[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of supporters of the opposition gathered Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the Syrian regime and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah, under the slogan "The Fall of Weapons, The Spring of Independence."The rally organized by the Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
Movement, the main opposition party headed by ex-premier Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
, came amid mounting tension over the financing of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb and the revolt in neighboring Syria.
"We initially backed Sheikh Saad for the sake of Leb's freedom, but now we also support him for Syria's freedom and to rid the country of Hizbullah's weapons and the regime of (Syrian President) Bashir al-Assad," said Mohammed Alameddin, 27.
Mohammed Hamdash, a 40-year-old bank employee, said he was taking part in the demonstration in the northern port city to denounce the Hizbullah-led government.
"We are here to say that we are against this government imposed by Hizbullah," he said, as fellow demonstrators waved Lebanese and party flags as well as pictures of Saad Hariri and his father Rafik.
In the the first speech during the rally, Mustaqbal bloc MP Mohammed Kabbara said "Assad's hegemony over Leb must be toppled and we should put an end to the criminal weapons that are accused of killing our deaders."
"This government will first fall in Tripoli before it falls in the rest of Leb and there is nothing called the Resistance
That'd be the Hezbullies, natch...
, as those who send gunnies to Syria to attack its people are not a resistance movement," Kabbara said.
Prime Minister
Najib Miqati has threatened to resign should his cabinet refuse to pay Leb's 49 percent share of funding to the STL. The ministers of the Free Patriotic MovementDespite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
have also hinted that they might resign over dissatisfaction with the government's performance and Miqati's policies.
"Haven't they learned from the Beirut Spring that people are stronger than all tyrants and that police states would fall in the face of the people's resolve," Mustaqbal bloc MP Samir al-Jisr said in his speech at the rally.
"This government does not need to be toppled because it is already toppled in people's minds, as it rose to power through a coup perpetrated on a black day ... after the disavowal of the promises and the pledges," he added.
"What kind of a 'resistance act' was being plotted in Tripoli and why are the seized weapons being described as arms belonging to the Resistance?" Jisr wondered, accusing Hizbullah of arming groups in the northern city.
For his part, MP Marwan Hamade -- who had broken from the Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc of Druze leader
Walid WallyJumblat
... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
over refusal to vote for Miqati for the premiership in the binding parliamentary consultations -- urged the premier "not to allow the killers to remain on the loose."
"I will not feel sorry for Hizbullah's falling and tumbling government and I will never forgive Assad's criminal regime," Hamade stressed.
"I call on him (Miqati), from here, not to let justice be defeated at the hands of his limping government and never to forgive those who had first slaughtered his friend, ex-PM martyr Rafik Hariri, before slaying the son of his city, the hero and young martyr (slain Intelligence Bureau officer) Wissam Eid," Hamade went on to say.
He urged President Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
and Speaker Nabih
KnobbyBerri
Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet...
"not to let Leb be captivated by the grand prison."
"I will not urge the party which has described the accused as being sacred (Hizbullah) or the Aounist movement (of MP
Michel Aoun...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
) ... because they are part of the grand prison of totalitarianism," Hamade charged.
"Who would fear the tribunal other than the accused, the criminals and the accomplices who are covering up for them."
Hamade called for returning to "the democratic roots."
"No to eliminating anyone in the name of fake proportional representation," the MP said of the proposed proportional representation electoral system, which has been slammed by Jumblat on fear it might slash his parliamentary bloc.
"No my brother, Najib, tomorrow will not be another day as you have claimed, as those present here are pursuing the path of freedom and justice," Hamade vowed.
He also called on the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
to launch "an initiative that would besiege the killer of Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
," calling on the Lebanese authorities to "implement the Arab initiative in its entirety."
Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony...
MP Boutros Harb said that Hizbullah's weapons have "impeded national dialogue and put us before two choices: compliance or civil war."
But he wondered "among whom would civil war erupt if all the Lebanese do not want that."
"Weapons would eventually kill those carrying them and we don't want to kill or be killed," Harb stressed.
The STL has indicted four Hizbullah operatives in connection with the murder. The party has refused to hand over the four members and has dismissed the court as an "American-Israeli plot."
Miqati was appointed premier after Hizbullah and its allies forced the collapse of Saad Hariri's government over its refusal to cut ties with the court based in The Netherlands.
Although Miqati pledged after taking office to uphold Leb's international commitments, Hizbullah and its allies in the cabinet are insisting that the country stop all cooperation with the tribunal.
The funding of the STL is due to be discussed at a crucial cabinet meeting next Wednesday.