Abu Faour Reacts after Bassil's Remarks on War Killings, Displacement

W460

MP Wael Abu Faour of the Progressive Socialist Party snapped back Sunday at Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil over remarks by the latter about the killings and displacement that took place in Mount Lebanon during the civil war.

“Mount Lebanon's reconciliation is firm and more important than all parliamentary seats,” Abu Faour said during a municipal reconciliation in the Rashaya District town of Ain Harsha.

“We will not be dragged into the approach of hatred and the 'digging up of graves,'” Abu Faour stressed.

Bassil had earlier in the day called for a “political return to Mount Lebanon” during a visit to the Aley District town of Rechmaya.

“People were displaced and they left their towns due to tragic incidents. Can anyone remove this from memory and history? People like you can forgive thanks to love and patriotism, but they can't forget so that the events of the past don't get repeated,” Bassil said.

“The wound heals but its marks remain, so that we remember and don't repeat the past,” he added.

“The reconciliation has not been completed, and because we want it to be complete, we want the return (of the displaced) to be real. Through the new electoral law, everyone can be represented,” Bassil went on to say.

“We tell our people in the region that the time has come for political return and it will happen through an election that leads to fair representation,” the FPM chief added.

Lamenting that “a large part of the region's residents have not yet returned” to their towns, Bassil emphasized that “this issue needs a real solution.”

“This cannot happen through ceremonies, speeches and statements about reconciliation. As a state, what have we done for the sake of the return?” he added.

“We are not seeking to evoke the past but the right to knowledge is something natural. Every person has the right to know where their relatives were buried,” Bassil added, referring to those who were killed during the 1983 clashes and mass killings in the Mount Lebanon regions of Chouf and Aley.

Comments 1
Thumb i.report 15 October 2017, 21:44

@Yes Comment;

I'd like to emphasise that I'm the least frequent commenter here, but I know youre style!

the SSNP are much more patriotic than Hezbollah. Nobody pays attention to the SSNP, not even the Syrian Baath. Hezbollah however takes its instructions from Tehran, everything is decided in Tehran. No long ago it, their instructions also used to come from Damascus. If we take a shortcut, we can easily imagine them taking instructions from Tel Aviv.