Deputies of Bcharre responded to the statement issued by deputies, municipalities, and mukhtars of the Donieh region on July 16, 2023
In their following statement, Strida Tawk Geagea and Melhem Tawk emphasized the following:
Firstly, we were surprised by the distortion of facts and manipulation of compelling evidence regarding the killings of the martyrs Malek and Haitham Tawk, especially insinuating that the latter was a "victim of an armed clash" and the former fell due to a "clash" with the army.
However, these claims are merely anticipatory of the investigations and distortion of the established facts, which confirm that the killing of martyr Haitham Tawk was an act of treachery, premeditated and planned without any previous clashes leading to his murder.
The martyrdom of Malek Tawk, who bravely joined a group of Bsharri's youth to investigate the reasons behind Haitham Tawk's killing, occurred under circumstances that remain obscure and are still under investigation.
Secondly, the dispute over the demarcation of borders between the districts of Bcharre, Ehden, Hermel, and Donieh, specifically in the "Qoummat al-Shouhada" area, has been under consideration for years by the real estate judge in the North, who is the sole legal reference for making a ruling on this matter, based on a commission appointed by former Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil.
The commission consists of four expert surveyors, two Christians, and two Muslims. They are close to concluding their work after receiving all the maps and documents provided by Bsharri Municipality, confirming that "Qoummat al-Shouhada" lies within Bcharre Municipality's geographical scope since the time of the administration of the Old Mount Lebanon (i.e., before the establishment of the Greater Lebanon State).
Thirdly, Bekaasfrin Municipality has failed to produce evidence to support its alleged ownership of any part of our land in "Qammat al-Shouhada" over the previous years.
This is especially after the Lebanese Army's Directorate of Geographic Affairs repeatedly confirmed that the maps provided by the army were solely military maps to identify military locations and had no relevance whatsoever to defining and demarcating the borders in the area of "Qoummat al-Shouhada."
Additionally, the dispute has never been about using the water from the melting snow
because Bcharre Municipality alone has managed the pastures based on the terms and conditions stipulated by the judiciary since the early 20th century, which were submitted to the competent judiciary. The recent attempt to fabricate a water usage issue is just an effort to justify the new encroachment.
Fourthly, those who persist in blatantly interfering with the investigations and obstructing the work of the judicial authorities are the same individuals who previously predicted that the case of the two martyrs would be referred together to the military judiciary.
Now, they are preempting the investigations to promote their own narratives about the double crime, all of which involve an unwarranted attempt to manipulate and mislead the competent judge through a request - after years of judicial work - that lacks all the necessary legal and procedural requirements and is solely aimed at prolonging the resolution of the case through procrastination.
Fifthly, the use of methods to distort facts and incite people in order to sow discord among our honorable brethren in Bekaasfrin for the sake of protecting a handful of criminal killers through an attempt to obscure the perpetrator and accuse the victim will not succeed in creating any animosity between the people of Bcharre and the people of Bekaasfrin.
They have coexisted and shared joys and sorrows since ancient times, along with the people of Baalbek and the neighboring regions, to preserve the groundwater resources that everyone benefited from as nature intended, without any encroachment or manipulation.
In conclusion, we affirm our commitment to living as one community in one homeland governed by laws and regulations, with the competent judiciary resolving any disputes far removed from the law of the jungle. Justice, truth, and righteousness are the foundation of state-building. As for the methods of incitement and populism, they only lead to destruction.