Huge Crowd Gathers in Beirut for Opposition Rally
    Reuters

    Friday 01 December 2006

    Beirut - Tens of thousands of flag-waving Lebanese poured into central Beirut on Friday for a Hezbollah-led protest aimed at bringing down the Western-backed government, which has vowed it will not yield to the pressure.

    Pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies have called on Lebanese from across the country to take part in the opposition protest. It is due to start at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) and will be followed by an indefinite sit-in near the government offices.

    Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has branded the government a U.S. puppet.

    Large numbers of security forces, backed by armored troop carriers, deployed in central Beirut where a big turnout was expected, and at the capital's entrances.

    Scores of soldiers, using barbed wire and metal barriers, cordoned off the complex housing the government's offices in the downtown area, where Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and most of his ministers were monitoring the situation.

    Less than 30 meters away, the crowds gathered, waving red-and-white Lebanese flags under banners demanding a government of national unity.

    "We want a clean government," one banner read. "Siniora out, we want a free, free government," the crowd chanted.

    Hezbollah deputy chief Sheik Anima Kasumi said the protests would not end until Signora's cabinet fell.

    "This government will not take Lebanon to the abyss. We have several steps if this government does not respond but I tell them you will not be able to rule Lebanon with an American administration," he told Hezbollah's al-Manar television.

    Christian opposition leader and Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun was scheduled to address the protest. Hezbollah has repeatedly criticized Siniora's cabinet over what it says was its failure to back Hezbollah during a July-August war with Israel.

    "We're here to bring down the government. We, the resistance, don't want any influence from the United States," opposition supporter Najwa Bouhamdan, 41, told Reuters.

    "We're protesting so that the government knows that nobody wants Siniora," said Hamzi Mesheh, 18, a university student from Baalbek, who had a Lebanese flag tied around his head.

    Siniora Defiant

    The anti-Syrian politicians who control the cabinet say the Shi'ite Muslim group and its allies want to stage a coup. Siniora said on Thursday his government would not stand down.

    The government was weakened last month by the resignation of six opposition ministers and the November 21 assassination of anti-Syrian Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.

    His funeral drew tens of thousands into central Beirut, with many mourners accusing Damascus of being behind the killing.

    Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, the most prominent anti-Syrian leader, urged supporters to remain calm and avoid street confrontations. He said Hezbollah wanted to instate Syrian and Iranian tutelage over the country.

    "Very calmly, we will remain steadfast," he told a news conference on Friday. "We will confrontcalmly. We will remain in our houses and fly the Lebanese flags... We will wait for a month, for two months... and watch them."

    Many Lebanese fear large protests could turn violent. Tension between Sunni Muslims and Shi'ites is high as is bad feeling between Christians who support leaders allied to the rival camps.

    Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, Sunni Muslim mufti, said: "We want to say to everyone that taking part in politics... is through the constitutional institutions, the parliament, the cabinet, and not in the street."

    The anti-Syrian camp accuses the opposition of aiming to bring down the government to derail an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose killing in 2005 many blame on Damascus.

    Syria denied involvement but was forced to pull its troops out of Lebanon in April 2005 by international pressure led by the United States and France and huge anti-Syrian protests.

    A U.N. inquiry has implicated Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the killing. Siniora's depleted cabinet approved U.N. plans last week for the Hariri court.