Region | Lebanon
Crowds mourn Gemayel
Lebanon has begun three days of official mourning over the assassination of cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, who was brutally gunned down in Beirut on Tuesday.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 November 22, 2006
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Pierre Gemayel's coffin is showered with rice as it is taken to his home in Bikfaya.
Beirut: Lebanon has begun three days of official mourning over the assassination of cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, who was brutally gunned down in Beirut on Tuesday.
His coffin, draped in the Phalange Party flag, was driven to the family home in Bikfaya.
Huge crowds turned out for the procession, with women throwing rice and flowers onto the casket.
Schools and shops were closed and traffic was light for the procession, but a heavy police and army presence in Christian neighbourhoods of Beirut underlined the tension being felt across the country.
Accusations were also flying as politicians tried to both lay the blame and appeal for calm at the same time.
Gemayel's killing was the fifth murder of an anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon in two years and US President George W. Bush accused Syria and Iran of seeking to undermine the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, but stopped short of an outright accusation.
Syria also condemned the assassination and denied any role in it.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud who announced that today's Independence Day celebrations had been cancelled, said: “I was supposed to deliver today the independence speech but we were surprised by this disaster which hit all the Lebanese.
"Therefore, I tell the Lebanese that today is the time for them to unite or else all of Lebanon will lose,"
Prime Minister Siniora called for unity and warned that "sedition" was being planned against Lebanon.
In a TV address on Tuesday night, he linked Gemayel's slaying to the issue that sparked the crisis with Hezbollah: a plan for an international court to try suspects in the Hariri
assassination.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt accused Syria directly of the killing, but appealed for people to remain calm.
A political source close to Hezbollah also said the murder could force it to delay planned street protests aimed at bringing the Lebanese government down.
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