An Open Letter To Detlev Mehlis

From: Marwan Charrouf

23/10/05

Dear Mr. Mehlis,

 I wish to extend to you the appreciation of the young Lebanese people who are grateful for your commission’s meticulous work and honest investigation.  I have read your UNIIIC report and could not help but point your attention to a rather inaccurate statement that you asserted in the “CHRONOLGY OF EVENTS” section of 2005.  You described the March 14 peaceful uprising as a “Christian/Sunni-led counter demonstration”.  There are two things in that statement that I modestly believe to be a grave misrepresentation of the actual event.  First of all, the labeling of such a wonderful and historic stepping stone in Lebanese history as something that has to do with religion is a distortion of the true nature of this cumulative and united non-sectarian effort.  The hundreds of thousands of people that took to the street that day, I believe, were not motivated by religion but by a genuine desire to speak against negligence and injustice.  The World should know that we are a healing society and should stop attributing our intellectual differences to petty faith-based clashes.  Secondly, there was nothing counter about this demonstration. It was not meant to challenge another entity of the multi-faceted Lebanese society, but to reprimand the failing government apparatus at that time in dealing with the demands of the people.

Once again thank you for your exceptional level of commitment and execution, and please forgive me if you did not personally select those particular words.