Minister of National Defense, Michel Mansi, issued a statement in which he apologized to the families of the army martyrs, expressing his feeling that he was unable to protect their rights as they deserved, or raise the voice of the army in the House of Representatives when it should have been heard.
Mansi said: “I apologize, oh families of the martyrs, oh you who gave the homeland your own souls, I apologize because I stood in front of your pain, and I did not have anything equal to the greatness of the sacrifices,” stressing that the blood of their children “is a trust on our necks,” and that he was unable to protect their rights or raise the voice of the army, adding: “So the speech in the House of Representatives fell silent, and the voice of the martyrs alone remained loud within me.”
He pointed out that an apology “does not bring back a martyr, does not wipe away a mother’s tear, and does not fill the place of a father, brother, or son who departed while performing his duty,” adding that he feels, regardless of his position, that he has failed the families of the martyrs.
Mansi pledged that the blood of the martyrs would remain on his conscience, that the army would remain present in his voice and position, and that he would defend his right to speak “just as your sons defended Lebanon with their lives,” stressing that his apology does not come out of fear of reproach, but rather out of respect for the blood of the martyrs.
He added that he saw “how voices came together over the voice of the army, and how positions coalesced when what was required was to be protected, not besieged,” speaking of prejudice against the military institution and solidarity against it when it was wanted to be silenced, “as if the voice of the army had become a burden, and as if the blood of the martyrs had become a detail in the calculations of some people.”
The Minister of Defense expressed his regret for not being able to say what should have been said and raised the voice of the military establishment, saying: “Yesterday the army was prevented from speaking, but the blood of its martyrs was not prevented from speaking on my conscience.”
He stressed that the army “is not a party in a dispute, nor is it a card to be used and thrown away,” considering that it is “the last remaining trust of this country,” and that its sons who fell as martyrs did not ask Lebanon to whom they belong, but rather “how do we protect it?”
Mansi concluded by apologizing to the martyrs before their families for not being able to make their voices heard as their blood deserved, pledging that “silence will not be fate, and yesterday’s disappointment will not be the end of the story.”
