BEIRUT - Hundreds of followers of jailed former Christian warlord Samir Geagea held a sit-in Thursday to demand his release as part of efforts to seal post-war national reconciliation.
"There cannot be reconciliation without the release of Samir Geagea," Tony Geagea, an official from the jailed leader's outlawed Lebanese Forces militia, told the protestors on Martyrs' Square.
During the sit-in meant to mark the 11th anniversary of his arrest, the protestors released 4,015 white balloons, printed with "free Samir Geagea," to represent the days of incarceration of the former militia commander.
The crowd cheered as youths broke down the effigy of a prison cell, reading: "the dawn of freedom is coming."
Last week, Lebanese MPs presented a proposed change to a post-war amnesty law to secure the release of Geagea, the only civil war militia leader to have been prosecuted and jailed.
Other pro-Syrian warlords -- both Christian and Muslim -- have taken part in post-war governments.
Near Martyrs' Square, dozens of youths joined relatives of Lebanese citizens presumed missing or imprisoned in Syria in a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the United Nations in Beirut.
Geagea was jailed after being accused of carrying out a 1994 church bombing that killed 11 people north of Beirut. He was later found not guilty of the attack but remained in jail after being sentenced to death for other cases, including the assassinations of rival Christian leaders.
His sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Amnesty International has accused the authorities of mistreating him in his isolated defence ministry prison cell.
04/21/2005 18:02 GMT