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 *
Samir Geagea was born on October 25,
1952 in Ain al-Remaneh, one of the suburbs of Beirut. He is one of
three children of Farid Geagea, an adjutant in the Lebanese Army. The
conditions of his youth wore modest, though he is part of one major
Maronite families based in Bshari, which is located in the mountains
regions of Northern Lebanon.
* He
completed his primary and
secondary level education in Ain al-Remaneh. Even in youth. He
belonged to student branches of the Kataeb party, the largest
Christian party in the country. After high school, he was able to
study medicine at the American University of Beirut (AUB) due partly
to a Khalil Gibran Association scholarship. (Gibran was also a native
of Bshari.) With the out breaking of fighting in Beirut in 1975 and
the division of the city, Samir Geagea had to leave AUB after live
years of study. He then transferred to St. Joseph University, located
in the Christian area.
*
When fighting broke out between
Christian militias and Palestinian-Muslim-leftist alliance in 1976 in
Kura region in northern Lebanon, Samir Geagea interrupted his academic
work to help defend the area. During the next few months, he
reorganized the party militia in the north (Bshari, Kura, Zgharta).
However, after the Syrian army entered the Kura at the end of the
summer, he returned to his medical studies in Beirut.
*
In 1978, only a few months from
his degree, Samir Geagea again broke away from his studies. At the
request of Bashir Gemayel, he agreed to return briefly to help the
newly formed Lebanese Forces-but only a temporary basis so that he
could complete his studies. However, in the first operation Geagea was
wounded in the opening fusillade. He was evacuated unconscious, moved
to a hospital, and later transferred to France to recuperate.
*
When he returned to Lebanon, Mr.
Geagea, now responsible for the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb along
northern front, moved to a convent in the upper mountains of Jbeil
where he reorganized the youth, opened training centers, and began the
development of fortifications opposite Syrian positions. He
established a headquarters at Qattara, an extremely isolated village
high in the mountains and cut off from population centers. He remained
in charge of this sector until early 1983.
*
In January 1983, the Lebanese
Forces command council appointed Samir Geagea, who retained his
responsibilities on the northern front, concurrent of its forces in
the Shuf-Aley sector of Mt. Lebanon, an area from which the Lebanese
Forces were forced to retreat in September 1983.
*
After the "mountain war," Mr.
Geagea returned to his headquarters in Qattara, where he developed,
organized, managed, and carried out a political and cultural education
and training program for regional leader in the Lebanese Forces. It
was during this period that his opposition to the Christian and
Lebanese situation began to be known-most notably his critiques of the
traditional Christian establishment and its dedication to personal
profits at the expense of the public interest. This call for social
change led the Kataeb party to "expel" him. The resulting upheaval in
the Lebanese Forces brought Geagea, Karim Pakradouni, and Elie Hobeika
(then the security chief of the Lebanese Forces) to force the
resignation of the then-commander of the Lebanese Forces, Fouad Abu
Nadir. Elie Hobeika was named head of its executive committee, Geagea
chief of staff.
*
On January 15, 1986, Samir Geagea
led a movement that removed Elie Hobeika and due to the improprieties
of the latter and, above all, to his having signed the so-called
"Tripartite Accord" with Syria. Every sector of Christian opinion was
opposed to the accord.
*
After the January 15 operation,
when he became commander of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea was
resorted to full membership in the Kataeb and indeed elected permanent
member of the political bureau of the party. Within months, he had
reorganized the Lebanese Forces and established standardized bases of
recruitment, selection, training, and promotion and founded the first
formal Lebanese Forces military academy at Ghusta. At the same time,
the Lebanese Forces became for the first time a political movement
with clear-cut socio-economic objectives and programs and with
friendly and cooperative ties to many foreign countries. The Lebanese
Forces also began the most ambitious and systemic social welfare
program ever undertaken in Lebanon and intended to help the
disadvantaged and displaced. Although these programs have since been
suspended in deference to government demands, the government has yet
to replace them
*
Since 1989, the Lebanese Forces
has worked diligently with the national government and foreign friends
to apply the principals of the Taef Accord intended to facilitate the
restoration of national unity and the reconstruction of the political,
economic, and social foundations of the country. Even in the face of
others' continuing and serious violations of the spirit and intent of
Taef, Samir Geagea continued to espouse a solution to the challenges
Lebanon faces that is bad on national solidarity and consensus.
Because he refused to be a partner in the farce that is ruling Lebanon
today, Geagea became a political prisoner.
*
The Lebanese Parliament passed legislation on 18 July 2005 to free
Samir Geagea. Only the Hezbollah deputies abstained from voting.
Geagea's party, the Lebanese Forces, held major celebrations
throughout Lebanon.
Geagea was released from prison 26
July 2005 and left Lebanon for medical tests. "I have spent 11
horrific years in solitary confinement in a 6-square-meter dungeon
three floors underground without sunlight or fresh air. But I endured
my hardships because I was merely living my convictions," he
was quoted saying upon his release. |
