Massive farewell for slain Lebanon minister

AFP ^ | 11/23/06

[Valin]

Central Beirut was a sea of people as Lebanese turned out in strength for the funeral of anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel, whose murder threatens to plunge the country deeper into political turmoil. The crowd, which local media estimated at hundreds of thousands, heard fiery speeches from leaders of the beleaguered pro-Western governing coalition castigating Syria and its local allies for the violence dogging the country.

Gemayel was the sixth outspoken critic of Damascus to be killed in the past two years, and speaker after speaker vowed that they would not rest until the truth had been established and justice was done. "We will not tire until we bring the killers to court," the murdered minister's father, Amin Gemayel, told the crowd from behind a bullet-proof screen. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Pierre Gemayel joined "the previous martyrs ... who had refused ... the regime of tutelage, killings and assassinations."

Sunni leader Saad Hariri, who lost his five-time prime minister father Rafiq to an assassin's bomb in February 2005, told the crowd that they had shown the world that those opposed to Syria's machinations, and not Damascus's allies, were in the majority in Lebanon. "You are here for a new revolution to show the entire world that the sons of Rafiq Hariri and the brothers of Pierre Gemayel are the majority in Lebanon," he said.

The vast crowd turned the central Martyrs' Square into a rowdy sea of flags, contrasting with the calm of a funeral service attended by dignitaries, including French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Arab League chief Amr Mussa, in the nearby Maronite Cathedral of St George. The pallbearers struggled to carry the coffins into the church through the mass of people outside. Gemayel's bodyguard, Samir Shartuni, who was killed alongside him in Tuesday's ambush on the outskirts of Beirut, was also being laid to rest. Pope Benedict XVI condemned the "unspeakable" assassination in a message read at the funeral.

Gemayel's coffin was then taken to his native Bikfaya in the mountains east of Beirut and buried in the family vault in the village cemetery. Mourners trampled portraits of the Syrian and Lebanese presidents, Bashar al-Assad and Emile Lahoud, and chanted for Lahoud's ouster. But the appeals by Gemayel's father for the funeral to pass off peacefully appeared largely to have been heeded.

Martyrs' Square was where an estimated one million people gathered in March last year after Rafiq Hariri's assassination sparked a wave of popular anger that prompted Syria to end a three-decade troop presence the following month. Lebanese troops, backed by armoured vehicles, were out in force across the capital for the funeral, but there were no reports of any major incidents.

But late Thursday, hundreds of protestors carrying Hezbollah flags gathered on a road leading to Beirut airport, shouting slogans accusing the anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders of having attacked Hezbollah during the funeral. Hezbollah militants promptly moved in and convinced the demonstrators to end their protest.

The pro-Western government, brought to power by the public revulsion at Hariri's murder, has been left on a knife-edge by Gemayel's killing. It was already depleted by the departure of Hezbollah and its allies nearly two weeks ago over demands for its replacement by a national unity government. It now barely reaches the statutory quorum required by the constitution and the departure of one more minister could prompt its fall. Siniora reached out to the departed ministers Thursday night, urging them to rejoin the government so that the measure might be adopted. "I call on our colleagues who resigned to rejoin the ranks of government so that all can be heard on all the subjects which matter to us," Siniora told a press conference. "The question of the international tribunal must be a factor of unity. It's necessary that it be set up to unveil the truth on crimes already committed and those which may still be to come," he added. An official said Siniora has decided to hold a cabinet meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, UN investigators said they had begun giving Beirut technical help in investigating Gemayel's murder after the Security Council accepted a request from Prime Minister Fuad Siniora Wednesday. A UN commission of inquiry has been investigating Hariri's murder and has implicated a number of senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies. The French foreign minister made little secret of his own suspicions of Syrian involvement, even if he held back from apportioning blame for Tuesday's killing. "Obviously I will avoid designating the guilty party at this stage, even if after this new murder, following so many others, each of us has an opinion," Douste-Blazy told France Info radio Wednesday.

His comments earned him the wrath of Syria and its regional ally Iran, who strongly deny any involvement in the killings. "Those who prejudge the inquiry into this crime and into the other murders, scarcely minutes after their execution and without having any proof, aim to exploit the blood of the martyr for personal ends, far from the true interests of Lebanon," said a Syrian foreign ministry statement.

Britain, which has been pressing the United States to open talks with Syria and Iran on stabilising Iraq, took a more guarded approach to the question of Syrian involvement. "We genuinely don't know who was responsible for this act," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair.