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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Saniora Is 'Allah's Enemy' To Mourners |
| 2008-01-29 |
| To the crackle of automatic rifle fire and chants of "Saniora is the enemy of Allah," the AMAL movement on Monday buried two of its members who were killed in riots the day before. Mourners attacking Premier Fouad Saniora and shooting automatic rifles in the air, to express anger, buried the two, Ahmed Hamza and Ahmed Ajouz, in the Shahidein grave yard in south Beirut amidst chants. AMAL politburo member Jamil Hayek accused the March 14 majority alliance, without mentioning it by name, of seeking to use the army against the opposition. "You want to use the army as a stick .. to continue with your dominance," Hayek said in his speech eulogizing the two victims. "You know that security in Lebanon is a political issue that you keep blocking by usurping powers," Hayek added. He called for a "swift, but not hasty, investigation by security administrations" into the Sunday riots that resulted in the killing of seven people and wounding more than 20. "We want the whole truth about who attacked them Â… Only the truth can provide the rights for all," he added. Other than the Traffic was thinner than usual throughout Beirut. In the troubled neighborhoods, troops were on the streets, shops were closed and some residents were clearing broken glass and inspecting their property. "Why did I have to bear the brunt of their anger?" Samir Adada said Monday as he stood next to his gutted Cherokee Jeep that was damaged in Sunday's riots. Saniora had declared a day of national mourning, and calm returned to the Mar Mikhael district, where riots initially broke out. Sunday's death toll was the highest for a street disturbance since the country plunged into a crisis three years ago with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a turning point in Lebanese politics that sparked local and international outrage and forced the Syrian army to withdraw after 30 years of control. What started as an angry protest by anti-government protestors against electricity rationing quickly degenerated into street violence and clashes with troops. The fighting ignited memories of the 1975-90 civil war and came as Lebanon is in the middle of a political fight over who will become its next president. The clashes erupted along the war's former demarcation line between Christian and Muslim areas and near a district where the bloody conflict, which killed 150,000, began. A hand grenade tossed by rioters into that district, Ein el-Rummaneh, injured seven people. |
| Posted by:Fred |