Lebanon’s Maronite leader, Nasrallah Sfeir, on Wednesday criticized what he called a wave of state "repression" carried out through the arrests of anti-Syrian Christians.
Scores of followers of former army commander Gen. Michel Aoun and members of the Lebanese Forces were arrested on Tuesday in a clampdown on the two hard-line Christian factions, which demand Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon.
"Not only are we sorry for those arrests, but we also denounce them strongly," the patriarch said in a press conference attended by relatives of some of those in detention.
"Repression has never resolved problems, which can only be settled with calm, wisdom and dialogue," he said, cited by AFP.
Sfeir said the arrests "came after our tour to the Chouf," a mountainous district that witnessed massacres between Christians and Muslims during the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
"Some people say -- and we are not from that opinion -- that the state does not want a reconciliation between the Maronites and the Druze, the Christians and the Muslims.
"We are all tired of fighting, struggles, wars, destruction and killings. We want to live in our country without fear. We want to live with our heads up, hand in hand and heart to heart among Muslims and Christians," he said.
Sfeir said "we do not want to enter into a battle against the state, but the state has to respect the citizens, just as the citizens have to respect the state, and without this Lebanon cannot be revived.
"We do not want provocation, neither from the people nor from the security services," he said.
"The people, especially the young, should understand that it is not permitted to provoke the state and that they raise slogans that should not be raised, but the state should also respect the opinion of the people and allows them to express their opinions calmly," he said.
During his weekend tour of the Chouf, Sfeir had to intervene to calm a crowd of Christian opposition militants who shouted anti-Syrian slogans.
According to the Daily Star, Tuesday's wave of arrests constituted a “rare offensive aimed to silence voices that have resumed calls for the withdrawal.”
Many of those detained were at a reception for Sfeir in Kahaleh on his return journey from the Chouf.
The visit was described as historic, in light of the deeply rooted enmity between the Lebanese Christians and Druze.
According to the daily, the arrests marred the positive political mood that followed the reconciliation in the Chouf, cemented by Sfeir and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
The military action fueled speculation that authorities were deliberately trying to undermine the weekend’s achievements, it added.
AFP and local media reported that the army's intelligence services arrested a high-ranking official of the banned Lebanese Forces Christian militia, Toufic Hindi, among other key figures.
An army officer who introduced himself as Col. Georges Sawaya, from the army's intelligence services, came to Hindi's home with two other officers and a civilian but no warrant, Hindi's entourage told the agency.
They did not allow him to make telephone calls and took him to an unknown destination, giving no explanation.
The leader of the National Liberal Party (NLP), Dory Chamoun, confirmed to AFP that Hindi had been arrested, as well as retired general Nadim Lteif, the coordinator of the Free National Current (FNC), another party in Lebanon's Christian opposition.
The army issued a statement saying they "had arrested people who were holding unauthorized meetings,” but did not elaborate on the identities of the arrestees or their number.
Liberal MP Nassib Lahoud also confirmed the arrests, called for their "immediate release,” and slammed what he said were "roundups aimed at people who have done nothing but express their political opinions, and which are not worthy of a state which calls itself democratic."
The private television network MTV said that in addition to Hindi and Lteif, "more than 100 Christian militants opposed to the pro-Syrian power have been arrested.”
MTV broadcast footage showing young people being taken away in army lorries.
The Future Television network, which belongs to Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, said some 40 members of the Lebanese Forces and the Aounist Party, as well as dozens of their supporters, had been arrested.
Jumblatt told television reporters the arrests were "a stupid and irresponsible reaction on the part of the officials from the Lebanese intelligence services."
"I would like to know who runs this country, the intelligence services or the head of state and the government," said Jumblatt, one of the most vocal foes of Syria's military presence in Lebanon – Albawaba.com
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