March 14 call for huge turnout after funeral

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March 14 activists call for huge turnout after funeral


BEIRUT: A procession slated to follow a funeral service for assassinated Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel on Thursday could give way to a large political demonstration in Downtown Beirut, sources close to the March 14 Forces and security agencies said Wednesday. After the funeral, to be held at 1 p.m. at the St. Georges Cathedral, a procession is to make its way to Gemayel's hometown of Bikfaya. According to a spokeswoman for the Phalange Party, the ceremony is to be a purely religious - not political - event.

"The service itself is open to the public, to anyone who considers themselves to be patriotic ... and wants to pay their respects, so it is not exclusively for members of the Phalange Party. But it is a funeral only," she said. "The procession afterward is for close family and friends."

But Rami Rayes, media officer for the Progressive Socialist Party Youth Movement, said the March 14 Forces were planning to send a "political message" after the funeral.

"We're calling for popular participation ... not as a protest, but as a sign of solidarity," Rayes said. "We want to send the message that the Lebanese are still forced to pay a high price on the quest for independence."

An anonymous SMS messages received across the country Wednesday called for wide attendance at the procession.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! To get rid of the murderers of our beloved martyrs, tell ALL your LEBANESE friends to come tomorrow at 11. Not coming is being on the killers' side," the message read.

Rayes said that supporters would gather after the funeral at Martyrs Square and at unspecified locations across the country, and that transportation would be available.

"We are hoping for a very large crowd ... in order to stand up and protest against the constant assassinations of March 14 individuals," Rayes said. "It will be a big day for us as a bloc to regain momentum, but now is not the time for politics but for condemning the political and emotional assassinations."

Samir Aashi, public relations officer for the Future Youth Movement, echoed Rayes.

"We are planning, with our leaders, the largest public gathering and funeral this country has seen since March 14, 2005," he said, in reference to a demonstration one month after the killing of former Premier Rafik Hariri, estimated by some to have attracted 1 million people.

"We are expecting hundreds of thousands of people," Aashi added in a telephone interview. "The protest in Martyrs Square will be the start of a revolution for independence, for the liberal people of Lebanon, and for the March 14 Forces."

Aashi said Syria would be a focal point of the demonstration.

"Of course," he said. "We cannot let the Syrian regime think that they can stop the truth from coming out, so we will be protesting against their presence and tools within Lebanon."

However, Aashi said the demonstration would be national, not partisan.

"We are intending to make it a very peaceful demonstration; democratic and civilized. The only flag that will be allowed will be the Lebanese flag, and we are not allowing any political slogans. This is a protest for all the Lebanese people, so anyone who is for an independent Lebanon and who wants to show support for our government is welcome to attend."

A Presidential Palace source said President Emile Lahoud "will not send an envoy to attend the funeral of slain Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel."

The source said Lahoud "was going to send a personal representative, but decided against it so that he wouldn't cause embarrassment to anyone."

Gemayel's allies have accused Syria and pro-Syrian figures, including Lahoud, of being behind the assassination.

Security measures are to be increased in and around Beirut in the build-up to the funeral.

The Internal Security Forces will be working in coordination with the Lebanese Army, according to the head of the ISF, Brigadier General Ashraf Rifi, to ensure maximum security.

"We are expecting a crowd turnout to match the numbers of those who turned out for last year's March 14 rally," Rifi said, "so we'll be using similar tactics and number of forces that were used last year."

[Janjoon-Lebanese]

Inshallah it will be MARCH 14 - PART II

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Thousands honor slain Lebanese leader

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Tens of thousands of Lebanese gathered Thursday to bid farewell to an assassinated politician, and his anti-Syrian allies turned his funeral into a powerful show of force against opponents led by Hezbollah militants and their backers in Damascus.

The massive crowd rallied in Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut as Pierre Gemayel's family and dignitaries prepared to hold a prayer service at a nearby cathedral.

Men, women and children waved red-white-and-green Lebanese flags. Some carried posters with pictures of Gemayel, with the words "We want to live" and "Awaiting justice" written on them.

Gemayel supporter Joseph Hanna said he came to the rally to convey a message of support for the government and its struggle against Hezbollah.

"If they have 30,000 rockets, we have 30,000 words. They do not scare us," the 45-year-old car rental shop owner said in reference to Hezbollah's weapons.

