Martyrs of ’Lebanese Forces’ Ambush Laid to Rest, It’s Now the State’s Responsibility to Punish the Killers
By Mohammad Youssef
The Lebanese Forces party led by Samir Geagea has cold-bloodedly perpetrated a criminal massacre Thursday at Tayyouneh roundabout; when its snipers, located on rooftops, and on purpose, targeted unarmed civilians who were peacefully marching in a demonstration to the palace of justice in Mathaf area.
The horrendous crime took place as the assistant US Secretary of State, Victoria Neuland, has started its visit to Lebanon. The scenes of premeditated killing were being seen as cameras lenses of many TV channels were covering the events. The assassin killers are known by their names.
As such, the judiciary should give its directives to arrest them and bring them before the judiciary to sue them and enact justice.
Given the nature of the crime and its perpetrators from the Lebanese Forces; it is no surprise to anyone whether enemy or friend, as the group is notorious for its recorded and documented history of unending crimes.
Whenever Geagea and his thugs are mentioned there abruptly jumps a litany of massacres against the Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians.
Geagea thugs have assassinated Tony Franjiyeh and his family, Danny Shamoun and his family, and former Prime Minister Rashid Karami. They killed scores of Lebanese army officers. They are also responsible for the massacre of Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp, which resulted in the killing of three thousands of Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.
All of the aforementioned facts represent a segment of what this party did and continues to do.
The perpetrated crime could have led simply to a civil war; but the wise leadership of both Amal Movement and Hezbollah contained the tragedy and exercised a high level of self-restraint and discipline. The followers and partisans of the two parties followed their leadership directives and exercised patience and awareness to avoid any exacerbation of the situation.
All of this happened against the backdrop of political escalation due to the legal violations of Judge Tareq Bitar who is being used as a tool in the hands of a foreign conspiracy.
The aforementioned judge who lacks wisdom or any sense of sound evaluation is working in complete detachment from reality and serving an agenda that could lead to a catastrophe as has been warned by many Lebanese leaders.
Several alarming warnings have been issued about the judge’s violations and his sinister agenda, yet the judiciary has never done anything or taken any measure to correct the situation. Had this been done, it would have saved the many dear lives and the blood that have been lost.
Now as we have reached here, the whole country is at a very sensitive political and security juncture!
The right thing to be done could be envisaged as the following:
- The issue should be forwarded and handled by the highest judiciary authority represented by the Council of Justice.
- The security forces should arrest the criminals as their names are well known to many of the official security apparatuses, where they should be questioned and sued to enact the justice.
- If the Lebanese Forces party leadership, namely Samir Geagea, was proven involved, then he should be equally arrested, questioned and once he is proven guilty he should be sent back to prison, and the party should be put into embargo.
This is what the Lebanese expect from the official bodies, be it Mikati government, the Lebanese army intelligence, or the judiciary.
Dictations and warnings by the US embassy should not be a hindrance or an obstacle to do this.
Our Lebanese domestic interests and our civil peace should be a priority that supersedes any other priority.
Let us hope this is going to be translated soon in reality, because if it was not, then the whole country is going to witness a new political chapter that could be worse than all expectations!
