Anti-government demonstrations rock Beirut

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Photo: Reuters

Hundreds of thousands of protesters from Hezbollah and its allies massed Friday in downtown Beirut seeking to force the resignation of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who was holed up in his office ringed by hundreds of police and combat troops.

The protest, which police estimated at 800,000, created a sea of Lebanese flags that blanketed downtown and spilled onto the surrounding streets. Hezbollah officials put the number at 1 millionone-fourth of Lebanon's population.

"Saniora out! We want a free government!" protesters shouted through loudspeakers. The crowd roared in approval amid the deafening sound of Hezbollah revolutionary and nationalist songs. "We want a clean government," read one placard, in what has become the opposition's motto.

Launching a long-threatened campaign to force Lebanon's U.S.-backed government from office, Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies said the demonstration would be followed by a wave of open-ended protests. Hezbollah had threatened demonstrations unless it and its allies obtained a veto share of the Cabineta demand Saniora and Lebanon's anti-Syrian pro-US parties rejected. The protests now aim to generate enough popular pressure to paralyze the Saniora government and force it out.

"I wish that the prime minister and his ministers were among us today, not hiding behind barbed wire and army armored carriers. He who has his people behind him does not need barbed wire," Michel Aoun, a Christian leader and Hezbollah ally, told the crowd.

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has not made a public appearance since a September rally for the militant group, could not be seen Friday. But his speeches, blared through loudspeakers, drove the crowd wild with cheers.

At the rally, some protesters occasionally cried "Death to Israel and "We want Feltman's government to go," in reference to Lebanon's U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman.

"We don't want the (U.S.) Embassy inside the prime ministry," said one demonstrator, Mahmoud Zeineddin.

Inside, Saniora went about his schedule, in what appeared to be a tactic to ignore the throngs outside. A day earlier, he vowed his government would not fall but warned that "Lebanon's independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger."

A demonstration last week for a slain anti-Syrian politician drew tens of thousands of people downtown, filling Martyr's Square. But Friday's appeared much larger, as protesters swarmed not only that square but others, as well as nearby streets and parking lots.

Supporters planned to set up camp around the clock in tents erected on a road outside Saniora's office and in a downtown square.

Hezbollah has tried to depict the protest as rallying all Lebanese, not just its supporters. It urged demonstrators to wave only the red and white Lebanese flag with its green cedar tree, in contrast to past protests that featured the group's yellow flag.

The battle is a fallout from the summer war between Hezbollah and Israel that ravaged parts of Lebanon. Hezbullah's strong resistance against Israeli troops sent its support among Shiites skyrocketing.

Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassim, made it clear the fight is against "American tutelage" and said the protest action will continue until the government falls.

"We will not let you sell Lebanon, we will protect the constitution and people of Lebanon," Kassim said on television Friday, addressing Saniora.

Source: News agencies