A coalition of Lebanese groups, angered by the recent assassination of a prominent anti-Syrian journalist, called Monday for the ouster of Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. The call came as anti-Syrian youth activists protested in Lebanon's capital, Beirut, late Monday to press for Lahoud's resignation and removal of pro-Syrian agents in Lebanon's security services.Monday's meeting of the coalition of anti-Syrian legislators and politicians came after An-Nahar newspaper general manager and legislator Gibran Tueni was killed in a Dec. 12 car bombing. Tueni was the third anti-Syrian critic slain in similar circumstances since the Feb. 14 blast that killed ex-Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri in Beirut. Hariri's killing sparked massive protests by Lebanese who accused Syria of involvement. The massive anti-Syrian sentiment forced Syria to withdraw its thousands of soldiers from Lebanon in April. "We call on all those who participated in the independence uprising to continue the battle and to oust the remnants of the security regime from the positions they are still holding, namely the presidency position," legislator Samir Franjieh said in a statement after the meeting.
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The students camped there for more than two months last spring after Hariri's assassination until Syria withdrew its troops, which first deployed here in 1976 after the onset of Lebanon's 15-year civil war to act as a stabilizing force. Youth activists representing anti-Syrian groups urged Lebanese to come to the square and revive the camp "to defend Lebanon's unity in the face of the Syrian regime's attacks and the grudges of the ruling family in Syria." A statement issued by protest organizers in the northern city of Tripoli demanded Lahoud's resignation and blamed Syrian and allied-Lebanese security services for Tueni's assassination. Hundreds of Tueni's supporters, mainly journalists from An-Nahar and other media outlets, joined the victim's widow, Siham, and his two daughters, Nayla and Michelle, in a sit-in Monday outside the An-Nahar building in central Beirut, observing an hour of silence.