A requiem mass was held at the St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Zgharta on the occasion of the 27th commemoration of the martyrdom of President René Moawad and his companions. The mass was led by the Patriarchal Vicar Archbishop Boulos Abdel Sater representing Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi. He was assisted by Father Estefan Franjieh, Father Jean Mora and Father Paul Morcos Doueihy, in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio Msgr. Gabriele Caccia, Msgr. Boutros Jabbour represented by Bishop George Abu Jaoude, and Bishops Boulos Emile Saadeh and Boulos Dahdah. Also present were the head of the Mar Sarkis and Bakhos monastery Father Ibrahim Abu Rajel, and a number of priests from the Zgharta Al Zawiyat. The Mass was served by the Kadisha Choir.
Participated in the Mass, along with former Minister Nayla René Moawad, the President of Independence Movement Michel René Moawad, his wife Marielle and their children, and the families of the martyrs:
The President of the Republic General Michel Aoun represented by the Minister Elias Bou Saab, Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri represented by MP Qassem Abdul Aziz, Prime Minister Tammam Salam represented by Minister Raymond Areiji, Prime Minister Saad Hariri represented by MP Samir Jisr, President Amine Gemayel and the leader of the Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel represented by MP Fadi Habr, President Hussein El Husseini, former Prime Minister Najib Mikati represented by Dr. Khaldoun Al Sharif, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora represented by MP Ahmad Fatfat.
Ministers Ashraf Al Rifi represented by his wife Salima Al Rifi, Boutros Harb represented by his son Majed Harb, the president of the Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil represented by Dr. Pierre Raffoul, the leader of the Lebanese Forces party Samir Geagea and his wife represented by MP Antoine Zahra, the chairman of the “Democratic Gathering” MP Walid Jumblatt represented by MP Henry Helou, MP Suleiman Franjieh represented by former minister Youssef Saadeh, and Mr. Tony Suleiman Franjieh.
Also present were:
MPs Mohammad Safadi, Khoder Habib, Joseph Maalouf, Fadi Karam, Antoine Saad, Mohammed Kabbara, Samer Saadeh, Hadi Hobeish, Amal Abu Zeid, Fouad Al-Saad, Kazem Al Khair, Khaled Daher and Imad al-Hout.
Former Ministers Marwan Charbel, Joe Sarkis, Freij Sabounjian, Jean Obeid represented by his son Suleiman Obeid, Faisal Karame represented by General Sami Minqara. Former MPs Sayed Akl, Jawad Boulos, Kaisar Moawad, Mustafa Alloush represented by Mr. Darwish Qadamani. From the diplomatic corps was present the European Union Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Lassen.
Were present also former Deputy Prime Minister General Issam Abu Jamra represented by Mr. Roy Abu Jaoude, the Commander of the Lebanese Army General Jean Kahwagi represented by General Adnan Saeed, the Director General of the Internal Security Forces General Ibrahim Basbous represented by General Ali Hazima, the Director General of the General Security General Abbas Ibrahim represented by Colonel Khattar Nasseredin, Director General of the State Security General George Karaa represented by Colonel Iskandar Younes, head of the military Intelligence Services Colonel General Camille Daher represented by Colonel Tony Antoun, General Chamel Roukoz, vice president of the Maronite League Me Tawfiq Moawad, the President of the Tripoli Bar Abdullah El Shami, the President of the Order of Engineers in the North Marius Baaini, the President of the Order of Doctors in the North Dr. Omar Ayyash, Joseph Mahfouz representing the President of the Order of Editors Elias Aoun.
