The Daily Star, Lebanon
Dec 1 2004
Pro-Syrian protest falls short of promised 1 million marchers
Thousands take to streets in Beirut to hear speakers denounce UN
Resolution 1559 and U.S. regional policy
By Nayla Assaf
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: An estimated 200,000 pro-Syrian demonstrators marched in
Beirut on Tuesday – well short of the government’s promise to
procure 1 million protestors – for the rally against the UN
resolution demanding Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon.
With banners condemning Resolution 1559 and pictures of Syrian
President Bashar Assad and his Lebanese ally, President Emile Lahoud
– tens of thousands marched from all over the country into Martyrs’
Square in the heart of Beirut.
Although 1559 is primarily directed against Syria, no similar protest
was recorded there.
“No to foreigners, no to colonization, yes to liberation, yes to
Lebanon,” Naim Qassem, the Deputy Secretary General of Hizbullah,
said from a podium at Martyrs’ Square.
The resolution, Qassem said, “is an attempt to include Lebanon in the
U.S.-Zionist project. This is a dream which we will not allow them to
fulfill.”
“The country can accept the opposition and the pro-government
parties. But it cannot accept those who bet on external powers,” he
added.
The protest enjoyed the support of the government, and although
Lebanese authorities did not officially organize the protest, they
did everything possible to ensure good turnout.
The protest closed the main arteries in the capital, shut schools and
provided military escorts to marchers, which included ministers from
Lahoud’s supporters.
Several ministers provided transportation for demonstrators from
their districts.
But in the Christian regions of the North there was little evidence
of a mobilization.
Some political observers suggested the protest could deepen Lebanon’s
internal divisions.
Earlier, opposition politicians criticized the demonstration and
warned of the consequences of Lebanon’s defying the United Nations.
“On the eve of his overthrow, Romanian President Nicolae Ceaucescu,
like other dictators in Eastern Europe, was able to draw millions on
the streets of Bucharest,” former Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz said
in comments published in the leading An-Nahar newspaper Tuesday.
“But this did not prevent their downfall,” he said, referring to the
mass demonstration in Bucharest in 1989 that turned against the
government and led to the downfall of Ceaucescu.
The official assistance prompted local media to say the demonstration
was “sponsored by the government.”
When contacted by The Daily Star, official sources at the Internal
Security Forces said that the protestors numbered 1 million. However,
observers said that number was more likely between 250,000 and 300
000.
Many of the protestors were school children.
Elie Janho, 16, from Beirut, who was carrying a poster of Assad said,
“I am here because of America; it doesn’t want peace.” While pointing
to Assad’s picture, he said, “I like him a lot. I think he is the
best.”
Mohsen Aslan, 65, of Akkar said, “I don’t have any political views. I
don’t have any requests. But the people were coming and I came with
them.”
Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil, pro-Syrian MP Nasser Qandil and Gibran
Araiji, the leader of the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP), also
spoke against the Security Council resolution.
Other speakers included representatives of the Higher Shiite Council
and the Sunni Grand Mufti.
During the protest, a large poster of U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey
Feltman, shown with a Star of David drawn on his chest, was
destroyed, while other posters showed U.S. President George Bush with
his face scribbled on.
The parties, politicians and event organizers hired an estimated
3,000 buses to transport citizens from impoverished areas in Akkar,
near the Syrian frontier, the Bekaa Valley and the South.
The main organizers of Tuesday’s rally were the Syrian Baath Party,
Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement, the SSNP, Hizbullah, the
pro-Syrian Lebanese Democratic and Phalange parties and the Armenian
Tashnak Party.
In the southern city of Sidon – the country’s third largest city –
the municipality provided transportation to Beirut to protestors who
gathered at the Lebanese University campus and in front of the Ain
al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.
In the qadas of Marjayoun, Bint Jbeil and Nabatiyeh, close to the
border with Israel, followers of the Syrian Baath Party, the SSNP,
Hizbullah and Amal gathered early in the morning for the three-hour
trip to Beirut.
>From Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city and the stronghold of
Prime Minister Omar Karami, thousands of protesters met around noon
to head for Martyrs’ Square in Beirut.
On Monday night, until the early hours of Tuesday morning, in the
largely Shiite Beirut suburb of Dahieh – Hizbullah’s stronghold – the
Islamic resistance party was calling on its supporters to take part
in the protest.
Also on Tuesday, Syria’s official Damascus Radio slammed Resolution
1559. While Syria was voicing its initiative for peace, Israel’s
Foreign Minister Sylvain Shalom said that his country had accelerated
the endorsement of the resolution to weaken Syria, the station said.