[WCUSP] Fwd: [pdx] Half of Lebanon demands ouster of US puppets

[yvonne simmons]

--- Michael Munk <lastmarx at comcast.net> wrote:

> Subject: [pdx] Half of Lebanon demands ouster of US
> puppets
> Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 15:33:29 -0800
> To: roweenayvonne at yahoo.com
> From: "Michael Munk" <lastmarx at comcast.net>
> 
> Beirut rally piles pressure on U.S.-backed govt
> Dec 10, 2006
> 
>  By Crispian Balmer
> BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of chanting
> protesters swamped
> Beirut on Sunday in a Hezbollah-led rally that
> marked a leap forward in the
> opposition's drive to unseat Lebanon's
> Western-backed government.
> 
> In a huge show of force, crowds waving a forest of
> red-and-white Lebanese
> flags crammed into two vast squares to demand the
> resignation of Prime
> Minister Fouad Siniora.
> 
> "Siniora out," demonstrators chanted. "Beirut is
> free," others yelled in
> what one security source called the biggest rally in
> Lebanese history.
> 
> Giant loudspeakers blared out nationalist songs and
> drummers thudded a
> relentless beat on the 10th day of a round-the-clock
> protest aimed at
> forcing Siniora and his Sunni-backed majority to set
> up a government of
> national unity.
> The noise was clearly audible inside the nearby
> government headquarters
> where Siniora and most of his ministers are holed
> up. Armored vehicles,
> rings of razor wire and hundreds of soldiers and
> police guarded the former
> Ottoman fortress.
> 
> There were no official estimates of the crowd size
> on Sunday, but both
> police and army sources said the rally was enormous.
> Opposition sources said
> 2 million men, women and children had taken part --
> roughly half Lebanon's
> population.
> 
> Speakers told the throngs that the government was in
> the thrall of the
> United States, repeating accusations that Siniora's
> allies had hoped Israel
> would crush the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah in
> its recent war with
> Israel.
> 
> "I tell you that after the (Israeli) aggression ...
> there is no place for
> America in Lebanon," said Hezbollah deputy chief
> Sheikh Naim Kassem,
> speaking behind bullet proof-glass.
> 
> The crowd responded: "Death to America, death to
> Israel, long live a
> dignified Lebanon."
> 
> COUP THREAT
> 
> Siniora has accused Hezbollah of trying to stage a
> coup following its war
> and commentators have warned the worsening stand-off
> could degenerate into
> sectarian violence in a country that is still trying
> to rebuild after a
> 1975-90 civil war.
> 
> Whereas the last civil war started out primarily as
> a fight between
> Christian and Muslim militia, the main faultline now
> lies between Lebanon's
> Sunni community and the Shi'ites.
> 
> One Shi'ite protester has been killed and several
> people hurt in shooting
> incidents, riots and clashes between supporters of
> both sides over the past
> week.
> The prime minister told a conference on Sunday the
> future of Lebanon was at
> stake, but said the country's democracy was strong
> enough to absorb the
> shock of the protests.
> 
> "This challenge covers the vision of Lebanon's
> future, the future of its
> system and its place in the region and the world."
> 
> Underlining the political passions at play, tens of
> thousands of
> pro-government supporters staged a rally on Sunday
> in the Sunni city of
> Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
> 
> Pope Benedict urged Lebanon on Sunday to back away
> from political crisis and
> asked the international community to help find
> urgent, peaceful solutions at
> this "grave moment".
> 
> The pro-Syrian Hezbollah and its allies, which
> include a populist Christian
> party headed by former general Michel Aoun,, want to
> be handed the power of
> veto in a new government.
> 
> Aoun told the crowds that if Siniora did not concede
> "in the next few days",
> the opposition would demand instead a transitional
> government to open the
> way for early elections.
> 
> Siniora's supporters say Hezbollah simply wants to
> derail plans to set up an
> international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005
> assassination of former
> prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, which many Lebanese
> blame on Syria -- a
> charge Damascus denies.
> 
> In a sign of defiance, a government official said
> Siniora had called a
> cabinet meeting for Tuesday, with the international
> court included on the
> agenda.
> 
> (Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki)
> 
> 
> 
> 



 
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