| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Bullet-Scarred Martyrs Statue is Back in Downtown Beirut |
| 2004-07-16 |
| (continues from headline) ...back to its original platform in downtown Beirut. But President Lahoud ordered the army to take away the monument. The bells of the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Georges overlooking the Martyrs Square rang out when a long trailer started depositing the four torn figures of the statue back home from eight years in repairs at Universite Saint-Esprit de Kaslik north of Beirut. Premier Hariri, who took the initiative of ordering the return of the statue, was on hand to greet the returning bronze sculptures that were covered by floral wreaths during the 3-hour trip from USEK to the downtown commercial center that was long a main civil war battlefront. Obviously rattled by the media applause for the Hariri accomplishment, President Lahoud ordered the army to take custody of the torn figures of the statue pending the construction of the pedestal "because it is not proper to leaving them flung on the ground." Also on hand to greet the statue was An Nahar's General Manager Gebran Tueni, who had fiercely campaigned for the return of the national monument that commemorates the execution of Lebanese campaigners against Ottoman colonial rule on May 6, 1916. An USEK girl student filled the bullet holes in the statue with red roses just before it began the trip back to the downtown base, which is a few meters from the towering new building of An Nahar. Beirut Mayor Abdul Monem Al Arisse, who accompanied the statue on its home journey, said the reconstruction of the statue's pedestal would be hopefully finished within a few days and the four 'martyred' figures of the monument would again overlook the renovated square. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |