southern Lebanese village of Qana. Police officials said that vandals damaged
the bust. Many Lebanese want the Syrian army out of their country.
Photo: AP
Posted on 02/28/2005 7:00:00 AM PST by GulfBreeze
Lebanese Defy Protest Ban as Debate on Hariri Rages Mon Feb 28, 2005 08:31 AM ET
By Lucy Fielder BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Syrian-backed government came under fire in parliament Monday over the assassination of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri, while streets away thousands defied a protest ban to demand it stand down.
The debate, which looked certain to roll on to Tuesday, was expected to close with a no-confidence vote. But the government has a sound majority and was expected to win.
Banks, schools and businesses closed in a general strike the opposition called to coincide with the debate on Hariri's Feb. 14 killing, an attack that recalled Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.
Hundreds of Lebanese soldiers with assault rifles fanned out in an otherwise deserted downtown Beirut. Metal barricades and barbed wire barred roads to the protest scene and to parliament but soldiers gave up on stopping small groups push through.
In Martyrs Square, by Hariri's grave, a few thousand flag-waving protesters massed to watch the debate live on large television screens while loudspeakers blared patriotic songs.
"Syria out" and "Freedom, sovereignty, independence," they chanted, demanding that the government resign over its handling of a killing many Lebanese blame on its Syrian patrons.
Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh told security forces on Sunday "to take all necessary steps to preserve security and order and prevent demonstrations and gatherings Monday."
"This government, even if it does not fall, has fallen in our eyes," said protester Rami Ghanem, 27, a hotel worker. "We want to expel the Syrian army and its intelligence apparatus from Lebanon."
WHO KILLED HARIRI?
Deputies observed a minute's silence then, unusually, broke into the national anthem. "Parliament asks today: who killed Rafik al-Hariri?" Speaker Nabih Berri began.
Opposition MPs, wearing the red-and-white scarves that have come to symbolize their movement, pointed the finger at the Syrian-backed authorities and planned a no-confidence vote.
"I say to Rafik al-Hariri: 'You are alive in your grave Rafik while those sitting on their thrones are dead'," opposition MP Nimatallah Abi Nasr said.
But since the government has a majority and is likely to win, Prime Minister Omar Karami also called for the vote.
"What happened in the past few days, starting with the crime of the assassination, the reactions, sharp political rivalries and doubts raised over the government's legitimacy prompts us to ... ask for your confidence again," Karami said.
MP Bahia Hariri, the late billionaire businessman's sister, broke down in tears addressing the almost full lower house.
Parliament adjourned for a few hours Monday afternoon.
Opposition MPs and many ordinary Lebanese hold Syria, which has 14,000 troops in Lebanon, and the Beirut authorities responsible for the deaths of Hariri and 17 others when a bomb blew apart his motorcade.
President Bashar al-Assad again denied Damascus had a hand in the bombing in an interview with an Italian newspaper. "For us it would be like political suicide," he said.
Assad indicated a total withdrawal from Lebanon, for which there is growing international pressure, would be linked to peace with arch-foe Israel and was not therefore imminent.
"From a technical viewpoint, the repatriation (of Syrian forces) could happen within the end of the year. But from a strategic viewpoint it will only happen if we get serious guarantees. In a word, peace," Assad said.
Main opposition figure Walid Jumblatt told Lebanon's LBC television no one wanted enmity with the Syrians.
"But we say to them leave us, leave us, leave us," he said.
"We want the MPs today to use their conscience. Either the loyalist MPs assassinate Hariri a second time or they join the opposition," he said from his palace in the Chouf mountains, where he has been holed up for days over fears for his life.
Loyalists responded to the protest ban by calling off a counter-march in central Beirut against U.S. Deputy Secretary of State David Satterfield's current visit to Lebanon as part of growing international pressure for Syria to withdraw its troops.
The opposition called last week for security chiefs to be sacked and tried. Lebanon has launched an investigation into the assassination but rejected calls for an international probe.
Satterfield, on a four-day visit, met officials, opposition politicians and religious figures. "The time has come for the Lebanese people to be able to face their own decisions," he said after meeting Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud.
How many dictatorships have fall before people understand that we are doing more than just spreading our own capitalistic borders?
Does anyone actually believe that the Lebanese people would have had the courage or cover to stand up to the Syrian dictatorship had we not liberated Iraq? Or without the U.S. calling palestinian terrorism what it is?
Thank God for the path laid out buy Ronald Reagan and Thank God for the path followed through by George W Bush.
Check this excellent post too http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1347695/posts
Remember Lebanon is technically the only "Christian" (Marionite Catholic) nation in the Middle East and pray for Peace Through Strength in the Middle East.
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Reap, not reep.
If you insist on changing headlines to break the SEARCH function, you should at least spell them right.
Please do not change titles.
Awesome picture!
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