Lebanon on brink of strife on eve of Hariri's assassination anniversary

Beirut: Pro-government and anti-Syrian factions are mobilising their supporters for a massive rally to mark Thursday's third anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a show of force against the Syrian-backed opposition led by Hezbollah.

Government backers say they're ready for a street fight with the opposition if it comes to that. One anti-Syrian leader, Walid Junblatt, warned the opposition earlier this week, “If you want war, we welcome war'' - comments that shook Lebanese and revived memories of the 1975-90 civil war.

Sa'ad Hariri, the son of the late prime minister and leader of the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, sought to back down from that tough tone on Tuesday, and said: “We will not go to civil war. We don't want a civil war.''

“But if they (the opposition) want civil war, what you want us to do? Sit and be killed? We believe that there is an army, we believe there is a government and the government will defend the people of Lebanon,'' he said.

Reflecting the escalating tensions, Sunni pro-government activists and opposition Shiites hurled stones at one another late Tuesday on a major Beirut thoroughfare, prompting troops to deploy and disperse the men, television stations reported. Also, rival Druse factions clashed in the mountain town of Qornayel, east of Beirut. Such confrontations have become routine in recent days.

This year's anniversary of the elder Hariri's February 14, 2005 assassination comes as the Lebanese are more divided than ever between government supporters backed by the West and United States and the opposition, supported by Syria and Iran. The two sides have been locked in a 15-month struggle for domination that has defied repeated attempts at mediation.

The sectarian element to the political fight has heightened fears of an explosion. Sunni Muslims largely support Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's government, while Shiites back the opposition, led by the Hezbollah militant group. Christians are divided between the two sides.

The divisions have prevented Lebanon from filling the post of president, empty since pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's term ended in November. The deadlocked parliament has failed 14 times since to elect a successor.

Pro-government leaders have called for hundreds of thousands of their supporters to rally on Thursday in a downtown Beirut square next to Rafik Hariri's gravesite to show their rejection of Syrian attempts to regain influence in Lebanon. The rally also appears in part aimed to reinvigorate the popular movement behind the government after a series of assassinations and bombings targeting its supporters, including the separate car bomb killings of two anti-Syrian lawmakers, a top army general and a senior police intelligence officer in the last year.

But among Lebanese there is widespread disgust over politicians' wrangling.

“Instead of serving as an occasion for uniting the Lebanese, Hariri's death has become an occasion for dividing them,'' said Youssuf Mahfouz, 70, who owns a shoeshop in the neighbourhood of Zoukak Al Blatt, an opposition stronghold.

George Hajjar, a 52-year-old grocer in the Christian neighborhood of Gemaizeh a few blocks away, said the anniversary is being used by pro-government and opposition groups “to further their own political ends''.

Mounir Jibrail, a 32-year-old pub owner on the trendy Gemaizeh Street, said he would keep his bar open and stay away from the rally a few blocks away. “All politicians must leave if Lebanon is to have peace,'' said Hariri's death in a massive car bombing that killed 20 others briefly united the Lebanese in 2005 in scenes of grief and anger.

Mass protests, along with international pressure, forced Syria to withdraw its army from the country after a 29-year control. But then, as now, the hardcore pro-Syrian groups stuck by Syria's side.

Hezbollah, Syria's ally, is pushing to force out Siniora's government, saying it is allowing American domination of Lebanon, and is demanding a share of power.

Government supporters accuse them of being a proxy for new Syrian control. With the government stalemated, tensions are increasing.

Eleven people have been killed in recurring clashes in Beirut and other areas between Sunni supporters of the government and pro-opposition Shiite activists in the last 13 months. Last month, seven people were killed in clashes between troops and Shiite rioters in a south Beirut suburb on the old demarcation line of the civil war, stoking fears of renewed conflict.

France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who has unsuccessfully tried to mediate between rival Lebanese factions, paid respects to Hariri on Tuesday at the UN
headquarters in New York, and said the world remained “ready, still ready to push in favour of peace'' and an end to the Lebanese stalemate.
But the international community “cannot make a miracle … The solution is in the hands of the Lebanese themselves,'' Kouchner said. “They have to talk to each other. They have to believe that all the communities are part of the nation.''

Ahead of the Hariri anniversary rally, the US Embassy here announced it is restricting movement of its personnel, and advised American citizens in Lebanon to limit all but essential travel on Wednesday and Thursday.