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Lebanese mourners line beirut streets for hariri Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Lebanese Mourners Line Beirut Streets for Hariri (Update1)
Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Thousands of mourners lined the streets of Beirut to pay their final respects to Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon who was killed Feb. 14 in a bomb attack in the city.
The funeral procession struggled through the Lebanese capital as crowds eager to get close to the body of the billionaire businessman-turned-politician blocked roads, live pictures aired on international broadcasters including Cable News Network showed. Mourners also gathered outside Hariri's family home chanting anti-Syrian slogans, Agence France-Presse reported.
Hariri, 61, who had political links with France, Saudi Arabia and Syria, had led five governments since 1992. He resigned as prime minister in October because of differences with Syrian-backed Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.
A group calling itself Victory and Jihad in Bilad As- Sham claimed responsibility for the attack that killed Hariri in a videotape broadcast by al-Jazeera television Feb. 14. Bilad-As-Sham could be translated as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. Seven of Hariri's bodyguards were also killed in the attack.
Lebanon's interior ministry yesterday released a statement saying Ahmad Abu Abas, a Palestinian born in 1982, killed himself in the bombing or caused the attack on Hariri. Seized videos, documents and equipment from his house in Beirut showed Abas was a follower of the radical Wahabi fundamentalist sect of Islam, which is prevalent in Saudi Arabia.
Ambassador
The funeral came after the U.S. yesterday ordered its ambassador to Damascus, Margaret Scobey, back home and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Syria should use the U.S. decision as a chance to put U.S.-Syrian relations ``on a better path.''
``We would hope that the Syrian government would take the opportunity of this signal from the United States to review where we are in the relationship and to try to put our relations on a better path,'' she said in an e-mailed transcript from the State Department yesterday.
President George W. Bush imposed new economic sanctions on Syria nine months ago, citing its alleged support of terrorists and failure to prevent anti-U.S. insurgents from crossing the border it shares with Iraq.
The U.S. isn't directly blaming Syria for Hariri's death, Rice said. ``When something happens in Lebanon, Syria needs to help to find accountability for what has happened there,'' she said. ``Syria is in interference in the affairs of Lebanon. There are Syrian forces in Lebanon.''
Syrian Soldiers
Syria has 13,000 soldiers in Lebanon, Imad Moustapha, Syria's ambassador to the U.S., said on CNN yesterday. Syrian soldiers first entered Lebanon, which Syrian nationalists regard as part of their country, as part of an Arab peace-keeping force in 1975 when civil war broke out.
A Franco-U.S. sponsored United Nations resolution last year demanded that the Syrian forces be withdrawn, and also called for militias to be disarmed, a reference to Hezbollah, which has links to Iran and Syria.
Syria rejects allegations of involvement in Hariri's death as a ``sinister plot'' meant to tarnish the country, Moustapha said. ``What is happening in Lebanon is harming Syria and is contrary to Syria's interests.''
Among foreign guests at today's funeral are French President Jacques Chirac, a close friend of Hariri, and William Burns, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.
Lebanon's efforts to rebuild the country following a 15- year civil war that ended in 1990 has left it with debt equal to more than 160 percent of gross domestic product. Moody's Investors Service rates Lebanon's foreign debt at B2, five levels below investment grade. Standard & Poor's rates it at B-, six steps short of investment grade.
Last Updated: February 16, 2005 04:20 EST
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