Also present, the Caemmaqam of Zgharta Ms. Iman Al Rafihi, the President of Union of Municipalities of Zgharta Al Zawiyeh Zeenni Kheir, the Mayor of Zgharta- Ehden Dr. Cesar Bassim, a number of mayors and mukhtars from Zgharta and the North, delegations and responsible personalities from political parties as follows: George Bkasini member of the Future Movement political bureau representing the Secretary General Ahmad Hariri, the head of the political relations in the Lebanese Forces in Zgharta Sarkis Baha Doueihy with a delegation, the coordinator of the Future Movement in Zgharta Al Zawiyat Tarek Ajjaj, Mr. Assaad Karam, a delegation from the Free Patriotic Movement headed by Paul Makari, the coordinator of the Free Patriotic Movement in Tripoli engineer Tony Maroni, representatives of the National Liberal Party and “Harakat Al Tajadoud”, the President of the Earth Movement Talal Douaihy, a number of former presidents of Orders of liberal professions. In addition to a crowd of clerics, heads of military and security departments, families of the martyrs, a large number of dignitaries and representatives of religious, economic, educational, cultural and social associations and organizations, and municipal councils, and a large crowd of Zgharta Al Zawiyat citizens.
Sermon of Bishop Abdul Sater
After the Holy Gospel, Bishop Abdul Sater delivered a speech in which he said: “I first carry to you the affection of His Beatitude and Eminence Patriarch Beshara Al Rahi who assigned me to celebrate in his name this Holy Requiem Mass for the souls of the martyr President René Moawad and his companions. His Beatitude always holds prayers for Ehden – Zgharta for it to always be sacred, remain a source of great man for the church and the nation, and a home-land for heroes and martyrs who are capable to be impartial and to self-sacrifice for the sake of Lebanon and the Church in Lebanon, in order for us all to live a respectable life.
Some misguided souls did not want for our country to come out from chaos and absurdity, thus came the explosion of in the morning of Wednesday November 22nd 1989, to assassinate the President who was determined to establish Truth and apply justice, so that every citizen would live with dignity in his homeland, with his rights protected.
Evil men did not accept that disharmony and feuds end, and that the armed clashes stop. They eliminated a President who wanted to reestablish peace, a President who rejected the logic of ‘winner and looser’, who called for dialogue between all the Lebanese, who wanted to make reconciliations between the regions, and who devoted the few days he was in Office to preserve the dignity of every citizen wherever he originated from, whatever religion he followed and to whatever party he belonged.
Being Slaves to their ambitions, they refused that Lebanon reclaims its sovereignty and be freed from any foreign tutelage. On the Independence Day itself, the day in which we celebrate Freedom, they killed the one who had pledged to protect the national sovereignty from any aggressor, and to protect the citizens from any submission. They wanted by his assassination to spread fear in those who had a feeling towards Independence in their hearts, to steal the dream of the youth in a new Lebanon, and to sow despair in the souls of those who strove hard and endured hoping for a better life. But they failed!
The explosion shook the motorcade and President René Moawad was garlanded with martyrdom, along with his comrades: Colonel Joseph Ramia, Sayyed Elias Mora, George Khawand, Yacoub Al Sakkal, Joseph Basha, René Keedo Moawad and Assad Anwar Moawad. They are not mere victims of a cowardly act. They are heroes who overcame death and remain alive. They did not end up in the darkness of a grave, but they remain alive in Lebanon’s glorious history and in the heart of every genuine Lebanese citizen. Thus, they are victorious!
Today, the Maronite Church celebrates the day of the birth of John the Baptist. John, that voice that cried for Truth, and who is an eternal witness of Eternal Life. He was the prophet who faced with bravery the corrupt and unfair, and never feared death. How much he resembles our martyrs!
Today, we should not allow that the martyrdom of our loved ones becomes just a tragedy part of our past. Our duty is that we move away from lies and charlatanry, and that we move away from just pleasing others on the surface. Our duty is to stand by the oppressed even if he is a stranger, and to remove injustice even if the unjust is our brother. Our duty is to resist, with God’s grace, the tendency in us towards the material, the ephemeral and the superficial. Our duty is to clean corruption in us and around us. Our duty is to unite and work hand in hand. It is our duty to be living examples, who offer their lives out of Love, because we believe that humans are precious in the eyes of the Lord and that Death has been defeated. Amen.”
This was followed by a speech by the President of the Independence Movement Michel Moawad rich in notable political messages:
“27 years have gone by since the assassination of President René Moawad.
27 years have gone by since the martyrdom of Colonel Ramia, Joseph Basha, René Keedo, George Khawand, Sayyed Mora, Assad Moawad and Yacoub Al Sakkal.
I still feel them present around me.
I see them in the faces of their parents and brothers and children, in the faces of all of you who remained faithful to President Moawad’s political beliefs and the cause he was martyred for.
27 years have gone by and it seems as it was just yesterday…
It feels that it was just yesterday when I saw him for the last time in Paris, on the eve of his election on November 4th, 1989…
That night, he told me that the next day he will be elected President of the Republic and that his task will be very difficult … and that it involved danger,
and that if he suffered any harm, he entrusts me to assume my responsibilities and take care of my mother and my sister, take care of the family and of Zgharta… and not to leave Lebanon.
27 years have gone by and we are still here, my father…
We faced hard times and were constricted, but we didn’t give up at any moment,
We did not kneel down… just like you didn’t make compromises because of which they assassinated you.
They assassinated you because you were a strong President. Strong by your pacific approach to matters, by your smile that never left you, by your well-known diplomacy that made some say that you can carve a mountain with a needle…
And at the same time you were strong by your tenacity, your non resilience and your firm refusal to make any compromise on the Lebanese cause…
If you were not strong, they wouldn’t have assassinated you.
They assassinated you because they feared your inaugural Presidential speech and the Independence speech.
They assassinated you to assassinate the sovereignty element in the Taef Agreement. They assassinated you because you were a sovereign President par excellence, who succeeded in reconciling the sovereignty of Lebanon with his Arab identity. You were sovereign in your determination to enforce and spread the Lebanese State’s Authority on its full territory of 10452 km2, without any partner.
Sovereign because you refused the launching of a Syrian military assault on the Lebanese Presidential Palace. And sovereign because you refused to discuss the formation of the first Lebanese Government after the Taef with any non-Lebanese entity. For you, any Lebanese matter is to be discussed in Lebanon. And it is for the Lebanese officials to find solutions, by applying the articles of the Lebanese Constitution…
They assassinated you because you were the symbol and the guarantor of the National Pact and the proper partnership in Lebanon.
A real and balanced partnership between all the components of our Nation. A partnership where no party feels superior to another and no one exerts dominance on another.
A partnership that functions under the umbrella of the State and the Constitution, and aims for building Lebanon and bringing in development.
They assassinated you because you were from the Chehabist School, the national school of constitutional institutions. And you were determined to build all the State’s institutions, in all fields: The military, security, judicial, administrative and inspection institutions. Yes the inspection institutions…
Your goal in building the institutions was to protect freedoms and safeguard them, so that Lebanon reclaims its status of being a beacon of Democracy and development, and that the Lebanese live with dignity and freedom in their country.
They assassinated you to replace sovereignty with a foreign mandate, and partnership with hegemony, and institutions with ‘farms’ and corruption.
27 years have gone by, and today we are at the start of a new Presidential Mandate.
We witnessed a period of turmoil before the Presidential election, and we saw sharp divisions and confrontations.
With full realism, I say today:
The chapter of the Presidential election is behind us now, and Lebanon has a new President, a President of the Republic empowered by Christian and National reconciliations, agreements and legitimacy.
I therefore call upon all to close the chapter of the past disputes and to put an end to the past conflicts and the culture of disruption, which can only hurt the country and the people.
I invite everyone to unite around the new mandate, around the President of the Republic.
Because no one can cancel the other,
The country can accommodate all and not exclude anyone, as President Moawad always said.”
A 4-minute film that included valuable excerpts from martyr President René Moawad’s inaugural speech was also shown.
After the mass, Mrs Nayla Moawad, Michel René Moawad and the families of martyrs, received the ‘handshake of Compassion’ from the Apostolic Nuncio Msgr. Caccia and the bishops, priests and monks present. Prior to the Mass, they had received condolences, at the Moawad family residence, from mayors, dignitaries, representatives of various instances and citizens from Zgharta Al Zawiyat.
For the occasion, the streets of Zgharta and the main villages of Al Zawiyat were filled with banners holding quotes from the late President’s speeches and words, and others holding the signatures of supporters of the Martyr-President and the Independence Movement.
العربية