cut corners in the
service of personal interests and greed, or hatred and psychological
complexes. The people who supported General Aoun and saw in him the
qualifications and idea of a leader and savior, did not do so for his
personal characteristics, but rather for national ones, including the
destiny, identity, aspirations, and hopes for a free, sovereign, and
independent homeland. We all gathered around him because he was the son of
Lebanon's well respected military institution, and because he promised to
safeguard the state and its legitimacy in security, justice, and rights in
an era where Lebanese politicians in general became Syrianized (Syrian
puppets) and traders in deals and compromises.
Any Lebanese citizen in the homeland or the Diaspora who lost a loved one in
any of General Aoun’s numerous military battles, or anyone who supported him,
or
struggled for the liberation of the nation under the general’s leadership
during the occupation years, or any political or rights activist who
collaborated with him, or a citizen who voted for FPM members of parliament
in the last election, they all have the right to question, doubt, and hold
General Aoun accountable without being tagged with treason. More importantly,
critical thinking should not be simplified to accusing people who disagree
with the General's current stances and political choices of having deserted
to the opposing political groups.
I have clarified in a previous article this matter and will reaffirm again:
“ I, the Lebanese Canadian who REFUSED by free will and conviction to join
the FPM Lebanese Party (declared last year after the return of General Aoun
from exile), I also refuse to join any other Lebanese political party as
long as I am residing in Canada. Here, I am a Canadian citizen bound by all
the obligations of citizenship and my first allegiance is to Canada. And
when I join a party, it will have to be a Canadian, and not Lebanese party.
As to my patriotic duty as Canadian-Lebanese, it is to help my motherland
Lebanon with all my strengths and means, but within the frame of all
Canadian laws and
within civic, legal, and ethical boundaries. By doing so I stress my willful
integration in Canadian society and avoid any acts of alienation within it.
I have an obligation like the rest of the Canadians to be foremost loyal to
Canada, my country, and practice politics through its democratic system.
The many responses I received after publishing the first part of this
series, "Your General In Rabiah, Mine in Paris" varied in theme and style,
and I have answered all readers, and will allocate a future article on this
topic since it is the result of a Lebanese condition that requires a lot of
study and lessons learned.
In this second part entitled the focus will be on a set of astonishing
contradictions in General Aoun's stances, advocacy, allies, arguments,
convictions etc, as they pertain to who participated in shedding the blood
of the innocent Lebanese people on October 13,1990, as well as what relates
to the General's declared concepts in regards to a strong Lebanese state and
army, in addition to his interpretations of the civil war during his exile
years, and how he totally changed his skin after returning to Lebanon in the
aftermath of its liberation from the Syrian occupation last year.
Below two paragraphs quoted from a speech delivered by General Aoun on
October 15, 2006:
“I address you to confirm
again, convictions and practices, its base being the truth, honesty,
transparency, courage, and loyalty. Convictions and practices that has
formed the solid foundation and the bright framework to our march and
struggle in defense of Lebanon, a final nation for all its children, and in
defense of its sacred right to sovereignty, freedom, and independence”
“The Lebanese people were
defeated that day and lost the battle. In that day, also fell the human
values and principles of human rights, and the 13th of October remained in
our conscience as dignity of the losers and the disgrace of the winners. It
was a historical shame that cannot be erased, an imprint on the forehead of
all those who stayed as spectators on the sidelines… It was a crime
perpetrated by all those who participated in shedding the blood of the
innocent.”
We wonder whether such indictment includes all those who partnered in
shedding the blood including the symbols of that era and among them
Lebanon's North Matn region MP Michel Murr, the prominent member of the
"Reform & Change Parliamentary Bloc", headed by General Aoun. Today, Murr
occupies the big seat next to the General in their weekly bloc meetings.
Isn’t he the same Murr who engineered the Metn last parliamentary election
to his liking? Isn’t he the same person who opposed the General and all
sovereign forces during the previous North Metn By-election when Murr's
daughter Mirna competed with his brother Gabriel and the current North Metn
MP Ghassan Moukheiber who is currently a member in Aoun's parliamentary bloc?
Didn’t the General, and we supported him that day, describe MP Murr in the
worst terms as a puritan describes wine? Isn’t Murr the same man who
oppressed,
arrested, harassed and threatened FPM activists and supporters alike, and
who was behind numerous propaganda campaigns all through the 16 years of
devastating Baathist Syrian occupation of Lebanon?