Gemayel, a 34-year-old Christian, was killed Tuesday when two cars blocked his vehicle at an intersection as he left a church and assassins shot him numerous times through a side window.

He was the sixth anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in two years, including former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was slain in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February 2005.

Gemayel's assassination introduced new tensions into the already dangerous power struggle in Lebanon. Shiites such as Hezbollah are backed by Syria and Iran. The government and its Sunni Muslim and Christian supporters are backed by the United States and the West.

Damascus has condemned the assassination and denied any role in it.

The rally, as expected, turned into a display of anti-Syrian feelings among mourners, and many burned pictures of Syria's president and Lebanon's pro-Syrian leaders. One man carried a large banner with the pictures of Lebanon's assassinated leaders and the words: "Syria's killing regime. Enough!"

Much of the anger was directed at President Emile Lahoud, a staunch Syria supporter, and ralliers held signs calling for his removal. Lahoud was at the presidential palace, where heavy security measures were taken amid fears that protesters would later march there to attempt to force the president to resign.

Anger also was pointed at Hezbollah, which had been calling for mass protests of its own in an effort to topple the Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government. After Gemayel's killing, the guerrilla group said it would not hold demonstrations for the time being.

The funeral was expected to revive the 2005 mass protests — the so-called "Cedar Revolution" — after Hariri's assassination which, along with international pressure, drove Syria to withdraw its army from neighboring Lebanon after nearly three decades of control.

A massive turnout is expected to boost anti-Syrian forces, who are facing heavy pressure from Hezbollah and pro-Syrian groups seeking to unseat the Western-backed government. But it also raised fears it could be the first round of demonstrations that could bring the political standoff into the volatile streets.

While some supporters called for revenge against Syria and its allies, Gemayel's father — a former president — and the Maronite Church demanded calm, hoping to avert an explosion of violence in the multi-sectarian nation of 4 million.

Though Hezbollah officials said the group would take no action in the coming days to allow emotions to cool, they accused the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority of capitalizing on the murder for political ends to regroup.

"We were on the verge of taking to the streets," said Hussein Khalil, political adviser to Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. "The government coalition was in an unenviable position and was in a very big impasse. They needed blood to serve for them as kind of oxygen to give them a new life."

Saad Hariri, son of the slain former prime minister, has urged his mainly Sunni Muslim supporters to take part in the funeral to also rally out of loyalty for the late Hariri and "to renew the celebration of freedom in Lebanon and defend the international tribunal and justice."

It was a major Sunni-Christian coming together, particularly because the Phalange Party fielded the main Christian militia during the 1975-90 civil war between Muslims and Christians in which 150,000 were killed. The move was likely to isolate the Shiites, led by Hezbollah and its ally Amal party, who make up the country's largest single sect.

[Janjoon-Lebanese]

MARCH 14 - PART II

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Beirut crowds gathering

Beirut 12h55pm - With Beirut crowds gathering; angry slogans against Syria’s Lebanese allies rang out from central Beirut Thursday as tens of thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral of the latest Damascus opponent to be murdered. Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, the sixth critic of Syria to be assassinated in the past two years.

Supporters of the beleaguered pro-Western government had called for the funeral to be turned into a huge show of national defiance and the mourners covered the heart of the capital in red-and-white Lebanese flags.

The angry crowds massed in Martyrs' Square close to the Maronite St George Cathedral voiced their rage at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and President Emile Lahoud and Hezbollah.

"Get Bashar's agent out of Baabda," the crowd shouted in reference to the presidential palace.

Lahoud's opponents question his legitimacy after his term of office was extended for three years in 2004 through a controversial Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment.

"We want only the army to bear weapons," the mourners chanted, referring to Hezbollah's persistent refusal to lay down its weapons in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions following the devastating summer war with Israel.

Young men stamped on portraits of Lahoud, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the principal backers of Hezbollah.

Gemayel's coffin was being brought down from his home village of Bikfaya in the mountains east of the capital in a cortege that struggled to make progress through the huge crowds.

The coffin had been taken there to lie in state Wednesday as one of Lebanon's leading Christian families received the condolences of well-wishers.

Morning prayers were held in the Gemayels' 19th century residence, before the cortege wound its way out on to the village’s main street to the traditional applause from the crowd.

Shots were fired in the air as a mark of respect as the pallbearers made their way slowly through the mass of mourners.

Women threw rice and flower petals at the passing of the coffin, draped in the Lebanese national flag and the banner of Gemayel’s Christian Kataeb party.

