Adonis Diaries

Worst battles between the Christian forces: The army and the Lebanese Forces militia

Testimonials of the civil war in Lebanon

Support movement for General Michel Aoun, currently elected as President of the Republic

The issue of the daily Al Balab, May 9, 2005

This is the story of a girl who was 13 years old when the movement of General Aoun started after being appointed Prime Minister in interim, after President Amin Gemayel tenure ended without the election of a President in 1988.

All the Muslim Sunni sect leaders, pressured by Syria, refused to form governments. Aoun had to form his own government with the military.

She used to participate in the demonstrations in support of Aoun liberation stand against the occupation of the Syrian forces, and joined her schoolmates visiting the Presidential Palace in Baabda. She also drove there accompanied by her aunt and grand dad.

The Dekwani area where she lived was under the control of the “Lebanese Forces”, which was at the time still allied with the Lebanese army.

She once wrote a poem to General Michel Aoun and drew the Statue of Liberty replacing the territory of Lebanon where the torch stands.

Later, when the Lebanese army faced the trespasses of the “Lebanese Forces” on Red Lines that separated the  militia forces, and the refusal to evict the port of Beirut, people were forced to take refuge in basements.

The children were separated from adults who needed silence to listen to the radios.  The trapped citizens would go three days without food.  The main ingredient was lemon because it killed the appetite and boxes of Panadol for headaches.

The girl’s grand dad cooked on a blue alcohol flame which took forever for the cooked food to be ready.

General Aoun gave up the fight as the Syrian air force bombed the presidential Palace on October 13, 1990.

The citizens heard the General voice on the radio telling them the situation so that ”we save and keep whatever is left in Lebanon”.  People wept and started burning the General’s cassettes and pictures for fear that the Syrian might indict them.

After October 13, the girl resumed her studies at the all girl school in Fanar where the Syrian troops installed one of their headquarters.  The girls would not go out to play, especially when rumors spread of mass graves in Beit Mery and Deir Kalaa.

The Syrian soldiers used to walk the playgrounds while the students kept to their classes and they celebrated the remembrance of the independence at Independence Day.

The students began throwing leaflets opposing the Syrian occupation from school buses windows when passing Syrian check points; the consequence was shutting all school buses windows during the whole trip home.

The supporters of the General had a code car honking and poster were plastered stating “The General will return” from exile in France.

Note 1: I had returned to the US resume my PhD program. My parents told me peace has come and you decided to leave again? A month later, the worst battles were engaged between the Lebanese Forces and the army under General Aoun. I had to rely on the Red Cross to get any news of the safety of my parents who had to keep to the lower floor for over 4 months and stacking bags of soil on entrances and windows.

Note 2: The Syrian forces remained in Lebanon until 2005, after the assassination of ex-Rafic Hariri PM