To The
Lebanese People,
You have emerged from a vast prison you were
locked in, and subsequently pulled me out
from my small cell. Those were very long and
dark years which almost annihilated our
nation; starting with the assassination of
the martyr President Rene Moawwad, the
attempt at assassinating the Taef agreement
and more recently the murder of the martyr
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
They knew from the beginning that Lebanon
will not rise except with its two wings, so
they were determined to break one of them
and uproot it completely if necessary. They
proceeded to harass, exile, arrest,
incarcerate, torture, oppress and frighten
the citizens, which led to forced migration
of Lebanese youth leaving behind the land of
their fathers and ancestors.. They similarly
did not spare those who engaged in
reconstruction of the country: they too were
blackmailed and harassed, forced to face a
multitude of obstacles and limitless
corruption. All of this resulted in
exorbitant inflation of the costs of
reconstruction leading to astronomical debts
never seen before in recent history.
I do not wish to expand on the past since
you have lived it moment after moment in
sweat and tears and in fear for your
children, your freedom, your sovereignty and
your future. What I wish is to simply stop
for a long time over the lessons of the
past. It is now proven that the truth always
emerges even after evil had its day and that
if a people want life, destiny will
eventually comply, and it has. But destiny
provides an opportunity not a solution. Let
us be determined to jump on the opportunity
without delay. We have literally loads of
work to do but I promise we will not flail
under the pressure, and while our Lebanese
home still suffers from dysfunction and
imbalance after 15 years of pain, we will
not spare any efforts to reinforce mutual
understanding with our allies in order to
speed up the recovery of our nation. As you
know, Lebanon remains under siege, a victim
of assassinations and lack of security
internally and along its borders. But none
of this will change the turn of events or
drive us back to the past ever again.
Dear Lebanese, I have spent more than 11
years in a tiny cell underground, completely
isolated from the outside world and not
allowed any contacts even during my daily
walk. I was however never alone because you
were all with me. The conditions of my
incarceration were very difficult, truly
difficult but I experienced a strange sense
of tranquility since I was living with my
own self and not with an artificial persona.
I lived according to my beliefs even if I
could spread them only over 6 square meters.
This, to me, was much more valuable than
living under an imposed set of beliefs even
if I could have roamed the entire universe.
For the duration of these eleven long years
I never felt I was incarcerated despite the
terrible cell I was in, because my soul
remained free and that is what matters. Real
prisoners are those who made their own
prison by giving in to pressure for the sake
of a position or secondary gain or even to
avoid oppression and jail. The essence of
human existence is free will which
distinguishes man from other creatures; man
should never give up his freedom or exchange
it for anything else. The only regrets I
have is the amount of fear and pain I caused
my wife, my family and my friends by
choosing to be an innocent prisoner under
ground rather than pseudo-freedom on the
outside. I have indeed often considered my
presence in jail as a form of fulfillment of
my duty just like I did when I was outside
prison. It is my firm belief that each of us
must bear his or her responsibilities fully
in good times and in bad times without
hesitation or second thoughts.
I must now salute my comrades in the
Lebanese Forces wherever they are, in
Lebanon or in exile, and I want to tell them
that I am extremely proud of them, proud of
their faith, their resistance, their
determination and their sacrifices. They
were unjustly subjected to attacks,
harassment, incarceration, torture and even
murder, and those acts are the greatest
injustice in the history of modern Lebanon.
Sadly many of these actions were carried out
by Lebanese hands, if by foreign orders. But
nations can only be built by sacrifice,
tears, efforts and determination. I thus
salute all the Lebanese, Christian and
Muslim, for their silent resistance to the
attempts of desecrating Lebanon and
stripping our nation of its history, its
intellectual power, its economy and even its
human element.
I would also like to thank all those who
contributed directly or indirectly to my
release. I apologize for not mentioning all
their names but I would like to acknowledge
His Beatitude our Patriarch Cardinal
Nasralla Boutros Sfeir and the patriarchs
and bishops who relentlessly supported my
cause from the beginning, our allies in the
PSP led by Mr Walid Jumblatt and the Future
current led by cheikh Saad Hariri for their
efforts in recent months, the members of the
Kornet Chehwan group for maintaining their
struggle and belief in this cause
specifically throughout its duration, the
CPL led by General Michel Aoun for the
struggle of its members to change the
imposed conditions, the Parliament in its
leadership and members for signing the
amnesty law which opens the road for true
national reconciliation. And I specifically
express my gratitude to the hundreds of
thousands of Lebanese who participated on
March 14th in making history and leading
their nation towards freedom, justice and
dignity. A special salute to the students
and youth who did not fear threats and
defiantly came down to the town squares to
express their anger and demand their rights
and express their refusal to submit to fear,
and you know well what they experienced in
retaliation: beatings and arrests and
injustice.
And how could I forget the silent, deep and
painful sacrifices of my mother and father
who deserved to retire in peace after many
years of efforts. They were instead
remunerated with long years of pain. And how
could I forget my beloved? The wife who lost
her partner in the first years of her
marriage and who was subjected to endless
harassment: she had to leave her home, she
was called for interrogation twice for
imaginary reasons.. But there she is: solid
faithful patient and true, at our house in
yasou3 el malak trying to face massive
responsibilities she never asked for. But
the Lord was her help and shepherd and she
could not have handled things any better.
Dear Lebanese, the dark years are behind you
and better days are ahead. You will not have
to pay the price for your independence, your
freedom and your unity twice. If we want to
build a better future for our children, we
must collaborate in a new spirit. In order
to achieve that, we must not look at others
based on pre-conceived judgments made during
the war years. War had its own logic and its
own circumstances which are no longer valid.
Let us look towards the future and let us
put our efforts together in order to sow
hope in the hearts of our young. The best
days are yet to come. Let us make our future
hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder and heart
to heart, so our nation can rise and live
joyfully.
Long Live
Lebanon and its citizens
