More than 100,000 Lebanese mobbed the streets of Beirut
Pastor Dale Morgan
More than 100,000 Lebanese mobbed the streets of Beirut*
By Tim Butcher in Beirut
Last Updated: 2:36am GMT 24/11/2006
More than 100,000 Lebanese mobbed the streets of Beirut yesterday to bid
farewell to the assassinated anti-Syrian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel
and to vent their rage against Damascus.
Mourners gather in Martyrs' Square for the funeral of Pierre Gemayel
Under a forest of flags in Martyrs' Square, the chorus of voices
denouncing Syria grew so loud it at times drowned out the army
helicopters overhead. The crowd chanted "Down with Syria" and "Long Live
Free Lebanon" before singing the national anthem. While it remained
largely peaceful, every so often anger welled up and the crowd burned
pictures of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and those Lebanese
politicians denounced as his stooges.
In the funeral crowd were teenage Christian girls in T-shirts, Muslim
matriarchs in headscarves and even the occasional moustachioed Druze
chieftain in baggy, black shalvar leggings. It was as if the death of
the 34-year-old politician had briefly united Lebanon's notoriously
divided society.
But the absence of any senior members of Hizbollah, the Shia movement
closely allied with Syria, revealed a fault line across which bloody
retaliation is likely. Many people stayed away, worried about violence,
and the crowd numbered a quarter of those that turned out for last
year's Cedar Revolution.
The crowd waited for several hours before the coffins of Mr Gemayel and
Samir Shartouny, the bodyguard who died at his side in Tuesday's
roadside killing, came into view. Borne as high as the pallbearers could
reach and shrouded in the flags of Lebanon and the Phalange party
founded by Mr Gemayel's grandfather, the coffins seemed to float on a
sea of emotion as they entered the square to a wave of applause and a
fluttering of flags. Inside St George's Cathedral, the largest Maronite
church in Beirut, the atmosphere was more serene as the head of
Lebanon's Maronite community, Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, intoned the
funeral liturgy in Arabic.
"Lebanon has suffered a great loss," he said. "We were expecting a lot
from Sheikh Pierre Gemayel as a leader and a politician."
In the front of the congregation sat many of the leading figures of
Lebanon's anti-Syrian bloc, including former president Amin Gemayel, the
victim's father, Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, and Saad Hariri,
political heir of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik, who was
assassinated on Valentine's Day 2005 after daring to stand up to the
Syrian regime.
After the service, these same leaders mounted a podium in the square. Mr
Jumblatt stirred a huge ovation as he walked out in front of a
bullet-proof screen before denouncing Syria and its role in Lebanon.
"They will not nail down our determination for life," he said to cheers.
"They will not nail down our determination to refuse the culture of
sorrow and death."
Mr Hariri, standing within a few feet of where his father lies buried,
thanked the crowd for showing the anti-Syria bloc was strong enough to
form the rightful government of Lebanon. "You are here for a new
revolution to show the entire world that the sons of Rafik Hariri and
the brothers of Pierre Gemayel are the majority in Lebanon," he said.
"They said that you are a virtual majority, but we are the reality and
they are virtual.
"National unity is stronger than their arms... and their terrorism."
Many Lebanese expressed satisfaction with the announcement yesterday
that UN investigators had agreed to help find those responsible for the
assassination. While Syria denies any involvement in the killings, it
was difficult to find anyone at the funeral who doubted Damascus was to
blame.
As the crowd dispersed, Mr Gemayel's coffin was taken to his ancestral
home of Bikfaya, in the hills east of Beirut, for interment.
Lebanon had lost another politician but had gained a new icon in its
long struggle with Syria.