Anti-Syrian protesters take to streets
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-28 09:03

Several thousand anti-Syrian protesters took to Beirut's streets late Sunday in defiance of a government ban, while a visiting U.S. official kept up Washington's pressure on Syria by calling on it to withdraw its 15,000 troops from Lebanon following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri earlier this month.

The protest came ahead of Monday's scheduled vote of confidence in the pro-Damascus government of Prime Minister Omar Karami, which is under intense pressure to find Hariri's killers. Many Lebanese say Karami's administration and its major powerbroker, neighboring Syria, were behind the attack, a charge both governments deny.

Lebanese opposition supporters protest whilst waving Lebanese flags as they shout anti-Syrian slogans during a demonstration against Syria and the Lebanese government at the Martyrs square in down town Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday Feb. 27, 2005. Shortly afterward, the Lebanese Army Command issued a statement calling on citizens not to demonstrate or gather in all Beirut areas, especially in squares and streets surrounding the Parliament building starting from 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Monday. [AP]

Monday's parliamentary session will be the first to deal with the Feb. 14 bombing that killed Hariri and 16 others. Opposition lawmakers are expected to demand details about the attack.

Scores of armed troops deployed on the main Martyrs' Square, near Hariri's grave, where about 3,000 demonstrators gathered.

"We want the truth. Who killed Rafik Hariri?" Walid Jumblatt, an opposition leader, said in a telephone interview on Hariri's Future television. He urged the people to "go down today, tomorrow, for a month or two months until the regime falls."

Troops blocked roads, banned motor traffic and turned away pedestrians from Beirut's downtown district where the Parliament is situated in a high-profile security operation ahead of the vote, which Karami said his "government may or may not survive." He was speaking to Al-Arabiya TV.

Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh banned two protests from being held Monday by anti-Syrian demonstrators and supporters of his government, citing "supreme national interests and maintaining national peace."

Franjieh ordered "all security forces to take all measures necessary to maintain security and order and prevent demonstrations and gatherings."

Despite the warning, anti-Syrian protesters turned out Sunday night in the latest in a series of demonstrations involving tens of thousands of Lebanese seething over Hariri's assassination.

Large crowds of protesters began converging on the city center, answering calls from opposition leaders. Soldiers blocked more flag-waving demonstrators from reaching the square where Hariri is buried, but some pushed soldiers while others slipped through the cordon.

Protesters want Karami's government to resign and Syria to remove its 15,000 troops from Lebanon and stop interfering in Lebanese affairs. Hariri was seen as quietly opposing Syria's control over Lebanon and had been expected to stand in Parliamentary elections in April or May against Karami.

David Satterfield, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state who is visiting Lebanon, reiterated Washington's demand that Damascus withdraw its troops from Lebanon "as soon as possible" and end its involvement in Lebanese affairs.

Satterfield is expected to meet Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud on Monday to urge a thorough inquiry into Hariri's killing.

Lebanon says it will cooperate with United Nations investigators currently in Beirut but has refused a full foreign investigation of the killing. Despite official Lebanese and Syrian denials of involvement in Hariri's death, the attack has plunged Lebanon into its worst political crisis in years.

Lebanon's Army Command urged citizens not to demonstrate or gather anywhere in Beirut from early Monday, but Syrian opponents rejected the ban and insisted on a "peaceful and democratic sit-in," according to Ahmed Fatfat, a legislator and ally of Hariri.

Syria said Thursday it would pull its forces eastward toward its border but will not bring them home. There has been no visible Syrian military movement to the eastern Bekaa Valley in line with a 1989 Arab-brokered agreement that ended the 1975-1990 civil war.

In Egypt, visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa rejected pulling all his country's forces out of Lebanon.

Though the pro-Syrian government has a supportive parliament, Damascus and Beirut are under considerable domestic and international pressure to respond to the calls for Syria to ease its political and military grip on its tiny neighbor.

Police said vandals destroyed a bust of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad in the southern village of Qana in a sign of growing grass-roots anti-Syrian sentiment.

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