|
Anti-Syrian protesters take to streets
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-28 09:03
Several thousand anti-Syrian protesters took to Beirut's streets late Sunday
in defiance of a government ban, while a visiting U.S. official kept up
Washington's pressure on Syria by calling on it to withdraw its 15,000 troops
from Lebanon following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
earlier this month.
The protest came ahead of Monday's scheduled vote of confidence in the
pro-Damascus government of Prime Minister Omar Karami, which is under intense
pressure to find Hariri's killers. Many Lebanese say Karami's administration and
its major powerbroker, neighboring Syria, were behind the attack, a charge both
governments deny.
![Lebanese opposition supporters protest whilst waving Lebanese flags as they shout anti-Syrian slogans during a demonstration against Syria and the Lebanese government at the Martyrs square in down town Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Feb. 27, 2005. Shortly afterward, the Lebanese Army Command issued a statement calling on citizens not to demonstrate or gather in all Beirut areas, especially in squares and streets surrounding the Parliament building starting from 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Monday. [AP]](xin_550202280906961182753.jpg)
Lebanese opposition supporters protest whilst
waving Lebanese flags as they shout anti-Syrian slogans during a
demonstration against Syria and the Lebanese government at the Martyrs
square in down town Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Feb. 27, 2005. Shortly
afterward, the Lebanese Army Command issued a statement calling on
citizens not to demonstrate or gather in all Beirut areas, especially in
squares and streets surrounding the Parliament building starting from 5
a.m. (0300 GMT) on Monday. [AP] | Monday's parliamentary session will be the first to deal with the Feb. 14
bombing that killed Hariri and 16 others. Opposition lawmakers are expected to
demand details about the attack.
Scores of armed troops deployed on the main Martyrs' Square, near Hariri's
grave, where about 3,000 demonstrators gathered.
"We want the truth. Who killed Rafik Hariri?" Walid Jumblatt, an opposition
leader, said in a telephone interview on Hariri's Future television. He urged
the people to "go down today, tomorrow, for a month or two months until the
regime falls."
Troops blocked roads, banned motor traffic and turned away pedestrians from
Beirut's downtown district where the Parliament is situated in a high-profile
security operation ahead of the vote, which Karami said his "government may or
may not survive." He was speaking to Al-Arabiya TV.
Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh banned two protests from being held
Monday by anti-Syrian demonstrators and supporters of his government, citing
"supreme national interests and maintaining national peace."
Franjieh ordered "all security forces to take all measures necessary to
maintain security and order and prevent demonstrations and gatherings."
Despite the warning, anti-Syrian protesters turned out Sunday night in the
latest in a series of demonstrations involving tens of thousands of Lebanese
seething over Hariri's assassination.
Large crowds of protesters began converging on the city center, answering
calls from opposition leaders. Soldiers blocked more flag-waving demonstrators
from reaching the square where Hariri is buried, but some pushed soldiers while
others slipped through the cordon.
Protesters want Karami's government to resign and Syria to remove its 15,000
troops from Lebanon and stop interfering in Lebanese affairs. Hariri was seen as
quietly opposing Syria's control over Lebanon and had been expected to stand in
Parliamentary elections in April or May against Karami.
David Satterfield, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state who is visiting
Lebanon, reiterated Washington's demand that Damascus withdraw its troops from
Lebanon "as soon as possible" and end its involvement in Lebanese affairs.
Satterfield is expected to meet Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud on Monday to
urge a thorough inquiry into Hariri's killing.
Lebanon says it will cooperate with United Nations investigators currently in
Beirut but has refused a full foreign investigation of the killing. Despite
official Lebanese and Syrian denials of involvement in Hariri's death, the
attack has plunged Lebanon into its worst political crisis in years.
Lebanon's Army Command urged citizens not to demonstrate or gather anywhere
in Beirut from early Monday, but Syrian opponents rejected the ban and insisted
on a "peaceful and democratic sit-in," according to Ahmed Fatfat, a legislator
and ally of Hariri.
Syria said Thursday it would pull its forces eastward toward its border but
will not bring them home. There has been no visible Syrian military movement to
the eastern Bekaa Valley in line with a 1989 Arab-brokered agreement that ended
the 1975-1990 civil war.
In Egypt, visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa rejected pulling
all his country's forces out of Lebanon.
Though the pro-Syrian government has a supportive parliament, Damascus and
Beirut are under considerable domestic and international pressure to respond to
the calls for Syria to ease its political and military grip on its tiny
neighbor.
Police said vandals destroyed a bust of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad
in the southern village of Qana in a sign of growing grass-roots anti-Syrian
sentiment.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
