Posted on 02/27/2005 2:54:54 PM PST by Pikamax
Lebanon opposition vows to defy protest ban Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:17 PM GMT Printer Friendly | Email Article | RSS
By Lucy Fielder
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Syrian-backed government has banned protests planned for Monday but a leading opposition figure vows demonstrations over the assassination of the country's former prime minister will go ahead regardless.
Government and pro-Syrian loyalists also planned a demonstration in central Beirut.
Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh called on security forces in a statement on Sunday "to take all necessary steps to preserve security and order and prevent demonstrations and gatherings on Monday".
Opposition groups have called a protest at the central Martyrs Square by the grave of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri and a one-day strike to coincide with a parliamentary debate on a February 14 killing that for many recalled Lebanon's bitter 1975-90 civil war.
Opposition deputies and many ordinary Lebanese have held Syria and the Lebanese authorities either directly or indirectly responsible for Hariri's death along with 17 other people in a car bombing. Damascus denies any role and has described Hariri's killing as terrorism.
Government and Syrian loyalists, meanwhile, planned to descend on central Beirut to protest against U.S. Deputy Secretary of State David Satterfield's visit to Lebanon as part of growing international pressure for Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.
Clashes between the two groups were feared.
An army statement asked the Lebanese people not to gather, particularly in the streets around parliament. Scores of security forces blocked those streets all day Sunday ahead of what is widely expected to be a fiery debate.
But ahead of the ban on demonstrations hundreds of opposition activists gathered in Martyr's square late on Sunday.
They waved Lebanese flags and played patriotic songs near a small encampment of anti-Syrian activists and listened to speeches by party activists.
Opposition figure Walid Jumblatt earlier promised there would be defiance on Monday, two weeks to the day after the killing that shocked Lebanon.
"We are going ahead. They cannot prevent us from going down peacefully, democratically and paying tributes to Rafik al-Hariri on the day of the national parliamentary debate where our main aim is to ask who killed Hariri," he told Reuters.
"We'll do our best. The army has banned it, it was not a surprise from a Lebanese regime that was somehow responsible for the killing of Rafik al-Hariri," he said by telephone from his palace in Lebanon's Chouf mountains.
They pledged last week to call a government no-confidence vote in the session and said security chiefs should be sacked and put on trial.
"I hope all the MPs will stand by their duty, defending the interests of the people in confronting this tyrannical fascist regime, because it's no more than two weeks since Hariri was killed," Jumblatt said.
DESTROYING THE EVIDENCE
The Druze chieftain, an outspoken critic of Syria's dominance of Lebanon, accused the authorities of hampering a United Nations fact-finding mission on Hariri's killing.
"They threatened him, then they killed him, then they did huge damage to the site of the explosion to prevent the international fact-finding mission from having clear-cut evidence," Jumblatt said.
"And tomorrow they are preventing people from praying and asking who killed Hariri."
Lebanon has launched an investigation but rejected calls for a full international probe.
Figures from across Lebanon's disparate opposition movement have seized on public fury at Hariri's killing to demand that Syria pull out its troops and intelligence services and that the Beirut government it backs resigns.
Thousands of Lebanese have taken to the streets since Hariri's death to make the same demands. About 200,000 marched through central Beirut in a mass outpouring of grief and anger at Hariri's funeral.
Even before a huge bomb blew apart Hariri's motorcade, tensions were building before May elections expected to focus on Syria's presence in its tiny neighbour.
Jumblatt acknowledged the government had a sound majority in parliament and would probably win the no-confidence vote.
"The government, I think, will have the majority but day by day they are losing popular confidence. But they will go to the end, it's a struggle for their survival.
"Our continuous struggle is for peaceful democratic change."
Washington and France have led growing international pressure on Damascus to pull out and were the main sponsors of a United Nations resolution on the issue.
Syria said last week it planned to redeploy its troops to the eastern Bekaa valley in line with the 16-year-old Taif agreement that ended Lebanon's war, but specified no time.
This is getting good.
Gee, now why did I think of this quote?
Looks like we may be headed for a showdown. Will there be another Tianenmen Square coming up? If so, it will only redound to freedom and liberty - not those who want to squelch it.
If the government fires on these peaceful protesters they will call the entire world down on their heads. I hope someone in charge over there is smart enough to figure that out.
God bless these people. Push em back, push, push em back....there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel of tyranny.
bump!
Stout hearts! Freedom is worth it!
John Kerry, when asked during the heat of the Presidential campaign what he'll do in Iraq as soon as he's elected......
"I don't know what kind of situation I'll be handed on January 20th. It could be Lebanon".
No, you idiot. After January 30th, Lebanon could be the next Iraq. Can you spell "bass ackwards"?
Freedom bump!
Ping
bttt
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