Taef Accord, the Crime
By: Elias Bejjani

The most accurate description of the "Taef Crime" is illustrated in Pierre Raffoul’s book "Aoun: the Lebanese Awakening". Raffoul said: " Taef is a Saudi summer vacation area where the Saudi royal family and wealthy Saudis spend the hot summer season. Its past has been a shame in Islam history, while its present is a shame in contemporary Lebanese history. Its people betrayed Prophet Mohammed fifteen centuries ago, and in it Lebanese MP’s offered their country as a gift to the occupier and sold its sovereignty and independence".

There are different prominent landmarks in contemporary Lebanese history. Some are very positive and make people feel extremely proud, hailing the leaders who made them happen. Many other landmarks are shameful even to mention and people curse those who were behind them. In fact "Taef Accord" is one of the most shameful situations in Lebanon’s contemporary history.

"Taef" was forced on Lebanon by regional and international powers with the help of mercenary Lebanese collaborators and Trojans. Its prime aim was and still is, to destroy Lebanon’s sovereignty, confiscate its independence, dismantle its demography, abolish its distinguished identity, eradicate its history, muffle its freedoms, persecute its patriots, intimidate its people, to force the Lebanese to be submissive or emigrate. The other aim was and still is to install a Lebanese puppet mercenary regime willing to help regional neighboring countries find a solution for the Middle East crisis at the expense of Lebanon and its people.

October 22/1989, was a black day in Lebanon’s contemporary history. That day at the Taef Saudi City, under still unclear circumstances, 58 out of 63 Lebanese MP’s signed the humiliating "Taef Accord". Their hosts advised them to sign and denied them any chance for make even minor changes to the accord. They were notified that the big powers had already agreed on the proposed accord and that it would be implemented with or without their approval. MP’s signed and got dearly paid (millions of dollars) for their treasonous act.

The Lebanese who accepted the imposed accord made themselves slaves for the Syrian occupier and servants for his vicious schemes. They betrayed their country, sided with the occupier and abandoned all history and the sacred sacrifices of thousands of martyrs.

The Majority rejected the accord and stood tall like Lebanon’s cedars saying, NO, to the venomous temptation of money, power and status. They decided to preserve their country’s rights by all available, peaceful means. They adopted a civilized resistance strategy and started advocating loudly for reclaiming what was stolen from them through "Taef Accord". They have been exposed to persecution, imprisonment, displacement, torture, humiliation, poverty, harassment, exile and assassination. Despite all the pain and the sacrifices, the majority maintained their faith and continued in their Ghandian resistance quest.

Ten years after imposing "Taef Accord", ousting the legitimate government headed by General Michel Aoun, occupying the free regions of Lebanon and installing a puppet regime of collaborators, we ask who was right and who was wrong?

The actual answer is found in the on going occupational status-quo legalized by the Accord,
In the economic dilemma people are suffering in after their middle class was destroyed, with two thirds of them (according to the UN statistics) now living below the poverty line,
In the 35% unemployment rate,
In the 23 billion dollars of public debt and in the devaluated value of the national currency,
In the illegal presence of one and a half million Syrian workers conquering our labor markets and forcing young men and women to immigrate looking for jobs in other countries,
In the 820 thousand Lebanese forced to immigrate since 1991,
In the half million foreigners who were granted Lebanon’s citizenship, illegally. Most of them were Syrians and some were in even jail at that time, while many others are criminals, drug traffickers and have never laid a foot in Lebanon,
In an ongoing ordeal of half million Lebanese displaced in their own country,
In a mercenary media and forced Arabism-Syrian ideology,
In myriad unfair, biased, so-called agreements dictated on us by Syria.

We see the answer too in vicious schemes targeting our forests, fields, water, sea, farmers, industry,
In the crippled Lebanese foreign policy,
In a devious conspiracy orchestrated by Syria against our people in South Lebanon to abort any Israeli withdrawal from the area,
In waging a war still burning in South Lebanon, while all other frontiers in the area including Syria’s Golan heights are tranquil and peaceful,
In the dilemma of hundreds of innocent Lebanese citizens detained arbitrarily in Syrian jails,
In our imprisoned and exiled patriotic leaders,
In the subservience and collaboration of officials,
In the mockery of forged parliamentary elections and appointment of Presidents by Syria,
In the forged history books etc.

On its tenth anniversary, let us never forget the fact that the so-called "Taef Accord" was a conspiracy against Lebanon and its people and a brutal crime against everything that is Lebanese.

Long Live Free Lebanon

November 15/1999
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