The Axis of Evil Countries Murder Lebanese Christian Civilians
By: Elias Bejjani
LCCC Chairman
February 16/07

On Tuesday February 13/07, three civilians were killed and twenty-four others were seriously wounded when two minibuses were exploded as they ferried passengers to work, to run errands and to Bible study classes. Residents of the Lebanese Christian village of Ain Alaq in the mountainous North Metn region awoke to two bomb blasts and the sight of ruptured buses and staggering, blood-soaked passengers. The explosions come at a time when tensions are running high with the Iranian-armed fundamentalist Hezbollah militia and its coup d'état appendages holding an open-ended protest in downtown Beirut for the past 75 days in a bid to topple the Lebanese government and seize power by force.

This new criminal and cowardly assault is a new chapter in the unfolding vicious cycle of terror, intimidation, assassinations and the sending of explosive and murderous messages by Syria and Iran, the two members of the Axis of Evil, at the expense of Lebanon's stability and the lives of the Lebanese people. Syria has been abusing Lebanon since 1975, using it as an arena for its dirty wars, acts of Mafioso and terrorism. Iran joined Syria actively through Hezbollah in 1982. The two countries carry out their anti-Lebanese, anti-peace and anti-world destructive schemes in and via Lebanon through armed Lebanese and Palestinian ideological, fundamentalist, and Mafia militias. These armed terrorist organizations are fully under the command of Syria and Iran, and are fully sponsored and run by them in their arming, financing, training, issuing directions, and decision-making processes. First among these groups is Hezbollah, the Iranian military brigade in Lebanon.

Within this context, last Tuesday the Axis of Evil countries perpetrated directly or indirectly through their Lebanese mercenaries and militias the bloody assault against Christian civilians in Ain Alaq, the peaceful and tranquil Christian Lebanese village.

We, in the Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC), condemn in the strongest terms this terrorist and barbaric act, and based on many tangible actions, statements, and suspicious incidents, we believe it came as a “response” to the following recent events:

1. The meeting last week in the White House between President Bush and former Lebanese President Amine Gemayel, the father of the late Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel who was recently assassinated by the Syrian and Iranian terror groups. The presidential reception was a recognition and honoring event from the US President and his administration to all of Lebanon’s martyrs who were either assassinated or remain living martyrs - targets of assassination attempts by the forces of the Axis of Evil through its Lebanese and Palestinian mercenary instruments.

2. To exact revenge against the Lebanese Christians, individuals, leadership and institutions, in the heart of their residential areas, for playing a peaceful yet pivotal role last month in bravely thwarting Hezbollah's coup-d’état against the legitimate Lebanese State in a bid to grab power. The majority of the Lebanese Christian communities, individuals, NGO's, parties, politicians and religious leaders opposed Hezbollah's coup d'état appendages among the Christians, namely the marginalized opportunist MP Michel Aoun who suffered humiliation and was forced to retreat. The heinous Ain Alaq assault is likely an act of revenge targeting the Lebanese Christian community.

3. To specifically terrorize the Christians, and the Lebanese in general, and push them forcibly to stay home and not participate in the second commemoration of PM Hariri’s assassination which took place in downtown Beirut on Wednesday February 14, 2005. The accusation finger in the Hariri assassination, and according to the UN reports on the International Tribunal investigation, point to direct Syrian participation and to an indirect participation of its Lebanese and Palestinian agents on the ground.

4. To reply to Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Al-Murr’s statement last week to TV reporters when he accused terror groups, some of which are headquartered in the Palestinian Refuge Camp of “Ein El Helwe” near Sidon, to be preparing to execute military operations targeting the International peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) in South Lebanon. Both Elias Al-Murr and Amine Gemayel are from the North Metn region where the targeted village of Ain Alaq is located.

We call upon all the Lebanese to unite and avoid falling into the Syrian-Iranian trap which consists of dividing and turning them against each other. The Syrian-Iranian scheme, executed by Hezbollah and its coup d'état appendages, aims to gradually but steadily lead Lebanon into a constitutional vacuum by sabotaging all of its governmental institutions one after another, including Parliament, the Presidency, the Cabinet, the Judiciary, Military institutions and others. Through Hezbollah, Iran is spending millions of dollars to finance the coup plan. There are documented reports that Hezbollah pays up to thirty dollars a day for each individual who is participating in its open ended sit-in protest that has been going on in downtown Beirut for the last 2.5 months.

We urge our Canadian government, as well as the US, France, all European and Arab nations, the UN, the Arab League, His Holiness the Pope and all international authorities to immediately support the Lebanese people and their legitimate government and institutions before it is too late.

Our homeland, Lebanon, the land of the Holy cedars and 7,000 years of civilization is being subjected to the ugliest and most dangerous war plot that is orchestrated and conducted by the Axis of Evil through Hezbollah and its Lebanese coup d'état appendages. This war is bluntly targeting Lebanon's state institutions, its democratic constitution, its multicultural communal shared living paradigm, and its freedoms, peace and stability.

Lebanon needs the UN Security Council to immediately and urgently meet and modify UN Resolution 1701 so as to re-classify it under the mandatory Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. This would expand the jurisdiction and area of coverage of the UN troops to include the Lebanese-Syrian border and internally within Lebanon as needed by the Lebanese legal authorities.

Meanwhile, and in a bid to abort any potential internal sectarian strife, it would be both wise and constructive that the Lebanese Army is put temporarily under the direct command of UN troops.

Needless to remind the whole world and the 15 million Lebanese expatriates living in the Diaspora, that the Lebanese State and its institutions have become today hostages of Hezbollah and its tailing groups, and therefore it is very difficult for the State to contain these insurrectional forces and affirm its authority on the totality of the Lebanese soil without a quick and effective Arab and international intervention.

*Elias Bejjani
Chairman for the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council (LCCC)
Human Rights activist, journalist & political commentator.
Spokesman for the Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation (CLHRF)
E.Mail phoenicia@hotmail.com
LCCC Web Site http://www.10452lccc.com
CLHRF Website http://www.clhrf.com