Lebanese Forces

Recent history (1976 - 1982)

In opposition to alliance with the Palestinians and the Moslem militia of left, the Lebanese Forces (FL) were formed in 1976 under the direction of Bachir Gemayel, like the military wing of the coalition of the Lebanese Front. The FL were in the beginning a coalition of various Christian militia, including Noumour Al-Ahrar (related to the Parti national liberal the former Lebanese president Camille Chamoun) and the militants of the Gardiens of the Cedars, directed by Etienne Sacr, but in fact dominated by the Phalange of the brothers Gemayel, the military wing of the Parti Kataeb Pierre Gemayel. Gemayel transformed the FL into a formidable military force sometimes absorbing by the force the smaller Christian militia. The FL then dominated the Christian part of Lebanese political space. These years are regarded as the gilded time of the Lebanese Forces, which enjoyed a strong popularity within the Christian communities for the various services offered to a population which did not receive anything the state: protection, social security, etc…

In spite of the official denials, the FL accepted a military and financial support on behalf of the Israeli government in the first years of the civil war.

The Opération Peace as a Galileo in 1982 opened the way of the presidential election with Béchir Gemayel the August 23rd.

The years Amine (1982 - 1988)

Bachir Gemayel was assassinated the September 14th 1982, one week before its taking up the duties. His/her brother, Amine replaced it as president and his cousin Fadi Frem, as chief of the FL. The two cousins had a difficult relation, and in 1984, the pressure of Amine Gemayel brought the replacement of Frem by Fouad Abou Nader (on October 9th), a nephew of Gemayel. Abou Nader, unpopular in the rows of the Lebanese Forces, refused the confrontation in March 1985 wanted by a faction carried out by Samir Geagea and Elie Hobeika.

With the eyes apparently directed towards the presidency, Hobeika started secret negotiations with the Syrian government to put an end to the conflict. The December 28th 1985, it signed a Tripartite Agreement, against the will of Geagea and other leaders. Geagea mobilized the opposite factions of the FL and the January 15th 1986, attacked the general headquarter of the FL with Karantina, where Hobeika was encircled. It will be delivered to the Lebanese Armée under the command with the Général Aoun, under strong Syrian pressure. Hobeika went, then left initially to Paris and then to Damas. While taking the orders of the FL, Geagea launched a movement to re-equip and reorganize the militia. It also instituted a programme of social security in the zones controlled by the FL.

The years Aoun (1988 - 1990)

Two rival governments disputed the recognition after the departure of Amine Gemayel of the presidency in September 1988. The FL supported at that beginning directed by the general Michel Aoun, who was also the chief of the Lebanese army. Aoun and Geagea were scrambled soon. Geagea considered the war of liberation carried out by Aoun, against a Syrian army much more powerful, likely to fail even if it supported it during this war. When Aoun required of the FL to cease any activity in the Christian tiny room to help it to restore a State without militia, that was lived like a pure and simple negation actions of the FL and their sacrifices carried out throughout the Lebanese war.

The war of " suppression" Christian resistance (expression used by Samir Geagea, chief of the FL), followed and made rage until in 1990 from there. Syria benefitted from this situation and of the regional context of the invasion of Kuwait to penetrate the last Christian of Lebanon the October 13rd 1990 reduces.

The second republic (1990 - 2005)

After the rendering of Aoun the October 13rd 1990 with its rival Elias Hraoui and its allies Syria NS, one offered ministerial positions to Geagea in the new government. He refused several times, indicating that he was opposed to the Syrian interventions in the Lebanese businesses, and its relations with the government worsened.

In 1994, Geagea was stopped to be opposite with the Syrian domination on Lebanon and each decision of the Lebanese government. The FL decide to deposit the weapons in accordance with their engagement in favor of the agreements of Taef thus putting term at the civil war which tore the country. Syria then had the freehands to exert its whole domination on the country of the cedars. Thus the Lebanese government emitted a decree of dissolution of the FL by showing it, wrongly, to have perpetrated an attack against a church; until today, one still does not know who organized this attack giving an excuse to the government set up by Syria to be able to pass in addition to the law of amnesty and to manufacture evidence conceived in advance in order to neutralize Samir Geagea. Before its arrest, he was contacted by sympathizing politicians preventing it of what was likely to arrive to him and proposing a departure of Lebanon to him. Geagea refused to leave and thus was stopped and condemned to the life imprisonment under various criminal charges and in particular the assassination of old the Prime Minister Rachid Karamé in 1987 and of Dany Chamoun in 1990. He was imprisoned with strict insulation and its access to the outside world was severely limited.

Defenders of the human rights whose international Amnesty criticized a lawsuit inequitable and led by political reasons.

The militants of the FL took an active part in the Révolution of the cedar of 2005. This revolution would not have been possible without the resistance as of these militants during the 15 years of true process of even physical elimination. With the elections which followed in May and June of the same year, the FL were combined with the running of the future of Saad Hariri, the Socialist party progressist of Walid Joumblatt, (and with the Hezbollah in the district of Baabda-Aley). This coalition gained 72 seats (including 5 deputies FL) on the 128 that the Parliament comprises. Samir Geagea was amnestied (and not cleared) the July 18th 2005.

See too

Internal bond

Lebanese Phalanges

External bond

Official site of the Lebanese Forces

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