Samir Geagea has had an interesting and complex political career in Lebanon. He grew up poor in Beirut and joined the Lebanese Forces political party as a young man. During Lebanon's civil war he rose to lead the Lebanese Forces militia and was involved in several battles. After the war, he continued his political career but was imprisoned from 1994-2005 due to accusations of war crimes. Upon his release, he returned to politics and made a public apology for any crimes committed during the war, which was a unprecedented move in Lebanese politics. His career and the responses to his apology continue to be controversial and debated in Lebanon.

1. Samir Geagea
In this presentation you will discover many details about the life
of Samir Geagea; a biography who covers all the stages of his
interesting life: childhood, politics, imprisonment, freedom and
penitence.

2. Samir Geagea, the penitent
 “Hakim”, Samir Geagea threw his apology on the table as if to
say: “am I the only lover that the love consequences are thrown
on my shoulders?” The Executive Committee of the Lebanese
forces Chief, Samir Geagea, presented, last Sunday morning
during a public meeting, transmitted directly by the media a
"profound, sincere and complete apology, for every wound,
harm, loss, or unjustified damage we caused, during the
performance of our national duties, throughout the past war".
Geagea, by this public apology, recorded an unusual precedent in
the Lebanese political forum. Aloof of the explanatory discretions
that accompanied his request of forgiveness from God and
people for crimes committed during his career, his behaviour
created a snow ball which still evokes contradictory reactions
among allies and adversaries. “Hakim” (Samir Geagea’s
nickname) did it. He threw his apology on the table. He threw it
in the face of his political opponents, and they are many. They
are not necessarily the opponents who confronted and fought
during the civil war. Some of these became an ally and
companion of struggle in “March 14” forces.

3.  The specificity of the apology, besides being a unique political act,
is that it was arisen from its presenter. The man, for a Lebanese
group, is an unmatched war criminal, and cannot be pardoned. As
if he is the only responsible for the Lebanese events woes and
towards all the warring communities past and present. He is, for
another group, a victim, and a Saint, paid the price of war and
peace. He inherited the antagonisms and commissions of his
party politics, and the circumstances he faced encountered more
hostility around him, so he was, and still be treated unjustly, but
he rises above injustice with pride and dignity. Other Lebanese
group consider him a militia leader in wartime. He is not different
from other leaders who became influential and took over the reins
of the country in peacetime. He deserves the chance that they
got. But the difference between Geagea and his “warlords
colleagues” that he paid a price they did not pay. He was jailed
more than 11 years and expiated by this some of his sins. Today,
he was the first to present an apology which was unacceptable by
those who rummage in the past to continue stoning him. On the
contrary, they considered this apology as an accusation or
admission of guilt and a golden opportunity to hold him
responsible of all Lebanon war crimes so that the poet words:
“am I the only lover that the love consequences are thrown on
my shoulders?” apply on him.

4.  But the autobiography of “the only lover” in the country of
rivalry, mutual hatred, prefabricated charges and the collapse
of values in the political discourse, is filled with what justify
every group reaction about this initiative.

5. Samir Geagea’s Childhood
 This biography starts in Ain El Remmaneh, a southern suburb of Beirut,
the place where the Lebanese war broke out in 1975 with the BUS famous
incident. There Samir was in autumn 1952, in a Maronite family from
Bsharreh on the highest peaks of Northern Lebanon. His home was
modest, consisting of a room, a kitchen and their facilities. (Ironically,
Geagea was the neighbour of his Christian rival General Michel Aoun who
was born in the nearness town Haret Hreik). The financial status of the
family was tight. The Father, Farid, is a first adjunct in the Army band, his
mother, Mary, is a housewife who raises her three children: Samir,
Joseph, and Nohad. In his childhood, Samir was restless at school, loved
challenge and debate. Out of school, he was crafty, and fond of organizing
concerts in his village. He was always focused on poor people, (the former
Minister Karim Pakradouni compared him with Robin Hood). So he dreamt
of becoming a doctor to treat his home town people and the poor for free.

6. Becoming a political member
 In 1969, he joined the “Lebanese Kataeb” party, and received in
1971 a scholarship at the American University of Beirut to study
medicine, but stopped his studies and only completed four years,
to participate in the civil war in Lebanon in 1975.
 In the summer of 1976 the first military stages of the young man
came out in Shekka battle in north Lebanon. After that, Samir
Geagea has emerged among the Kataeb supporters in the north,
and began to establish a military barracks in the area. At that
time he was nicknamed as “Chief Samir”.
 On February 9th, 1978, after the degeneration of the conflict
between “Al Marada Movement”, loyal to the late President
Suleiman Franjieh, and the Kataeb members, and the death of
the Kataeb responsible in Zgharta (Northern Lebanon), Joud Al
Bayea, the late President Bashir Gemayel decided to attack
Ehden, the main stronghold of Franjieh family. He gave the orders
to Geagea and the former minister Elie Hobeika to attack the
town. The attack conduced to the death of the Minister Tony
Franjieh, son of the former president, his wife and one of his
sons, while Tony's son, Minister Suleiman Franjieh survived. In
1979, Geagea participated in a losing battle against the Syrian
forces.

