BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea will issue during a large-scale rally Saturday an appeal to Christians in the Middle East urging them to remain anchored to their lands, LF sources told The Daily Star.
The rally, scheduled to take place at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure center in Downtown Beirut, is held under the slogan “The Spring of the People, the Autumn of Eras” and marks the 1994 disbanding of the LF.
Giant photomontages of all the political events the LF took part in during Geagea’s incarceration and following his release on July 18, 2005, adorn the walls of the BIEL complex, which will accommodate up to 3,000 LF supporters and guests this weekend.
The LF sources said Geagea would call on Christians not to fear changes happening across the Arab world and to forge alliances with their Muslim counterparts, especially “moderate Muslim groups” so as to bolster democracy.
Geagea will also touch upon the unrest in neighboring Syria, where he will call for holding democratic elections. The LF lead is also expected to slam the stances of his rivals in the Free Patriotic Movement concerning a number of “strategic” issues, including Hezbollah’s weapons, the turmoil in Syria and the popular uprisings in the Arab world, the sources said.
During Lebanon’s Civil War, the movement fought as the main Christian militia, and after the conflict ended, the LF reinvented itself as a political party under Geagea’s leadership.
In 1994, while Lebanon was under Syrian tutelage, the party was banned, Geagea imprisoned and the activities of its members repressed. The party was revived as a political force after the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in April 2005.
“The rally is not only meant as a reminder of the dark times when our party was banned,” said a source close to Geagea. “It is a message to the Lebanese and the Arab world that the struggles of the people do pay off.”
For that purpose, activists from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia who have contributed in shaping the uprisings in their countries will make an appearance at the LF rally Saturday to share their experiences.
Libyan civil rights activist Fathia al-Hajaji, who will deliver a speech, said popular protests that swept Lebanon in 2005 and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon have been “an inspiration to the whole Arab world.”
The Libyan activist, who expressed her admiration for Geagea’s “fight for freedom and equality,” said the main goal of her participation in the LF ceremony was to make the “voice of the Libyan people heard.”
“I always say that the Arab Spring did not start in Tunisia last year but rather it kicked off in Lebanon several years ago and other Arab countries followed suit,” she said.