Bristol
03-07- 2011
“Dear Lebanese,
The time of truth and justice has come,
You have chosen to live in freedom, so you snatched your right, the right of your martyrs for justice.
Justice guarantees your stability and independence. It is also a right approved by the divine laws and the international charter of human rights. We refuse the unjust and unethical equation that some present to us, that justice threatens civil peace and that it will never be applied in Lebanon even after centuries.
The truth is that accepting impunity, that dominated our political life for decades, consecrates the legitimization of political assassination, and threatens civil peace and coexistence.
Demanding truth and justice in the assassination of Martyr Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and all the other martyrs is for the sake of Lebanon’s peace and stability. Justice is a guarantee for all the Lebanese, and it poses a challenge only to the criminals. Justice, especially when it is in competent and trusted hands, is our essential means today to protect Lebanon and prevent its return to the pre-2005 Cedar Revolution era, at a time when the Arab peoples are breaking the walls of their prisons and starting to embrace the dawn of freedom and dignity.
The waves of political assassinations, killings and terrorism which Lebanon witnessed would not have reached this dangerous stage of violence, except through an environment that allowed the use of illegal weapons.
The Taef Accord stressed the necessity of putting an end to this phenomenon, and emphasized the necessity of restoring the respect of the state’s military and security components, and its monopoly of weapons. The accumulation of violations of this part of the agreement has put the country, once again, at the mercy of the armed groups who play the role of the partner stealing the security, military and judiciary responsibilities of the state and its legal institutions.
After all these bitter experiences, it has become unacceptable that illegal weapons maintain hegemony over the state in controlling its national responsibilities.
Today, you are in front of a government that did not only turn against democracy, but it disavows in its policy statement the demand for justice to which the Lebanese state has committed itself in front of the Lebanese people and the international community in the previous policy statements, especially of the governments of Premiers Fouad Siniora and Saad Hariri. Those who are disavowing this demand today had signed these statements before. The most dangerous thing about this government policy is not the renunciation of the justice demand but the hostility against the citizens and the families of the martyrs by renouncing to their blood and dignity, and pushing the Lebanese state outside international legality, and towards a failed and rogue state. This will cause damage to all the Lebanese without exception and regardless of their political affiliations and inclinations.
We, from our position in thenational and democratic opposition, and after the logic that we heard yesterday and that adopts the supremacy of weapons and force over all the Lebanese, thus confirming the government’s subservience to this logic, we call on the Prime Minister to declare frankly and directly in parliament on Tuesday morning, his commitment to Resolution 1757, and to announce his commitment to the steps for implementing this resolution, or let him and his government step down and they will not be regretted.
This government, with its Prime minister, its members and all who sit on its table, is a government which turns against the Lebanese people who triumphed for justice and freedom, and who consider the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as the appropriate body to hold accountable the people responsible of series of terrorist crimes which targeted Lebanon and its national figures.
We will not abandon the blood of Martyr Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Bassel Fleihan, Georges Hawi, Samir Kassir, Gibran Tueini, Pierre Gemayel, Walid Eido, Antoine Ghanem, Wissam Eid and the living martyrs Marwan Hmadeh, Elias al-Murr, and May Chidiak, as well as the blood of 68 martyr citizens.
We call on you to be true to the principles and goals of the Cedars Revolutions and its goals of freedom, dignity and justice, and with our people who refused tutelage, and refuse oppression and the occupations from inside and outside.
March 14 forces adhere to the implementation of all the international resolutions, especially Resolution 1757 in all its stipulations, and commit to the following:
First: Confront the path that has been undermining coexistence, the state and the political system, and which began with the armed takeover of the capital in 2008, and which was not halted by the Doha Accord, the victory of March 14 forces in the 2009 parliamentary elections, the national unity governments or our continuous efforts to put national reconciliation above anything else.
Thus, we will continue our struggle to end this supremacy of weapons.
Second: Start working to topple this government, which is a result of a coup, as of Tuesday, should the Prime Minister fail to announce his commitment to Resolution 1757 as mentioned above.
Third: Launch an Arab and international political campaign to free the republic from the captivity of weapons, and ask the Arab governments and the international community not to cooperate with this government if it fails to implement the requirements of Resolution 1757.
Fourth: March 14 forces will take all the necessary peaceful steps to preserve the blood of the Cedars Revolution martyrs, and the future of justice and of the new generations in Lebanon.
Fifth: The conferees decided to keep their meetings open and form an emergency committee to follow up on all developments and take the appropriate decisions.
We supported the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and will continue supporting it to achieve justice, preserve the Lebanese people’s dignity and right, and protect political life from assassinations.
No to Hezbollah’s government, yes to freedom and justice. Yes to coexistence, democracy and the Constitution. Glory to Lebanon and eternity to our martyrs.”
