Region | Lebanon
Lebanon opposition calls general strike from Tuesday
Lebanon's opposition, stepping up a campaign to oust the government, called on Saturday for a general strike next week aimed at paralysing the country two days before a vital aid conference in Paris.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 January 21, 2007
Beirut: Lebanon's opposition, stepping up a campaign to oust the government, called on Saturday for a general strike next week aimed at paralysing the country two days before a vital aid conference in Paris.
The opposition, which includes the Shiite Muslim groups Hezbollah and Amal and Christian leader Michel Aoun, has been demanding veto power in the government and early parliamentary elections.
"The national opposition has no choice but to resort one more time to its popular base to seek an escalation of its peaceful and democratic protest," it said in a statement.
"It calls on the Lebanese to express freely and sincerely their national and political options through a general strike and complete shutdown across the country on Tuesday."
Opposition sources said the aim of the strike was to paralyse the country, including key public facilities such as the only civilian airport and Beirut's seaport.
The main labour union, which opposes the government's economic policy, backed the call. The powerful labor union federation called on its 350,000-strong rank and file to also go on strike Tuesday, to protest Siniora's planned tax hikes that are part of his economic reform programme.
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"Let's make January 23 a day of showing popular willpower and a day of protest against injustice and oppression," said the union, which has supported the Hezbollah opposition.
The strike would come two days before an international donor conference in Paris, which Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora hopes will bring billions of dollars of aid to an economy reeling from Hezbollah's July-August war with Israel and a public debt of $41.5 billion, or 190 per cent of GDP.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group is backed by Syria and Iran, said on Friday night the strike would give the opposition "a strong push".
The opposition has been camped outside Siniora's offices in central Beirut since December 1 to press its demands for more say in a government that Hezbollah says is controlled by Washington.
Siniora has resisted the opposition demands and instead pressed on with plans for the Paris conference, which U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to attend.
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