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Lebanese General Aoun addresses the crowd at Martyrs Square

MARK DAMELI | 10.05.2005 22:07 | Globalisation | Cambridge | London

Oh Great People of Lebanon! I told you one day that the world can crush me but it won’t get me to sign. I return to you today and the world has neither crushed me nor did it get me to sign. I once told you, shame on a world that is afraid of a general in battle fatigues who has to tell the world that life, that existence outside the realm of freedom is a form of death. Here I am today, returning to you to a Lebanon that has recovered its sovereignty, freedom and independence.

aoun_crowds
aoun_crowds


Naturally, we would have not accomplished this achievement were it not for the heroes of our armed forces who were role models in the defense of this nation, and our great people who gave so many martyrs. And for this we first bowed at their grave.

Also, we could not have accomplished this achievement without our young people led by our university students who carried the torch and kept it alive in a peaceful resistance, which ultimately carried the message to our Diaspora and our émigrés throughout the world. Our Lebanese Diaspora in all four corners of the globe has played a magnificent role in raising the voice of Lebanon that has been silenced at home and taking the Cause of Lebanon to the highest international forums, yielding today its independence, freedom and sovereignty.

The victor today is our people who dealt the coup de grace on March 14th and lit the fire throughout the nation.

For this reason, we pledge to our emigrants that we will include them in the life of the nation after they paid a price so dear that we can only repay by securing to them the right to vote, as is the case in all the democracies of the world.

That was our condition to this day when we celebrate the recovery of our free decision-making, but tomorrow is another day.

I see it in your faces and I read it in your minds and I feel it in your hearts that you yearn for change and this change must inevitably come.

Lebanon will not be governed with a 19th century mentality. We want a modern democracy whose leadership is in tune with its citizens. We want promises to be made upfront for electoral programs with which you can hold your representatives who have served you for 4 years accountable. We do not want old feudal models that existed so far without any accountability.

As of tomorrow we will take a position regarding all these issues and we will follow up these political issues with you. They say we have come and some people are afraid of us. Is there a reason to fear those who call for national unity through the unity of the political families of Lebanon and its religious communities? Is that a call for trouble? I say to you, reject me if I speak the language of sectarianism. No. We are calling for a unified position, a unified struggle, in order to identify and achieve specific and known objectives.

Otherwise, the trust will be lost and Lebanon will forever be doomed. We no longer need sectarian fanaticisms that quarrel, fight and self-destruct. We want a national unity that, in deed, in spirit, in action and in words, will become the strongest power in your defense and the defense of Lebanon. We want to fight the political money that has corrupted the Republic in its institutions and its men, and put Lebanon on the verge of bankruptcy. We want a society in which voters vote their political minds though they are of various religious identities. That is how Lebanon will be saved.

Long Live the people of Lebanon, Long Live Lebanon. We shall always be together.

MARK DAMELI
- Homepage: http://www.tayyar.org/galleries/thumbnails.php?album=168

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