7.  In 1983, he entered the Mountain war where he exposure with
his supporters a crushing defeat. He withdrew and was sieged in
Deir Al-Qamar town in the Chouf. His defeats alternated in April,
1985 in East Sidon, and then in Iqlim Al Kharoub. However, this
defeats coupled with the horrors of the civil war did not eliminate
the man.
 It can be said that the actual history of Geagea began after the
assassination of Bashir Gemayel in 1982. He accompanied at that
stage the “Lebanese Forces”, which has suffered a complicated
labour that ended by taking its lead in January 1986, after an
uprising conducted by the “Lebanese Forces” against Hobeika
after he signed the tripartite agreement with Nabih Berri, “Amal
Movement” leader, and Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the
Progressive Socialist Party, under Syria patronage. “Hakim” led
hid uprising in alliance with the then President Amin Gemayel and
the Army Commander General Michel Aoun. They were able to
bring down Hobeika after a battle that caused death to hundreds
of Christians.

8.  Samir Geagea’s alliances were not to live long. Gemayel’s
mandate period was full of open conflict between the two men, a
conflict that did not end when Gemayel submitted the authority
to the then army chief General Michel Aoun, who formed a
transitional government in 1988 after the parliament failed to
elect a president. Shortly, he lured Geagea to the fierce
“cancellation war” against the Lebanese army led by Aoun, who
was seeking to dominate the Christian scene. This war led to
disastrous consequences for the Christians. After the Taif
Agreement, the “Lebanese Forces” turned into a political party as
the rest of the warring militias.
 Geagea was named Minister on December 24th, 1990 in President
Omar Karami government which approved the dissolution of
militias and the collect of weapons. Samir Geagea obeyed its
decision and on March 21st, 1991 he resigned from the
government, and designated his representative Roger Dib in his
place. Geagea also resigned on May 16th, 1992 from the
Government of Prime Minister Rashid Solh. He did not hesitate in
the summer of the same year to boycott the first general
parliamentary elections in Lebanon in twenty years.

9.  But what Geagea accepted did not protect him. In 1994 he was
arrested and prisoned because of being accused of the bombing
of Our Lady of Deliverance church in Kesserwan. Only his files,
among all other warlords, were disclosed and tried for the
assassination of the late Prime Minister Rashid Karami and
President of the “National Liberal Party” Danny Chamoun. He was
also accused of assassinating MP Tony Franjieh and his family in
Ehden. The Court sentenced him to death, and the sentence was
commuted to life imprisonment by a decision of the President of
the Republic at the time, the late Elias Hrawi. An adjudication to
dissolve the “Lebanese Forces” was also issued. Samir Geagea
was released under a special amnesty issued by the new
parliament, which emerged after the withdrawal of the Syrian
army from Lebanon in 2005 and returned to his political activity.
This is the general conspectus, but in details, Samir Geagea’s
biography is full of turning points, whether they were pleasant or
painful. Geagea, according to his close circle, has a mysterious
personality. He says that he is haunted by the history obsession.
His comrades say that he had a somewhat diffident personality,
hates the chaos, dispersive thought, and the political legends in
the Christian community.
Imprisonment of Samir Geagea

10.  In one of his statements he considers that he is not talented in the
foolishness field of and charges exchanges. He says: “there are a
number of politicians that have a vault of terms. And I don't know
where they invent them from. Michel Aoun, for example, reminds me
of the socialists in the 60s, when they launch an attack on someone:
Imperial, colonial, Zionist, reactionary. Maybe you are the most
progressive ever, but if your positions do not correspond to theirs,
they throw on your face this jungle of empty words”. What he says
about himself, does not match what is said about him. Especially
after the confrontation with Aoun, the “Lebanese Forces” picture
appeared sober and not beloved by many inhabitants of the areas
they control. Karim Pakradouni attributes in his writings this
“intensive hatred” to three reasons: “Geagea’s image for the public
opinion is an image of a man responsible of the displacement in the
North and the mountain, while he was not the only responsible for
both of them. The Lebanese Forces imposed fees and taxes, and that
was not popular despite people benefited from them. The third
reason was that people were fed up of militias, while Samir Geagea
took the Lebanese Forces in charge only in 1986, 10 years after it
was established. Aoun succeeded to take advantage of this and
appeared as the statesman who wants to abolish the militias, so
people drifted behind him.”