Do we have the right to recall what Brigadier Nadim Lteif, the General’s
personal representative in Lebanon (while the General was in exile) said
about Michel Murr, and specifically in an interview I conducted with him and
which is published on our LCCC web site during the last municipal elections
in which the FPM participated for the first time? Isn’t MP Murr the one who
instigated and encouraged the shutdown of the MTV television station, his
brother’s media company? The same TV station that had conducted the first
interview with the General while in exile and endured all the negative and
devastating consequences? MTV took the burden, and its owner, Gabriel Murr
saw his parliamentary seat confiscated in a campaign of hate and tyranny.
And yet, how can someone like Michel Murr, who hurt his own brother, be good
to the General with whom, based on their past history, he has nothing in
common.
In an interview I conducted with the General a few years back, we discussed
the accountability after Lebanon's liberation, he stated verbatim:
“On the day
of Lebanon’s liberation, the fate of most symbols of the regime and Syria’s
agents, is the prison, assuming they did not escape the country. As to
Michel Murr, I am certain that he will not succeed in reaching the airport,
and the security forces will be unable to arrest and protect him, because
the people will rush to reach him because of all the harm and humiliation he
brought upon them”.
Some naive Lebanese such as myself wonder how could the General join forces
in his parliamentary bloc with Murr, the man who took a major role in
destroying
Lebanon's delicate denominational demographic balance through nationalizing
Arabs and foreigners alike, and personally in his capacity as Minster
transferred to
the North Metn region, his constituency, the registration of thousands of
Bedouins from the Bekaa in a bid to vote for him. He is the same Syrian
puppet who with cold blood and numbed conscience actively participated in
enacting the famous half-a-million nationalization decree. Meanwhile, and as
odd as Aoun could be and in the same parliamentary bloc he has Keserwan
region MP Nemtallah Abi-Nasr, a Maronite League figure, and the head of
Christian Democrat Party, who continuously brags about his opposition role
and advocacy against the half million nationalization scandal. One really
wonders how this cohabitation is taking place, who enforces it and why?
“Do you know, my
compatriots, that some of those who monopolize power today, and work on
marginalizing you, are the same ones who stood against your will that day,
and marginalized your role, and persisted in humiliating you?
(From General Aoun's speech on October
15, 2006)
Aren’t some of those who planned, executed, and covered the October 13
criminal battle the same who today sit next to the General in his
parliamentary bloc? Isn’t the General allied with many of them and defends
their illegal and terrorist weapons and cantons, their wars, illegitimacy,
policies, and devastating practices among which Hezbollah's July 12
instigated war with Israel?
Wasn’t Lebanon's Syrian-installed current president, General Lahoud, today’s
Aoun ally, the commander of the Lebanese and Syrian forces that executed the
13th of October 1990 massacre?
Didn’t General Lahoud boast for years that he was the one who reconstructed
the Lebanese army and made it a “patriotic” one after liberating it from
confessionals and division in a very blatant incrimination to the years when
General Aoun was the Army commander and acting Prime Minister?
Did General Aoun forget his own demeaning statements before returning from
exile regarding Lahoud's questionable capabilities and patriotism, and his
criminal responsibility for the October 13.1990 bloodshed?
Wasn’t General Aoun himself the source of the comment that the only time
Lahoud deplored the Syrian shelling on Beirut was when the bombs reached the
“Bain
Militaire” denying Lahoud his joy of swimming (his day at the beach).
Didn’t Aoun recount dozens of times mockingly to many of his daily phone
callers his description by the late Lebanese leader Raymond Edde of Lahoud
at his appointment by the Syrian late president Hafez Assad as
“Half-brained, half-sleeves, and half-tongue?”
Who does not recall the writings of General Aoun and many of us, his
supporters including myself, about Lahoud’s pleasure trip to Monte Carlo,
moneys, yacht, and expenses?
I do not believe that General Aoun forgot how much he laid it on Lahoud in
editorials, speeches, news releases, and conversations (all documented) in
terms
of criminal responsibility for covering the October 13, 1990 crime.
Wasn’t General Aoun the one who kept criticizing Lahoud for 16 years and
accused him of dressing like a women to cross the National Museum front into
West Beirut in 1990 to join the Syrians who appointed him Lebanon's Army
Commander, the President of the Republic, and renewed his term despite
nationwide opposition and warnings, including and ahead of all, our General
Aoun?
Has anyone forgotten General Aoun's prophecy in this matter: “If Lahoud's
illegally extended term is renewed, then he will not finish it.” One wonders,
our General has himself broken such prophecy, wonder why?
“Therefore, we had to
meet you, as usual, to be inspired by your solid will and certain
determination, because we, and in every crucial phase of our national life,
we make our decisions inspired by you, free Lebanese, not from the guardians
and rulers, and away from personal interests and inducements, as we reject
any pressure regardless of its strength, especially the one that carries the
seeds of subversion. (from General Aoun's speech on October 15, 2006).
