Christian warlord Samir Geagea led the Lebanese Forces militia during the 15-year-long Lebanese civil war. At one time, it was the largest militia in the conflict. After the 1989 Taif Accord brought peace to the country, Geagea ran afoul of the government. In 1994 he was convicted of planning several assassinations during the conflict and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2005 Geagea was pardoned by the government that took power after the Cedar Revolution and today he is a leader of the March 14th Movement.
Geagea sat down with The Daily Star Egypt’s Liam Stack to discuss his time in prison and his views on Lebanon’s complicated politics.
Daily Star Egypt: What effect did the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on March 14, 2005 have on Lebanese politics?
The March 14th event changed the whole political situation in Lebanon. Before, Syria was the major player and the Lebanese state was its puppet. But during the 2005 parliamentary elections, after Hariri was assassinated, the March 14th movement won the majority of the parliamentary seats.
After that, Syria and its allies began to reconsider the situation in Lebanon and plan a counter-attack. First they assassinated George Hawi, the secretary general of the Lebanese communist party. Next they killed Sami Qaseer, an independent journalist. After that they booby trapped some Christian areas, and after that they tried to kill May Chidiac. Then they assassinated Gibran Tueni and most recently Pierre Gemayel, who was a cabinet minister.
They are planning a comeback, with an eye on strategic events in the Middle East. Their whole strategy relies on an American failure in Iraq.
DSE: Some say Israel is to blame for last summer’s war, other blame Hezbollah and still others say the conflict was orchestrated by Syria and Iran. Who do you think is responsible for last summer’s war between Hezbollah and Israel?
Syria and its allies thought they could use a war to turn the political situation in Lebanon more to their favor. Even today, they are always looking for ways to rebound from their losses after March 14th. They thought a conflict with Israel would help them do that, so they launched the July War by kidnapping some Israeli soldiers.
When Iran and Syria saw security Council Resolution 1701 [which called for the disarmament of Hezbollah], and the Cedar Revolution moving forward in a very favorable international climate, they used the July War as a counter-attack.
The tensions that we have in Lebanon right now are not a war of the poor versus the rich, or the haves versus the have-nots. It is not a simple matter of a few cabinet ministers more or less. This is a Syrian and Iranian counter-attack against the Cedar Revolution and the principle of a free and independent Lebanon.
DSE: Why were you put in prison?
Why was I put in prison? Because I killed people. As a matter of fact, we were in a war. I think that during war people kill each other, and I was put in prison because I was at war.
In reality, I was put in prison because I was in the opposition. The Taif Agreement was good for Lebanon, but Syria hijacked it and wanted to use it to its own advantage.
The situation had no rules, no boundaries. Syria could do whatever it wanted. I was offered a ministerial position in the first government formed after the war but I refused, but the government was controlled by Damascus and was not really Lebanese. The same offer was made to me in the second government.
When Syria saw that I was not willing to serve as a minister and that I did not comply to any of their incentives, and that I was committed to opposing what they were doing in Lebanon, they disbanded my party – the Lebanese Forces – and put me in jail. They took different events from the civil war – some true and some were not – and said they were putting me in prison because of them. I was sentenced to 5 life sentences, but it was later reduced to only one. Of that, I served 11 years and 3 months.
DSE: How were you treated in prison?
I prison I never saw any other prisoners, only the faces of the soldiers. I was not allowed a radio or a TV or any other Lebanese media. I was only allowed to read The Economist, the magazine, because it deals with economy and foreign affairs and it doesn’t really talk about Lebanese affairs. I was also allowed to read scientific magazines.
I asked them to allow me to do a PhD or some kind of degree – I was interested in history – but they would not allow me to study. Any time I left the cell, for example for an interview with my wife, I was blindfolded from the time I left the cell until the time I arrived wherever it was I was going. In 11 years, I was allowed to have 2 meetings with my family and 2 with my lawyers.
I was only allowed outside for 1 hour every day, although later I was allowed to have an hour and a half in the sun because my physician requested it, since I was diagnosed with osteoperosis. My cell was three stories underground and it was only 6 square meters. I was confined in a place where they tortured people so I heard them torturing people all the time, every day for 11 years.
DSE: How do you think that Syria manipulated the Taif Accord?
The Agreement said many times that Syria should withdraw to the Bekaa Valley in 1992 and after 5 years it should leave Lebanon altogether. But Syria never withdrew. It began to interfere with the state so much that it became a puppet state. If we asked the Syrians “why won’t you leave?, they would say “we want to leave, but the Lebanese want us to stay. Ask the Lebanese, they say they are not ready or able to hold their country together.
Syria killed President Mouawad [Lebanon’s first president after the Taif Accord] because he wouldn’t stuff the cabinet with pro-Syria ministers. After that, the Syrians wanted to have power over appointments. They interfered with everything.
The Accord said that all militias should be disbanded and their arms given to the government. At the time Hezbollah was nothing, it was the smallest militia in the country. The other militias all dissolved, but the government refused to dissolve Hezbollah or any of the militant Palestinian groups. The Syrians only dissolved the militias that were opposed to them and kept the ones which served their interests.
