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Lebanese opposition demands independence uprising Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7676975http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7676975
Lebanese Opposition Demands 'Independence Uprising'
Fri Feb 18, 2005 01:44 PM ET
By Alistair Lyon
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Opposition figures urged the Lebanese to join an "independence uprising" against Syria's grip on their country Friday, escalating a war of words following former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri's assassination.
Hariri's killing in Beirut Monday sparked anti-Syrian fury among many Lebanese and renewed world pressure on Damascus to loosen its political grip and remove its troops from Lebanon.
Tourism Minister Farid al-Khazen resigned in a further sign of political turbulence and Syria named a new military intelligence chief.
Khazen, a Maronite Christian, became the first minister to quit because of the assassination and said he had done so because the Syrian-backed government was unable to "remedy the dangerous situation in the country.
"There is no substitute for national dialogue on the basis of the Taif agreement," he said, referring to the deal that ended the 1975-1990 civil war and committed Syria to moving the troops it keeps in Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and figures from the disparate opposition movement blamed the government and its Syrian backers for Hariri's death and called for its resignation.
After meeting Friday, they urged Lebanese to back a peaceful "independence uprising" -- the first time they had used the term.
Parliament must also suspend all debate unrelated to the assassination, they told a news conference, until the truth about who killed Hariri emerged.
"This isn't just the opposition," Jumblatt earlier told reporters. "All the Lebanese are with Hariri, a free Lebanon and Syrian withdrawal." Hariri moved toward a similar position in the months before his death.
It was not immediately clear what form of protest the uprising would take.
Protesters set fire to the tents of Syrian farm workers near the northern town of Tripoli, the latest attack on Syrians in Lebanon. No injuries were reported.
BACK TO BUSINESS
Traffic jams returned to Beirut streets Friday after three days of mourning for the Sunni Muslim billionaire.
"We ask the state to unveil the perpetrators ... and not to close the file of the martyred Hariri along with the long list of other unresolved crimes," Sheikh Ahmed al-Kurdi told worshippers in a downtown mosque near where Hariri was buried.
Lebanese of all religious beliefs have flocked to Hariri's grave to bring flowers and light candles since his funeral on Wednesday turned into a mass anti-Syrian street protest.
Several hundred people marched toward the grave Friday evening shouting independence slogans.
Financial markets were busy but mostly stable on their first trading day since Hariri's death, despite tension and President Bush's latest demand for Syria to pull out its 14,000 troops.
The Lebanese pound closed unchanged, but the central bank had to sell dollars, as it had pledged to do, to defend the currency against pressure from jittery investors.
Shares in the Hariri-founded Solidere real estate company, Lebanon's biggest firm, fell the maximum 15 percent allowed.
Officials said President Emile Lahoud had finally gone to pay condolences to Hariri's relatives, who had refused to let him or other top officials attend Wednesday's funeral.
He told them he would do all he could to find the culprits, a statement from his office said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad named his brother-in-law, Major-General Asef Shawkat, as head of military intelligence to replace retiring Major-General Hassan Khalil. Syrian sources said the change took effect Monday, Khalil's 60th birthday.
In August, Assad issued a decree barring the extension of service terms of all officers in the armed forces.
Bush said Thursday Syria should comply with a U.N. resolution demanding its troops leave Lebanon and should allow parliamentary elections scheduled for May to be free and fair.
He recalled the U.S. ambassador to Syria this week in reaction to the bombing, but has said Washington does not know who was behind the killing. Syria has denied involvement.
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