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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.
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