The Empire stikes back.
Hezbollah-Backed Protest Fills Square in Beirut
By LEENA SAIDI and JAD MOUAWAD
The New York Times
March 8, 2005
BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 8 - Hundreds of thousands of pro-Syrian protesters poured into a central Beirut square this afternoon, in answer to a call by the militant Hezbollah group for a demonstration to counter weeks of huge rallies demanding that Syrian forces leave Lebanon.
Thousands in the huge crowds waved Lebanese flags, as called for by the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
Others held up banners proclaiming in English, "Thanks to Syria" and "No to Foreign Interference," as well as pictures of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, his ally, President Émile Lahoud of Lebanon, and Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.
It was Mr. Hariri's assassination on Feb. 14, with many in the opposition accusing the Syrians of being responsible for the killing, that set off huge opposition protests in Beirut, leading to today's protest.
As the afternoon wore on, the enthusiastic, cheering crowds filled the square in central Beirut and spilled over into streets to the north and the south.
Loudspeakers blared out endlessly over a public address system, carrying the message that Syrian troops should maintain a presence in Lebanon. Calls for no foreign intervention referred to the United States and Israel.
Organizers handed out what became a sea of Lebanese flags and directed men and women to separate sections of the square. Hezbollah guards handled security, and dogs sniffed for bombs.
The site is just a few blocks from another downtown square where opposition protesters have been staging protests for days, demanding that Syria withdraw the 14,000 troops it maintains in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, has been mobilizing its followers from across the country for the protest, also designed to denounce a United Nations resolution that, in addition to its demand for Syrian withdrawal, called for dismantling militias - a point Hezbollah sees as aimed at its military wing.
In the outlying heavily Shiite regions of the Bekaa Valley and the south, loudspeakers urged followers to travel to Beirut for the protest.
Hezbollah, founded by Iran and backed by Syria, has emerged as a key element during the latest political instability.
On Monday, in the biggest demonstration yet of anti-Syrian anger, more than 70,000 Lebanese shouting "Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!" filled central Beirut. The demonstrators waved Lebanon's cedar-tree flag and shouted, "Syria out!"
Two days after Mr. Assad left vague the extent of a promised troop withdrawal, he clarified his plan somewhat on Monday: by the end of March, Syria will move its soldiers in Lebanon closer to the border. But he offered no public timetable to remove any troops from the country.
President Assad and Mr. Lahoud, said in a statement issued Monday after they met in Damascus that a pullout of Syria's troops in Lebanon would have to wait for further negotiations with a future Lebanese government.
The announcement fell far short of the expectations of demonstrators in Lebanon as well as demands by President Bush and European leaders for the full withdrawal of the Syrian military and intelligence apparatus from Lebanon.
The eclectic opposition - composed of Christian, Druse and Sunni Muslim politicians, although notably lacking in Shiite Muslims - believes that it has already scored precious points against Syria and is eager to press its advantage before parliamentary elections, to be held in May.
The Monday announcement increases the likelihood that Syrian troops will still be in the country when Lebanese go to the polls.
But the protesters have become emboldened by the resignation last week of the pro-Syrian government of Prime Minister Omar Karami, who quit in the face of street demonstrations. The opposition, which has camped out on Beirut's main square for three weeks, is already gearing up for another rally next Monday.
"The Syrians are playing for time, and I don't think they will succeed," said Samir Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst. "This has been obtained by the joint pressure from the street and by the pressure of the international community. Still, it's a first step in the right direction. That's why we can't let the pressure drop now."
Under clear blue skies, protesters convened around noon in Martyrs' Square, in the heart of the Lebanese capital, where Mr. Hariri is buried along with six bodyguards who were killed with him. The crowd shouted, "Syria out!" and "Truth, liberty and national unity!" which has become the rallying cry for the partisans of Mr. Hariri and other opposition movements.
Towering above the crowd, thousands of red-and-white flags spotted with the green of Lebanon's emblem, the cedar, waved in one of the most powerful shows of national unity the country has witnessed since its independence more than 60 years ago.
"The huge majority of Lebanese are in agreement," said Nassib Lahoud, an opposition legislator. "We want the withdrawal of the Syrian troops, we want the truth about who ordered the killing of Mr. Rafik Hariri, and we want the resignation of those who are responsible for security in the country."
Demonstrators then marched raucously to the site of Mr. Hariri's killing, in front of the city's main international hotels. By the time the front of the demonstration reached the site, about a mile away, many were still pouring out of the square in a joyous and tumultuous but peaceful procession.
Syrian soldiers entered Lebanon in 1976, a year after the start of the country's civil war. While their numbers have been pared down from a high of 40,000, Syria has failed to comply with the Taif agreement of 1989, which ended the war and called for their pullout within two years. Many are still stationed in the mountains around Beirut, in the north of the country, as well as the Bekaa region in the east.
Some Syrian soldiers were seen packing up their camps on the outskirts of Beirut and moving out shortly after the meeting in Damascus ended. Driving Russian-made trucks and jeeps piled with personal belongings and household goods, convoys of Syrian soldiers wound down into the Bekaa, the region nestled between the Lebanon mountain range and the Syrian border.
Despite speculation here that Syria would start pulling out of Lebanon soon, the announcement on Monday fell short of demands set forth by the United Nations in Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces in Lebanon.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany and President Jacques Chirac of France said in a declaration issued Monday that they expected Syria to withdraw its troops and intelligence services from Lebanon "completely and as quickly as possible."
A withdrawal would carry the potential risk of reopening the sectarian rivalries that have plagued Lebanon in the past.
That was something Mr. Assad emphasized during a rare speech to the Syrian Parliament on Saturday. He noted the presence of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and said the Lebanese resistance movement - a reference to Hezbollah, the militant Shiite group labeled terrorist by Washington - had the right to keep its weapons. He also warned against a separate peace between Lebanon and Israel that would not include Syria.
Calling its own supporters to the street, Hezbollah is expected to hold a mass demonstration on Tuesday. The group, which has gained wide popular support here for helping to drive out the Israeli Army in 2000, has been straddling the fence between its close ties to Syria and the growing popular opposition to the Syrian military presence.
The march on Monday was the first since Mr. Assad's address on Saturday, in which he spoke of a Syrian withdrawal for the first time. But the Syrian leader's speech angered many who found him derisive of the marchers' numbers. What especially rankled some was Mr. Assad's quip that television cameras filming past rallies should have panned out to show that the demonstrators' ranks were actually scarce.
That led to inventive slogans during the march on Monday. Each time demonstrators spotted a television crew, they either shouted, "Zoom out!" or "Bashar, don't lie. Can't you see how many we are?"
Another outburst made fun of Lebanon's president, a staunch ally of Syria and an avid swimmer. It went, rhythmically in Arabic, "Oh Lahoud, oh Lahoud, why don't you swim out to the border."
The rally on Monday was one that few had hoped to witness even a few months ago, said Mona, a painter who declined to give her last name for fear of reprisals.
"The international community abandoned Lebanon to Syria in order to keep its coalition and liberate Kuwait," she said in reference to the Perisan Gulf war of 1991. "They had oil, and we only had olive oil. But we're asking for the same thing now. Everyone is here for Lebanon's independence."
Leena Saidi contributed reporting from Beirut for this article and Hassan M. Fattah from Anjar, Lebanon.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company |
