Lebanon mourns slain minister as new crisis brews

BEIRUT – Lebanon began three days of mourning yesterday for an anti-Syrian cabinet minister whose assassination, blamed by his allies on Damascus, has reignited his country’s deep factional rivalries.

Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a Christian, was gunned down as he drove through a Christian suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. He was the sixth anti-Syrian politician to be killed in nearly two years.The assassination turned Lebanon’s Independence Day on Wednesday into a sombre occasion.All festivities, including a military parade, were cancelled.The killing will heighten tensions between the anti-Syrian government and the pro-Damascus opposition led by Hezbollah, the powerful Shi’ite Muslim guerrilla group determined to topple what it sees as a pro-US cabinet.The murder drew widespread international condemnation and many Lebanese politicians accused Syria of killing Gemayel and being responsible for the 2005 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.Syria condemned Gemayel’s killing.”It is the destabilisation of Lebanon that is underway today.We must respond to this destabilisation with the greatest firmness, with courage,” French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told France Info radio.”Those who perpetrated and ordered these assassinations must be held responsible for their crimes.”The UN Security Council on Tuesday approved plans for a special international court to try suspects in Hariri’s murder, but the tribunal has been a divisive issue between the rival Lebanese parties.The action by the 15-nation Security Council, in the form of a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will enable the plans to be submitted to the Lebanese government for its formal approval.Gemayel was among cabinet members who voted last week to tentatively approve the UN plans submitted to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government.His body was driven from hospital near Beirut to his hometown of Bekfaya, northeast of Beirut, where hundreds of sympathisers walked behind the coffin, raising pictures of him and waving white flags of his Phalange Party.As the procession made its way slowly to Gemayel’s family home, women on balconies threw rice at the coffin draped in his party’s flag.Gemayel’s funeral will take place on Thursday and the anti-Syrian coalition has urged a large turnout.Police investigating the murder said they had little to report.Nampa-ReutersHe was the sixth anti-Syrian politician to be killed in nearly two years.The assassination turned Lebanon’s Independence Day on Wednesday into a sombre occasion.All festivities, including a military parade, were cancelled.The killing will heighten tensions between the anti-Syrian government and the pro-Damascus opposition led by Hezbollah, the powerful Shi’ite Muslim guerrilla group determined to topple what it sees as a pro-US cabinet.The murder drew widespread international condemnation and many Lebanese politicians accused Syria of killing Gemayel and being responsible for the 2005 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.Syria condemned Gemayel’s killing.”It is the destabilisation of Lebanon that is underway today.We must respond to this destabilisation with the greatest firmness, with courage,” French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told France Info radio.”Those who perpetrated and ordered these assassinations must be held responsible for their crimes.”The UN Security Council on Tuesday approved plans for a special international court to try suspects in Hariri’s murder, but the tribunal has been a divisive issue between the rival Lebanese parties.The action by the 15-nation Security Council, in the form of a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will enable the plans to be submitted to the Lebanese government for its formal approval.Gemayel was among cabinet members who voted last week to tentatively approve the UN plans submitted to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government.His body was driven from hospital near Beirut to his hometown of Bekfaya, northeast of Beirut, where hundreds of sympathisers walked behind the coffin, raising pictures of him and waving white flags of his Phalange Party.As the procession made its way slowly to Gemayel’s family home, women on balconies threw rice at the coffin draped in his party’s flag.Gemayel’s funeral will take place on Thursday and the anti-Syrian coalition has urged a large turnout.Police investigating the murder said they had little to report.Nampa-Reuters