Christian ex-warlords reconcile in Lebanon

Two rival Christian leaders in Lebanon, Sleiman Frangieh and Samir Geagea, reconciled Wednesday after four decades of enmity dating back to a massacre during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war.

Geagea was accused of leading a militia raid which killed Frangieh’s parents, three-year-old sister and dozens of rival fighters in northern Lebanon in 1978.

The two former warlords signed a document pledging “to turn the page on the past and move on to new horizons”, in a televised meeting at the Maronite Christian patriarchate in Bkerke, north of Beirut.

Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi hailed the “historic meeting” between Franjieh, who is close to the Syrian regime, and Geagea, a fierce opponent of Damascus.