The coffin was placed in a black hearse for the road journey to the capital for the funeral, which was to be attended by foreign dignitaries including French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Arab League chief Amr Mussa

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Sources: More than 200,000 at Gemayel funeral till now

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Beirut's main streets were shut down and armed guards stood vigilant as anti-Syrian crowds chanting political slogans and waving the Lebanese flag packed into the capital's largest square in homage of slain Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel during his funeral Thursday.

Lebanese security sources told CNN at least 200,000 people packed Martyr's Square and the surrounding streets.

CNN's Anthony Mills described the mood as one of "anger and defiance."

Officials randomly checked bags and kept a close watch on the gathering, which took on the appearance of a protest march, in efforts to quell any sectarian violence that might break out in Martyr's Square.

Gemayel, 34, a rising politician from a prominent political family, was shot to death in his car in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut Tuesday.

Pallbearers and mourners carried his coffin, draped in the banner of his Christian Phalange party, down a mountain road from his ancestral hometown of Bikfaya to St. George Cathedral in Beirut.

Gemayel's death has sparked an outcry from fellow anti-Syrian politicians, who immediately blamed Damascus for the killing and deepened the political crisis surrounding Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government. (Watch frustration, fury among mourners )

As a mix of thousands of Lebanese filed into the church at 6 a.m. for Gemayel's funeral, pro-Syrian politicians and their supporters were met with boos while anti-Syrian politicians were met with cheers.

Gemayel's slaying came amid a power struggle between Siniora and pro-Syrian factions, led by the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, over the creation of a U.N.-backed tribunal to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"They might try to kill another minister, it's very possible and plausible," Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Wednesday. "And they might kill other members of parliament ... so as to reduce the majority in parliament."

Syria has denied any involvement and condemned Gemayel's killing.

Washington has not openly linked Damascus to the murder, but on Wednesday President Bush called Siniora and expressed "the unwavering commitment of the United States to help build Lebanese democracy, and to support Lebanese independence from the encroachments of Iran and Syria," according to a statement from White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Britain and the U.N. Security Council condemned the killing, with Security Council members calling on all parties to show "restraint and a sense of responsibility" in the crisis.

At the same time, the council moved to finalize plans for the Hariri tribunal, authorizing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to make arrangements with the Lebanese to establish the court. (Full story)

U.N. investigators have linked Hariri's killing to Syria and its allies in Lebanon, which Damascus dominated for a quarter-century. The Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah -- whose militia fought a month-long war against Israel over the summer that left much of Lebanon in ruins -- pulled its four ministers from Siniora's government last week to protest his support of the tribunal.

The remaining 18 ministers unanimously backed the court's establishment, over the objections of Hezbollah and Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. But a second vote on the tribunal was coming within days, said Saad Hariri, the son of the slain ex-premier and now the majority leader in Lebanon's parliament.

Hariri also blamed Damascus for Gemayel's death, telling CNN, "The hands of Syria are all over the place."

The elder Hariri's killing led to a wave protests, dubbed the "Cedar Revolution," that resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

Lahoud called Gemayel's killing a "sad day" for the country. But he told his citizens, "All Lebanese must stand united. Otherwise, the whole of Lebanon will be the loser." (Watch crowds of mourners fill the streets )

Authorities said a man with a gun ran up to the car Gemayel was riding in Tuesday afternoon and opened fire, hitting him at least twice in the head and neck. Lebanese television broadcast video of the bullet-riddled car.

Amin Gemayel called his son a martyr to the cause of freedom, but said, "We don't want vengeance."

He, too, said he suspects Syria in his son's death.

"We know Syria killed my brother, Bashir, in 1982 and we have proof of that, but have no proof with Pierre," he said.

"So there are many fingers pointed at Syria because it's the same method, the same mechanism. And Syria has a revenge to extract against Lebanon since its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, especially how the withdrawal was conducted. So perhaps it was settling an account with Lebanon."

Gemayel's father was president of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988. His uncle, Bashir Gemayel, was elected president but was assassinated before he could take office in 1982.

Gemayel's grandfather and his namesake founded the Christian Phalange party, of which he was a leading member.

The United States has worked to support Siniora and pressure Syria, which Washington accuses of meddling in its war in Iraq. Bush called for a full investigation of Gemayel's assassination and urged the Security Council to move ahead with an international tribunal to prosecute the Hariri case.