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PART 15  (Translated freely: By Elias Bejjani) When the state TV station started to show photographs of the Army martyrs with a biography of each of them (Officer Saied Yamin, Officer commando Bassam Gergy, and three other commandos), General Aoun, who was in the palace salon with some of officials and friends, could not continue watching. He changed his seat and chose a distant one shadowed by a big refrigerator and he started to cry silently. I approached and stood beside him without uttering one word in respect of his feelings. He looked at me, wiped his tears and said: "Pierre, I can't help it," and started sadly reminiscing and sharing with me memories related to the shown army martyrs. He started by recalling those army officers and soldiers who gave their life happily to Lebanon. Sadly, with a sigh, he named Khalil Kenaan, Mohamad Baydown, Fahmi Awydat, Paul Maalouf, and then paused to add Saied Yamin and Bassam Gergy's names. He continued after a few moments of silence by saying: Saied personified the army history in heroism: although he was young, he always acted like a leader and fulilled his duties. What really makes me sad is that I knew Saied for a long time and he had never asked my permission to execute an assignment. This morning I was at the Defense Minister's headquarters and passed by the Eighth brigadier leadership. Saied and the rest were there, Saied approached and asked me if it was okay for him to visit the artillery posts, and I laughed and was surprised by his request. Saied headed to the front and was killed by a bomb at the Baykout frontier. Aoun became tearful again and concluded by saying: " The heroes die to keep the nation alive and we the cowards stay alive." The Army modified its plan and waged a new attack. Within a very short time it was able to reach the borders of Bourj-Hamoud. The army's progress on the frontiers coincided with a series of mediation attempts from numerous sources. General Aoun was very receptive and ordered the army units to stop the attack and return to the original post. Monsignor Boulous Nemaan and Mr. Chaker Abu-Slieman agreed with the Vatican representative Monsignor Danyallo, that he would call General Aoun and convey to him a papal wish to stop the attack and save lives and property. The call took place from Bkerke, but it was a false and deceptive call. The Lebanese Forces at the same time threatened to explode all road bridges as well oil and gas tanks under their control. What happened later on proved that these threats were actual and very serious. The military committee assigned to open the Dawra -Naher El-Kaleb highway discovered a huge amount of TNT and other explosives tied to the concrete bridges bases. The Syrian leadership on its part conveyed to General Aoun a warning through army officer Michel Rahbani to stop the attack against the Karatyna, or otherwise the Syrian troops would storm the Eastern region under the control of General Aoun's government. All the above listed factors made General Aoun change his plan and stop the attack against the Karantyna suburb. He also decided to cancel all the military activities and plans for attack. Aoun took his decision after he found that all potentials and options for a political change in the country were blocked. He justified his new stance by saying: assume I continued the attack and the army accomplished its mission, then we will be facing two bitter options. First, if we continue the attack there would be massive destruction and thousands of victims would fall. I am not aiming for a burned land but to liberate the people while they are alive, not corpses. Second, if we liberate the whole of the Eastern sectors, we will remain under siege in a much bigger area. Aoun added: Further, let us assume that the army was able to force its way till the Mafoun post, what would be the situation then? We would still be under siege, but in a bigger cage with more casualties, more losses and with more people in need consuming daily living necessities. We can't cope with such a situation while the sea, land and air siege is in place and crippling us in getting any fuel. Our situation would have been different if the Lebanese Forces had not destroyed the ships and the other means we utilized to penetrate the siege imposed on us during the Liberation war. Aoun concluded his justification by saying: the siege is a siege either we were in a small or in a somewhat bigger cage, for all these facts and reasons we will give the Vatican and the other good-will mediators the opportunity to act on their peaceful plans. Patriarch Sfier took the initiative and called for a meeting at Bkerke on April 10, 1990. Dr. Samir Geagea, some of his aids and a number of ex- MP's responded to the Patriarch's call. Coming out of the meeting at the Bkerke main door, Dr. Geagea told the journalists that the war between the Army and the Lebanese forces was over. Contrary to his overt public statement, Dr. Geagea left Bkerke to immediately begin finalizing a premeditated military plan to wage an attack on the government's regions starting from the Kleaat frontier. The attack started in the early morning of April 11, 1990. It was unsuccessful and the army was capable of aborting it, inflicting many casualties on the attacking Lebanese Forces members and capturing many of the attackers. On the evening of that day General Aoun sent a televised message to the Lebanese Forces fighters in which he said: Why did the Lebanese Resistance pay 600 martyrs to abort the triple Agreement? Is it because the agreement did not provide Dr. Geagea with a ministerial portfolio? Or because the Taef Agreement is less dangerous than the Triple Agreement? To be continued next week. Long Live Free Lebanon |