Thursday June 11, 1998 Al-Nahar newspaper, dated 10/6/98 wrote the following: Parties ban General Aoun's visit The Christian parties (Al Ahrar, Al Kataeb and the Lebanese Forces) banned the festivities that were held in Australia in the honor of General Michel Aoun. And things deteriorated beyond that: problems even happened when General Aoun attended the Sunday mass at the Lady of Lebanon church in Sydney. This is mainly because General Aoun accused the 3 parties of collaborating with the present government. Following that and when General Aoun was heading to exit, shoutings against him were heard. General Aoun's Office was happy to answer back saying: This piece of news could not be more wrong. And we know that the purpose of it is to give a negative image to this visit and the success it received. We can assure everybody that the 1 800 seats of the church could not contain the large number of people there. And the news that says that General Aoun's speech alienated a lot of people is completely wrong, because General did not make a speech at the Lady of Lebanon Church. The truth is that a person shouted demeanful words regarding the visit of General Aoun to Australia and he was taken away by the local authorities. As to accusing the 3 parties of anything, again unfounded piece of news. What was really said is for all the Lebanese to stress on their patriotism while abroad because this is the tightest link that could hold them together while abroad. These words did not offend the people present, on the contrary they were followed by sheers and applaud. We really feel sorry about lies being told regarding the very successful and popular visit General Aoun made to Australia. Australian officials who will surely voucher for that, will really have serious doubts about the stories, a well-known Lebanese newspaper like An-Nahar is coming up with. Not to forget that Al-Nahar also published a piece of news claiming that the Australian officials refused to grant General Aoun an entry visa to their country; again of course purely imagination... COPYRIGHT FREE LEBANON 1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED