Beirut roiled as crowds try to storm PM office
Source: Agencies |
October 22, 2012, Monday
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Violence erupted in downtown Beirut yesterday as protesters tried to storm the office of Prime Minister Najib Mikati after the funeral of an assassinated intelligence chief whose death they blame on Syria.
Security forces shot into the air and police fired tear gas to repulse the hundreds of protesters who overturned barriers and threw stones and steel rods.
The clashes fed into a growing political crisis in Lebanon linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria.
An angry crowd marched on the prime minister's office after politicians at the funeral of Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan, who was killed by a car bomb last Friday, called on Mikati to resign over the killing.
The opposition and its supporters believe Mikati is too close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which is part of Mikati's government.
Many of the protesters waved flags from the anti-Syrian opposition Future Movement - a mainly Sunni Muslim party - and Christian Lebanese Forces as well as black Islamist flags.
They scattered after the security forces' action and there were no immediate reports of any casualties other than two people fainting.
Opposition leader Saad al-Hariri urged supporters to refrain from any more violence.
"We want peace, the government should fall but we want that in a peaceful way. I call on all those who are in the streets to pull back," Hariri told supporters after the attack.
Violence followed speech
Hassan, 47, was a Sunni Muslim and senior intelligence official who had helped uncover a bomb plot that led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Damascus former Lebanese minister. He also led an investigation that implicated Syria and the Shi'ite Hezbollah in the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.
Thousands of people had filled central Martyrs' Square for his funeral ceremony, accusing Syria of involvement in the killing and calling for Mikati to quit. The violence broke out after Fouad al-Siniora, a former prime minister, said in a speech that the opposition rejected any dialogue to overcome the political crisis caused by the assassination unless the government first resigned.
"No talks before the government leaves, no dialogue over the blood of our martyrs," Siniora said to roars of approval from the crowd.
At the start of the funeral, senior politicians and the military and security top brass turned out at the Internal Security Force headquarters for a ceremony held with full military honors and broadcast live on national television.
Hassan's wife and two sons, the youngest weeping, listened as he was eulogized by the head of police Ashraf Rifi and President Michel Suleiman. Suleiman said the government and people must work "shoulder to shoulder" to overcome challenges posed by the killing.
Mikati said on Saturday he had offered to resign to make way for a government of national unity but he had accepted a request by the president to stay in office to allow time for talks on a way out of the political crisis.
Security forces shot into the air and police fired tear gas to repulse the hundreds of protesters who overturned barriers and threw stones and steel rods.
The clashes fed into a growing political crisis in Lebanon linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria.
An angry crowd marched on the prime minister's office after politicians at the funeral of Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan, who was killed by a car bomb last Friday, called on Mikati to resign over the killing.
The opposition and its supporters believe Mikati is too close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which is part of Mikati's government.
Many of the protesters waved flags from the anti-Syrian opposition Future Movement - a mainly Sunni Muslim party - and Christian Lebanese Forces as well as black Islamist flags.
They scattered after the security forces' action and there were no immediate reports of any casualties other than two people fainting.
Opposition leader Saad al-Hariri urged supporters to refrain from any more violence.
"We want peace, the government should fall but we want that in a peaceful way. I call on all those who are in the streets to pull back," Hariri told supporters after the attack.
Violence followed speech
Hassan, 47, was a Sunni Muslim and senior intelligence official who had helped uncover a bomb plot that led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Damascus former Lebanese minister. He also led an investigation that implicated Syria and the Shi'ite Hezbollah in the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.
Thousands of people had filled central Martyrs' Square for his funeral ceremony, accusing Syria of involvement in the killing and calling for Mikati to quit. The violence broke out after Fouad al-Siniora, a former prime minister, said in a speech that the opposition rejected any dialogue to overcome the political crisis caused by the assassination unless the government first resigned.
"No talks before the government leaves, no dialogue over the blood of our martyrs," Siniora said to roars of approval from the crowd.
At the start of the funeral, senior politicians and the military and security top brass turned out at the Internal Security Force headquarters for a ceremony held with full military honors and broadcast live on national television.
Hassan's wife and two sons, the youngest weeping, listened as he was eulogized by the head of police Ashraf Rifi and President Michel Suleiman. Suleiman said the government and people must work "shoulder to shoulder" to overcome challenges posed by the killing.
Mikati said on Saturday he had offered to resign to make way for a government of national unity but he had accepted a request by the president to stay in office to allow time for talks on a way out of the political crisis.
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