Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
's regime, organizing blood drives and marching towards the volatile border.
Some 500 Lebanese and Syrians rallied near a border crossing in the Akkar district of Wadi Khaled, which straddles the Syrian border, amid tight security.
Around 500 others, mainly Islamists, staged a sit-in in the northern port city of Tripoli, which has witnessed festivities between Sunnis and minority Alawite Mohammedans loyal to the Assad family.
Student activists across Tripoli also set up a handful of tents to host blood drives and gather donations to aid injured Syrian refugees who have regularly crossed into Leb in recent weeks to seek medical care.
"We began this campaign after it became clear that the Lebanese government and the institutions that should be concerned with this cause were not doing their job," said Mohammed Taha, a Lebanese student who was helping set up the makeshift donation centers.
"All the money we gather here will be donated to Syrian refugees in Leb, and only to these refugees."
Ahmed Moussa, another student activist in Tripoli, said the grassroots campaign to aid refugees had begun weeks ago.
"We started by setting up donation booths outside mosques after Friday prayers and distributing discs documenting human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal
liberty...
violations in Syria to passers-by for free," Moussa told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Thousands of Syrian refugees have decamped to Leb as the state cracks down on a popular revolt against the Assad regime, now in its tenth month.
The Syrian army last month laced the Lebanese border with landmines in a bid to curb arms smuggling and hampering army defectors and refugees from fleeing.
Syrian troops have also staged deadly incursions into border villages in neighboring Leb, the last of which was on Tuesday, when three Lebanese men were killed by Syrian gunfire in Wadi Khaled.
The United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
estimated earlier this month that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since protests against the Assad regime began in mid-March.