Christian politicians urge youths to take part in polls

Freedom 'did not emerge from a void'

By Nada Bakri

BEIRUT: Various Christian politicians urged Lebanese youths and civil-society sectors to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections to reform Lebanon and help it realize its sovereignty, freedom and independence.

Kesrouan MP Farid Khazen, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) member Ibrahim Kanaan as well as Alain Aoun and George Abi Zeid from the National Bloc were speaking during a conference at Notre Dames University, in Zouk Mosbeh.

Khazen said: "We are currently facing a historic situation.

"We should prove our ability to rule ourselves and reform our country or we will be faced with a catastrophe no one can assess the results of."

Khazen explained to a large audience of NDU students and professors that Lebanese politicians and decision-makers are the reason behind the deterioration of the country's political situation.

Aoun Calls for Geagea Release From Jail

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon - In a sign of the dramatic changes in a Lebanon free of Syrian control, Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun visited his former arch foe in jail Wednesday and called for his release after 11 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement in an underground cell.

The meeting between Aoun and imprisoned Christian leader Samir Geagea comes about 10 days before crucial parliamentary elections that opposition politicians hope to sweep, and could lead to more alliances at the polls between supporters of the two.

"The page of the past cannot be partially turned. Either it is fully turned or it is not," Aoun said after the hour-long meeting, which he described as emotional. "Keeping him in prison is an injustice... I declare my solidarity with him until he is released."

Aoun is a former army commander and was interim prime minister in 1988-89. Geagea led the now defunct Lebanese Forces militia. The two fought a savage war for control of the Christian heartland in the final days of the 1975-90 civil war in which some 800 people were killed. Aoun, who returned from 14 years of exile in Paris this month, said the meeting with Geagea symbolized a new beginning.

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