Press Release from the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council (LCCC)

Toronto – Canada,
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August 6/ ‎‏2006‏
For Immediate Release

Salvation is in a Ceasefire Concurrent with an UN Resolution Addressing all the Root Causes behind the Fundamentalist and Militia Status Quo in Lebanon

The Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council values the transparent and wise position of Mr. Harper’s Canadian government with respect to its sincere support of the international efforts aiming at formulating a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon in accordance and concurrent with a UN resolution for a practical and permanent solution that is enforceable by a military force mandated with all deterrent and combat authority.

The three Canadian opposition parties, for purely domestic electoral objectives, are raising a ruckus demanding the government to present a request for an immediate unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon. To those parties who obstructed the agenda of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Parliament this past July 1^st, prevented the testimony of activist members of the Canadian Lebanese community about the situation in their homeland, and denied the expression of the community’s opinions on the evacuation operation of Canadians from Lebanon, we say that the interests of the Lebanese people are categorically not in a ceasefire that does not include an integrated plan addressing the root causes of the problem and that ensures the non-recurrence of that problem. Any other ceasefire will exacerbate the state of chaos brought about by the fundamentalist militias and may indeed eliminate the Lebanese State as we know it to the benefit of Hezbollah and its sponsors in Damascus and Tehran.

The Canadian opposition parties should listen carefully to the opinions and propositions of those in the Lebanese Canadian community who are most concerned by the events in their homeland, and should not limit their concerns and contacts to specific groups that are, in their great majority, non-Lebanese and are motivated by political objectives that have nothing to do with the aspirations and anxieties of the majority of Lebanese.

It is critical that all members of our Lebanese Canadian community know that, in this democratic Canada of ours, the three opposition parties prevented representatives of the community from Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal from presenting their testimonies before the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee looking into the situation in the Middle East and the evacuation of Canadian citizens from Lebanon. In so doing, those three parties have not only ignored the wishes of the community, but they have displayed their bias to certain groups. We therefore urge each and every one in the community to write to the opposition parties and tell them what they think and express their disapproval of their practices.

We encourage the Canadian government to continue pressing for the implementation of the UN Resolutions 1559 and 1680, and the deployment of deterrent and combat-ready international forces in the south between Israeli forces and the fundamentalist Hezbollah group, as well as along the Syrian-Lebanese border to put an end to the smuggling of weapons to Hezbollah and the Palestinian militias.

On the Lebanese Diaspora scene, We reiterate our call to the members of our community in the countries of the Diaspora who want the salvation of their homeland, its becoming truly free, sovereign and independent, free from militias and fundamentalist and terrorist organizations, to concentrate their efforts and contacts on the root cause of the crisis: The presence of armed fundamentalist militias, led by Hezbollah, organically linked to Iran and Syria, that use force to prevent the rise of a strong State with the exclusive authority of decision-making and that stand in the way of the recovery by the State of its sovereignty and its exercise of the rule of law. We reiterate our call to hold demonstrations only in front of the Iranian and Syrian embassies, demand the immediate implementation of UN resolution 1559, and find a solution to the causes of the suffering of the Lebanese people, both at home and with the neighboring countries.

On the Lebanese scene, it is truly sad and disappointing to see some Lebanese leaders, led by MP Michel Aoun, who were known for their adamant support of the sovereignty of Lebanon turn around and betray their own history and principles. Particularly bewildering is their novel position that considers the international forces as forces of occupation if they were to enter Lebanon and disarm Hezbollah by force and preserve Lebanese sovereignty. The greater catastrophe is also in the shameless rejection by that leadership of UN resolution 1559 and their condemning it as a thing of the past, particularly when they claimed to have stood behind it at the time of its genesis and when their return from exile would not have been possible without that resolution.

Those leaders have dug themselves into a corner of illusions and have become prisoners of their own ambitions and hotheadedness. Even more sad is how many among the Lebanese have tagged blindly behind, accepting this reversal over long-held principles as a wise salvation plan with which to confront another segment of Lebanese society that is purported to want to seize power and settle the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. This fear-mongering by those turncoat leaders plays on people’s sectarian fears to anoint the fundamentalist and armed Hezbollah as the defender and guarantor, and to justify at the same time its base alliance with Hezbollah and provide it with a cover whenever it undertakes military adventures at the behest of Syria and Iran.

The time for reckoning is around the corner, for that leadership has exhausted all its goodwill capital. Their irresponsible positions make us take a second look at all that has been said about their previous wars which succeeded only in uprooting the Christian Lebanese from their towns and villages, their killing and displacement from their own country, and the elimination of their role and standing in the country. We truly fear that these new despicable positions by that leadership are the final fatal bullet to be fired in the hearts and hopes of the Christians and all the free Lebanese.

For the LCCC

Chairman/ Elias Bejjani

Political Adviser/Charbel Barakat

*The lccc is the Federal umbrella for the following nonprofit municipal, provincial and federal Canadian registered groups:
Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation,  (CLHRF),  Canadian Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement (FPM-Canada), Phoenician Club of Mississauga (PCOM),/Canadian Phoenician Community Services Club (CPCSC),Canadian Lebanese Christian Heritage Club (CLCHC),World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU)-Canadian Chapter.