Joumblatt: Church bells will ring again in three villages on Mountain
At the end of a visit to Patriarch Sfeir, the Druze leader emphasized the "historical relationship" with Christians and recalled the "reconciliation of the Mountain" that allowed Christians to return to villages they fled during the civil war.
Beirut (AsiaNews) Church bells will ring again in three villages of Chouf, the Lebanese Mountain from where Christians were forced to flee during the civil war. The prediction was made by Walid Joumblatt, the Druze leader, after a visit to the Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in Bkerke yesterday.
The Progressive Socialist Party leader said his visit to Bkerke "reinforced the historical association between the Chouf and Bkerke, and fortified the historical reconciliation of the Mountain", which took place in 2001. In the summer of that year, Cardinal Sfeir was able to visit the Mountain for the first time after the flight of thousands of Christians from villages at the end of a bloody conflict between Christians and Druze during the 1975-1990 Civil War.
"I have not visited Bkerke in a long time due to the tense security situation in the country, but the intellectual and political relationship with Bkerke, which represents good, has always remained active... I came to reaffirm this historical relationship and to remind those who pretend to have forgotten about it, that on 4 and 5 August 2001, Patriarch Sfeir visited the Mountain. We have consolidated historical reconciliation with him. On that occasion, the bells of all the churches rang out, and now, God willing, with the help of the Lebanese government and divine benediction the real one of the patriarch, the church bells of Kfar Matta, Obeih and Brih will ring again." The reference to the "real" blessing appears to be a controversial dig at the rival Hezbollah party and its "divine victory".
"Reconciliation" is allowing the return of Christians although years of exile have created several problems linked to property restitution. At times, these problems mean that return, although theoretically possible, is not feasible. In some villages, like in Brih, exhausting negotiations are under way between Christian land owners and Druze people who built houses on top of this land.
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03/08/2018 15:45
