Druze
overlord Walid Jumblat has made a strong expression
of sympathy with Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces, saying
no one can deny the energetic existence of the LF although
its has been outlawed by the government.
Jumblat made the remark after a meeting with Premier
Hariri Monday evening in which the ramifications of
Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir's historic tour of the Druze
hinterland was a prime topic of discussion.
Jumblat
was asked by reporters after the meeting about the
dense presence of LF flags side-by-side with the banners
of Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party during the
receptions given to the Maronite Patriarch at his
main Chouf stops.
"The
Lebanese forces is a fact, a movement with an energetic
presence," Jumblat responded. "Even if we
have officially cancelled it, the movement exists
and it attracts plenty of sympathy which we cannot
stop."
Jumblat
went on: "There are young Christian and non-Christian
believers with Lebanese Forces. " What should
we tell them? You don't exist? Of course not. They
do exist,"
Jumblat
recently called for the improvement of Geagea's incarceration
conditions at his prison in the Lebanese defense ministry,
where he has been serving since 1994 a total of 120
jail sentences.
Geagea
has complained through his defense attorneys that
he is subjected to "devastating psychological
torture in an airless, lightless underground cell"
at the defense ministry compound in suburban Yarze.
