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Banned Lebanese Ex-Militia Denies Forming Group
BEIRUT, April 12 (News Agencies) - A top official of the disbanded Lebanese Forces (LF) categorically denied reports Thursday that militia veterans had formed a group to "defend" Christians against Muslims and the Syrian army presence.
"We denounce all such statements and positions attributed falsely to the Lebanese Forces current, and which speak in sectarian terms," Tufic Hindi, political advisor to former LF commander Samir Geagea, told AFP.
"There is a wave of leaflets and statements from unknown origins signed by the 'Lebanese Forces' or groups such as the 'Lebanese Forces Veterans Association.' These so-called statements are untrue and have no links with the Lebanese Forces current," he said.
Hindi usually speaks in the name of the LF militia and of Geagea, who has been serving life sentences in jail since 1994 when his militia was outlawed.
Earlier Thursday, a statement signed by the "Lebanese Forces Veterans Association" was faxed to AFP to declare the formation of a group to "defend" Christians against "radical" Muslims and the Syrian military presence.
The statement, stamped with the militia's old insignia of a cedar tree in a circle, warned that "political war against Christians is being pursued despite the end of fighting," in reference to the 1975-1990 civil war.
The letter said the group rejected a call to arms, but "believed it was right to struggle" politically "against the fundamentalists and the Syrian occupation despite the pro-Syrian camp's opinion."
It said attacks on LF supporters and supporters of Michel Aoun, a former Christian prime minister who has been in exile in France since his 1990 failed "war of liberation" against Syrian troops, were "aimed at the entire Christian community."
But Hindi said that, "Lebanese national coexistence is clearly being targeted, through attempts to return to the atmosphere of civil war, and by portraying Lebanese unanimous national demands as if they were sectarian."
"They want to show that there are divisions in Lebanon, as if demands for Lebanon's sovereignty were made by Christians and demands for maintaining the status quo were made by Muslims," he said.
"Such a picture of Christian-Muslim divisions is only aimed at justifying keeping Lebanon under tutelage," he said in reference to Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon.
Hindi said the "Lebanese Forces current declares clearly that it is reaching out for the Lebanese Muslims, even those who do not declare their desire for that."
"The Lebanese Forces current calls on all Lebanese parties, faiths and currents to join for the salvation of Lebanon," he said.
The controversy over the Lebanese Forces erupted a day before the 26th anniversary of the start of Lebanon's vicious civil war that ripped apart one of the Middle East's wealthiest countries.
The continued presence of an estimated 35,000 Syrian troops in the country since the civil war has become a source of tension in Lebanon, with calls for a Syrian pullout mainly voiced by Christian groups.
Christians and Muslims have come close to blows over Christian plans for anti-Syria demonstrations this week to mark the anniversary.
While Christian groups defended the rallies as celebrating the war's end, the Lebanese government banned the demonstrations, which would have included Aoun and LF supporters, leftist organizations and the Druze community.
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