 By: Colonel Fayez Karam (Translated freely: By Elias Bejjani) Every year on the Independence Day (22 of November) we remember our beloved martyrs, miss them and feel proud for their sacrifices. We commemorate the event by posing with medals of honor, wearing best uniforms, pretending to be happy, celebrating traditions, carrying clean and shining weapons, participating in military parades and exhibiting the best of what we have. Under the occupation and subservient regime the event has lost its authentic meaning and was left only with a hollow display. Puppet officials made it a disguise day for ability, power and will show, and a lie for a reality they created. We know the ability is limited, the power scattered and the will mortgaged. This is our current reality in occupied Lebanon. On November 22, we are not celebrating the Independence Day; we are only living its memory. With its memory the entire nation's martyrs are heartily remembered with gratitude for their sacrifices. Although martyrs are not only those who offered their lives on Lebanon 's alter and departed from this world, but also the majority of Lebanese people. Those displaced, oppressed, humiliated, exiled, imprisoned and deprived of their basic human rights. Also those accused falsely of isolation in their stances, treason in their patriotism, challenge in their freedom and awkwardness in their principles. An international will has imposed on our people acceptance and submission to the current status quo of occupation. It forced our people to compromise on their own life and cornered them between death and destruction. This international will has mortgaged itself to terrorism and interests, abondoned righteous stances, deserted allies, betrayed principles, justice and conscience. The imposed and forced absence of the people, is an absence for a free will and a distortion for the struggle of a great nation. With this absence truth vanished and history was forged. The inflicted status has been a vicious deception, a ruin of the Lebanese nation and the loss of its anthem and emblem. Peoples' absence is the absence of the nation's martyrs and its leaders who shared with the people their pains and hopes, lived their concerns and fears, carried their patriotic stances, honored their commitments and persistence and cherished their national dream for dignity and affiliation. On the Independence Day we miss our martyrs who gave their lives courageously without any hesitation to defend Lebanon and the dignity of its people. On this day we miss a significant martyr, late president Mr. Renee Moawad, the independence martyr. President Moawad paid his life a price for his genuine patriotic stances. His martyrdom was a symbol for his commitment to authentic national convictions, solid endeavor for holistic national consensus, unconditional independence, complete sovereignty, unrestricted freedom, non-proportional judiciary, righteous justice, and undistorted national affiliation. He gave his life to the Holy Land of Lebanon and to its great people. On the Independence Day, we look forward hopefully for an independent Lebanon, a state that assumes its responsibilities and loyal to its citizens, especially presidents and officials. A state that honors its rights, peoples' dignity and rights of others. A state refuses discrimination, baseless assumptions, divisionism, does not fear truth and not intimidated to face scandals. On this day we inquire about the independence crime, and wander who assassinated president Moawad, and what was the outcome of the crime investigations, arrests and data gathering. Were the officials a failure in identifying the truth, or they are taking their time, keeping on the investigations and trying to solve the intricacies? Is the Crime in Lebanon currently classified in accordance to nationalism criteria? We fear President Moawd's assassination has become a memory and a social event exactly like the Independence Day. Long Live Free Lebanon. France. November 20/1998 |