'He Is A Dog And If We See Him We Will Kill Him' (Palis To Blair)
The Guardian (UK) ^ | 9-11-2006 | Clancy Chassay
guardian.co.uk
Protesters greet Tony Blair’s visit to Lebanon. Photograph: Alvaro Barrientos/AP
Hundreds of angry demonstrators waving Lebanese flags and chanting "down with Blair" gathered to protest at Tony Blair's meeting with Fouad Siniora at the prime minister's office in the heart of Beirut today. Held back by a line of Lebanese troops and security personnel enforcing a 1km buffer zone around the office, some protesters carried posters reading "Blair, you killer, go to hell" and "The blood of Qana is splashed across your ugly face" in reference to an Israeli attack on a village in south Lebanon during the war that killed 34 children.
National music blared from nearby speakers. "We must take revenge on Blair," one of the organisers roared into the microphone, mirroring an earlier call by the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt to take revenge on the Syrian president, Bashar Assad. "He is a dog and if we see him we will kill him," said a group of young boys wrapped in the flags of Hizbullah and Amal, Lebanon's two main Shia parties. "We want to kill him, really we do," one of them insisted.
The gathering was largely of leftwing groups and Shia parties but there was also a showing from two of Lebanon's largest Christian groups.
Most demonstrators viewed Mr Blair's visit as an attempt to score points at home.
"They hate him in his country and we hate him here - he only came to make himself look good," said Hussein, 29.
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