I personally wonder, does General Aoun have any sincerity left so that
the Lebanese people believe what he said in his October 13, 2006 speech?
That matter is left to the awareness and comprehension of the Lebanese
people.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*The lccc
is a Federal umbrella for the following nonprofit municipal, provincial and
federal Canadian registered groups:
Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation, (CLHRF), Canadian Lebanese Free
Patriotic Movement (FPM-Canada), Phoenician Club of Mississauga (PCOM),/Canadian
Phoenician Community Services Club (CPCSC),Canadian Lebanese Christian
Heritage Club (CLCHC),World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU)-Canadian Chapter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M.B: The above editorial is Part II in "Your General in
Rabiah, Mine in Paris series)
|
1-The Lebanese will never forget those who changed their
skin and backed on all promises, covenants and platforms
By: Elias Bejjani
LCCC Chairman
October 16/06
On this 16th anniversary of the terrible massacre committed on October
13, 1990 by the Syrian Baath regime along with Lebanese, regional,
fundamentalist,
and terrorist forces, the Lebanese Canadian Coordination Council (LCCC)
bows in respect and tribute to the souls of the martyrs of the Cedars
nation, military, civilian, and men of religion alike, and to the
thousands of handicapped and injured. We raise our prayers humbly to
Almighty God asking him with the benevolence of Lebanon’s saints Charbel,
Rafqa, and Hardini, to have mercy on the souls of all those who died in
the field of duty. And to nurse the wounds of all sufferers, and for the
return of those forcefully displaced from their homes.
From the LCCC we loudly call for the uncovering of the fate of all
missing and kidnapped Lebanese citizens detained arbitrarily without any
due process in Syrian prisons.For years, Syrian Baath authorities have
denied the detainees' existence and refused to give access to the Red
Cross to their notorious jails. This same criminal stance of denial was,
and still is, adopted by Lebanese officials, politicians, and warlords
from the Syrian occupation era.
What is sad and shocking in the midst of this ongoing human rights
dilemma is the recent position of General Michel Aoun, the Free
Patriotic Movement leader, who for sixteen years was advocating
staunchly for the release of these detainees. The General has recently
adopted the stance of the Syrian authorities and their
Lebanese politician and warlord allies. In a recent TV interview, Aoun
has publicly denied the presence of any of his followers and party
members in the Syrian
jails. His shocking position has raised many bewildering questions and
left a sense of disappointment in regards to what many Lebanese believe
has to do with Aoun's ambition to be Lebanon's next president at any
cost. This outright abandonment could be further understood in Aoun's
newly forged alliance with Hezbollah, with Lebanon's Syrian-appointed
president General Lahoud, the Lebanese Baathist party allied with Syria,
and with the rest of the Lebanese politicians and parties that remain
fully loyal to the Syrian Baath regime. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlPdszrDP2E
Lebanon, the nation that gave the Alphabet and the science of navigation
to the world, and which remained steadfast valiantly and with dignity
for 7,000 years,
is a nation of sacrifices, eternity, and holiness. This nation is proud
of the will of liberation and peaceful resistance, which the Syrian
occupation failed to snuff out, and of the great sacrifices offered by
its free people during those dark long years. This will to freedom was
displayed again in the Cedars Revolution of March 14, 2005 in a popular
expression never before seen in Lebanon’s history.
We salute our heroic martyrs and all the Free Lebanese who fell in
defense of honor, sovereignty, and freedom. Meanwhile, we feel sorry for
those leaders,
politicians and parties who retreated from eighteen years of promises,
covenants and national convictions, and abandoned Lebanon's righteous
and just cause of
sovereignty, freedom and independence. It is sad that they changed their
positions with unconvincing rationale and excuses. There is no doubt
that they
will be exposed sooner or later, and then there will be tears and
gnashing of teeth.
Background
On October 13, 1990 the Syrian Army savagely
invaded the last remaining free regions of Lebanon, killed and mutilated
hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and innocent citizens in cold blooded
murder, kidnapped tens of soldiers, officers, clergymen, politicians and
citizens, sent the legitimate government into exile and erected a
subservient and puppet government. Since then, the Lebanese people
commemorate the painful event each year on October 13.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*The
lccc is a Federal umbrella for the following nonprofit municipal,
provincial and federal Canadian registered groups:
Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation, (CLHRF), Canadian Lebanese
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM-Canada), Phoenician Club of Mississauga (PCOM),/Canadian
Phoenician Community Services Club (CPCSC),Canadian Lebanese Christian
Heritage Club (CLCHC),World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU)-Canadian
Chapter.
|