11.  Maybe Geagea has been carried this responsibility because the
observers associate the history of the “Lebanese Forces” to Bashir
Gemayel, the founder, and Samir Geagea the constructor who
transformed the party into a real institution. Pakradouni has
played an important role, along with the two leaders at one
stage. The relationship between the two young men was tensed
due to each one glitter, and it ranged between admiration and
competition. Pakradouni adds that “Samir Geagea has an
exceptional ability to cope with even the most difficult
circumstances even with the prison isolation and seclusion. He
triumphed over his imprisonment as he assimilated it, and the
prison became a part of his personality, personal and leadership
biography. He is extremely mystical; he does not reveal his secret
or his game, so everyone was afraid of him. He does not like to
argue a decision he adopted as he may deeply studied. When he
entered the prison, people were afraid of him more than they
loved him. After his imprisonment they loved him more than they
were afraid of him.”

12.  Despite the continuous accusations set against him as “an Israeli
state” who accompanied Geagea during the 80s, confirm that he
dismantled the relations that existed earlier between the
“Lebanese Forces” and Israel, because it is a legacy from the
Christian forces and must be got rid of it, and they are a burden
on the political movement of the “Lebanese Forces”, so he did not
develop them. In 1989 the Israelis offered that he move to the
occupied southern Lebanon known as the border tape to provide
him with protection after the international consensus on giving
the Syrian regime the green light to occupy Lebanon. But he
refused and said to them: “I am not prepared to protect your
borders. I will not be another Saad Haddad. I am Samir Geagea”.
The Israelis did not like him and neither did he. He received
numerous advices to stay out of Lebanon after the Taef
agreement, but he refused and preferred to face what awaited
him.

13.  Out of politics, Samir Geagea likes classical music and the
country Lebanese songs. And the jail period provided an
opportunity to plunge into reading. He loves literature, history,
political thought, philosophy and theology. At the prison, he
explored the mysticism literature. His marriage with his wife
Sitrida gave him a romantic aura, broke the intensity of the
fighter who was. He met her in 1987 at her uncle’s, MP Gebran
Tawk residence. They married in 1991 on the impact of Gibran
Khalil Gibran words of “Together you were born, and together you
stay”.
Besides politics

14.  After Geagea entered the prison, the romantic aura continued,
Sitrida has been busy fulfilling responsibilities thrown upon her
suddenly. She had not too many options, she had to confront or
leave. She chose the confrontation, and decided to stand by his
side. He is her love and her example. Throughout the period of
his imprisonment he was reminding the outside world of him
through Greeting Cards Sitrida persisted on sending them at the
beginning of each year, writing on them expressions to fit his
circumstances. After 11 years and 3 months in prison, Samir
Geagea ended a new phase of his life characterized by sharp
confrontations. When I asked him after getting back his freedom
about his hatred against those who imprisoned him, he said that
he bore a grudge in the first two years of prison, and he was
thinking of means of revenge. He was innovating means after
means. But then he reached a conviction that who offended him
no longer affects him. He felt that this conviction is capable of
protecting him from any harm hit him, or will hit him from any
side.
Besides politics

15.  After his release, he said: Samir Geagea, who was in the civil war, died in
prison. I have nothing to do with the old Geagea and the civil war stage.
Who can achieve his objectives by politics does not need to go to war. But
Geagea returned to the cycle of war with different weapons. Now, he only
has his word in front of the murder charges and disloyalty that are aimed
at him. And his apology, which is still pending on the political conflict sling
in Lebanon, can be read in the two directions.
 MP Elias Atallah says: “more than one internal and external component
entered the Lebanese civil war, killed tens of thousands of victims,
destroyed the state and published a culture of violence. It is with the
utmost arbitrariness that only a particular person or even one particular
organisation be accused of. Since the subject is the Lebanese Forces and
Samir Geagea, I think that many Lebanese parties exercised kinds of
violence similarly against each other’s. We experienced murders,
assassinations, physical and political liquidations. George Hawi was
assassinated and before him Mehdi Amel, Suheil Tawileh, Hussein Mroueh
and many others who committed these crimes is well known. But he did
not apologize to us. There is no any different formula from those who
were killed by the Lebanese Forces or others”.
The other Samir Geagea

16.  Atallah believes that focusing the campaign on one person is an
unjust focus “Either we open the war record and make
accountable to all in a comprehensive manner, and it seems that
it is impossible, or either we move beyond the past, but not on
adulteration, but through recognition and apology”. He considers
that “Samir Geagea imprisonment was a political revenge,
because the trial itself could be conducted against more than one
leader in Lebanon, and it did not, because the politics winds in
that time were intending a particular person. The most important
thing is that Samir Geagea acknowledged his mistakes. This does
not harm him in any way. The disaster is with whom consecrate
themselves and consider themselves higher than committing
errors.”
Sana Jacks