Lebanonwire.com | Syrian archfoe prepares Beirut homecoming after troop pullout

Top Banner

May 4, 2005

Syrian archfoe prepares Beirut homecoming after troop pullout
by Henri Mamarbachi

BEIRUT, May 4 (AFP) - Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun returns to Lebanon after 15 years in exile Saturday hoping to stake a claim to high office after last month's departure of the Syrian troops which forced him out.

An arch-foe of Syria throughout his long years of exile in France, Aoun's homecoming is a mark of the sea change in Lebanese politics since the February killing of five-time prime minister Rafiq Hariri unleashed a wave of anger that forced Damascus to relax its grip.

Now 70, Aoun remains a controversial figure.

To his supporters within Lebanon's Maronite Christian community, General Aoun, the former armed forces chief, kept alight the torch of Lebanese nationalism during the dark days of Syrian domination.

To his detractors, the bloody "war of liberation" which he waged against Syrian troops as interim prime minister between March 1989 and October 1990 unnecessarily prolonged the suffering of Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

Ahead of Saturday's homecoming, posters have appeared on the walls of Beirut comparing it to the triumphant return of France's exiled World War II leader Charles De Gaulle after the expulsion of German troops.

"De Gaulle 1945, Aoun 2005," proclaimed one poster put up by his supporters.

Aoun himself has made no secret of his political ambitions now that his Syrian foes have gone.

"The job that goes to the Christians (under Lebanon's unwritten constitution) is that of president," Aoun told AFP last month.

"If there is a national consensus, I will assume my responsibilities at that time," he said.

In a separate interview with Beirut's top selling newspaper An-Nahar, he said he had big plans for Lebanon.

"My ambition is to achieve something big, not political toying," he said, adding that he sensed a demand from the young for him to return "to achieve their objectives" of freedom and democracy.

"The resistance to occupation is over and we must now engage in a new battle to liberate the Lebanese so that they can learn to make their own choices," he said in an interview published on his website Saturday.

Aoun's supporters broke with most of the rest of the opposition Monday, announcing that they would maintain a "freedom camp" in Martyrs' Square in central Beirut that became a symbol of this spring's protests.

The rival Lebanese Forces movement of jailed Christian leader and former warlord Samir Geagea joined Druze and Sunni factions in ending its presence in the camp.

It is not the only issue that divides the heterogeneous opposition alliance.

The main opposition factions accepted a proposal by pro-Syrian parties to keep the old electoral law from 2000 for parliamentary polls due later this month.

That law was seen as unfavourable to Christian parties in its drawing up of parliamentary constituencies and its readoption sparked a furious reaction from Aoun.

The opposition's agreement to the law amounted to "treason", he told the Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya.

Aoun also has plenty of historic enemies in Lebanon from the 1975-90 civil war, even if he has moved to mend fences in recent months.

In April, Aoun received Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose militiamen fought fierce battles with Lebanese army units under the general's command, for a 30-minute meeting at his Paris residence.

Aoun also faces outstanding charges against him in his home country that have already prompted the postponement of his homecoming more than once.

They are connected with testimony he gave to a US congressional committee in 2003 which helped pave the way for Washington's adoption of sanctions against Syria and which Lebanon'spro-Damascus government of the time deemed damaging to relations with its larger neighbour.

A verdict is due on Thursday.