Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Saturday he hoped Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir's "historic" trip to Chouf Mountain, the home of the Druze community, would hasten the return of Christian refugees ousted in 1976.
"This is a historical visit," said Lahoud after receiving Cardinal Sfeir, head of Lebanon's largest Christian community, at the 19th century Beiteddine Palace at the heart of the mountainous Shouf district east of Beirut, said AFP.
Sfeir was the first patriarch to visit the area in 200 yeas.
"We hope that it will help speed up the operation of the return of the refugees to their villages and for the closure of this file," Lahoud said in a statement, cited by the agency.
The region witnessed massacres perpetrated by Palestinian and leftist Lebanese militias that forced tens of thousands of Christians to flee a year after the outbreak of the 1975-1990 civil war. Many of those people have still not returned.
Lahoud "hailed the atmosphere of reconciliation that prevailed during the patriarch's visit because this will help reinforce the unity of the Lebanese."
Lahoud, a Maronite himself, and Sfeir have often been at odds since the patriarch became one the strongest critics of Syria's military presence in Lebanon and its political dominance over its smaller neighbor.
Sfeir, as part of his three-day tour to reconcile the feuding Druze and Christian communities, was due later Saturday to visit the Christian town of Deir Al Kamar.
On Friday, Sfeir told some 7,000 people that the time had come for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty, the Daily Star quoted him as saying.
The historic gesture is a bid to further the process of reconciliation between the Christians and Druze in the mountainous district, 11 years after the end of the civil war.
Sfeir’s message was clear: the Lebanese had made mistakes in the past, but they had learned from them and now they were ready and capable of governing themselves, said the paper.
“We are beyond the puberty stage, we are now adults and are capable of running our own country,” Sfeir said during the first day of a three-day landmark visit to the Chouf.
“This is what the reputable leader, Walid Jumblatt, is calling for,” the patriarch said, “and this is what I, and every sane and patriotic person in the country are calling for, as well,” he added.
Sfeir was speaking in Kfarhim, his fourth stop following visits to Khaldeh, Naameh and Damour.
As for the reassessment of relations with Syria, an issue that Sfeir has been championing for nearly a year, the patriarch reiterated the Lebanese wish to maintain an “excellent relationship” with Damascus.
Christians and Druze have experienced troubled co-existence, marked by outbursts of intense violence since 1860, when Mount Lebanon was under Ottoman administration.
The massacre of Christians then prompted intervention by the then-major world powers -- Britain, France and Russia.
They imposed upon the Turks an autonomous status for Mount Lebanon, leading to the creation of the modern state of Lebanon - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
