A Burning Kiss That Misses Gebran Tueni”s Forehead
With a burning kiss that a father in grief couldn”t gain from the forehead of a slain son, and tears that couldn”t washout black gunpowder from the victim”s face, MP Ghassan Tueni remembered his late son Gebran on the third anniversary of his assassination.
A mass in remembrance of Gebran Tueni, the outspoken MP-journalist and patriot for an independent Lebanon, was held at Ashrafiyeh”s Saint Dimitrios Church on the third anniversary of the roadside bomb that claimed the life of the author of the Cedar revolution”s reputed oath for unity in defense of "magnificent Lebanon."
"Martyrs know no despair," the ageing Ghassan Tueni, Lebanon”s leading columnist, told Gebran, the son he misses, in an article published by the daily an-Nahar.
"The ever lasting spirit is stronger than … the blazing hellfire, the gates to which were opened by the murderers," Tueni wrote.
"The backfire of hell would kill them … let us believe together," wrote the father lamenting his slain son.
"Open your eyes, my beloved son, the hour of truth is coming," he told Gebran, reflecting belief in God”s justice.
The mass is to be followed by a candle light gathering near the church later in the day Friday.
Gebran is to be honored on Saturday by the third Arab Free Press Forum in the northern suburb of Antlias in cooperation between an-Nahar and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
Gebran Tueni joined a chain of martyrs from the March 14 alliance that opposes Syria”s dominance over Lebanon and accuses the Syrian regime of killing ex-Premier Rafik Hariri in a 2005 powerful blast targeting his motorcade in Beirut.
The International Tribunal that would try suspects in the Hariri killing and related crimes is to start operating by March 1, as the U.N. commission probing the killings refers its charge sheet to the court”s attorney general.