Geagea sorry for civil war-era mistakes

The Lebanese Forces (LF) leader apologizes to Lebanese people for the 'non-justified wounds' his party inflicted during the civil war.

"We made mistakes in the past, some were horrible and harmful, and if we could have avoided them we would not have committed them," Samir Geagea said.

Geagea, a Christian warlord during the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon, was speaking to thousands of LF partisans and supporters during a memorial mass in remembrance of those who died during the Lebanese civil war.

The Lebanese Forces leader fought the worst wars with Lebanese Muslims and refugee Palestinians for 15 years.

Geagea was imprisoned for 11 years in solitary confinement (1994-2005) for the crimes he allegedly committed. One of the convicted crimes was the assassination of former Sunni Prime Minister Omar Karami in 1986.

The Lebanese politician, meanwhile, lashed out at Hezbollah and the opposition, accusing them of what he called blocking the country's development.

Referring to Hezbollah, Geagea said, "as long as you maintain your arms, the state institutions will never function."

The Hezbollah-led parliamentary opposition and the ruling bloc in the Lebanese parliament remain at odds over the fate of Hezbollah's weapons.

Pro-western leaders have been seeking to pressure Hezbollah into giving up its arms, while Hezbollah insist on keeping its arms to resist Israel. Hezbollah also says that in the event of the May violence in Lebanon it was proven that all Lebanese groups are armed and even have mid-range and heavy weapons.