Lebanonwire.com | Lebanon set for trial of strength as opposition vows to defy protest ban

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February 27, 2005

Lebanon set for trial of strength as opposition vows to defy protest ban
by Nayla Razzouk

BEIRUT, Feb 27 (AFP) - Lebanon was headed for a battle of wills between the opposition and the security forces Monday as the pro-Syrian government announced a ban on all public demonstrations ahead of a mass rally called by its critics to coincide with a parliamentary censure vote.

Pro-government parties, including the Shiite Islamist movement Hezbollah, had called their supporters on to the streets for counter-demonstrations, raising fears of violence that the government used to justify its ban.

"All security forces are asked to take all necessary measures to protect security and order, and to ban demonstrations and gatherings on Monday," Interior Minister Suleiman Frangieh said.

The ban had been ordered "due to the current circumstances, in the supreme national interest and with a view to the requirements of protecting civil peace," he added.

The army later issued a statement saying that the ban would go into force from 1 am (0300 GMT), raising fears that troops would forcibly disperse the opposition sit-ins that have been held nightly since the assassination of five-times prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a Damascus critic.

But opposition leaders swiftly voiced defiance, insisting they would go ahead with their plans to demonstrate in the city centre to mark the second week since the deadly bomb blast on the Beirut seafront.

"The ban does not concern us. We are only holding a peaceful sit-in which will be maintained. Let them arrest us," said leading opposition politician Elias Attallah.

The mounting showdown came as a senior US envoy visited Beirut to press UN Security Council demands for a rapid and complete withdrawal of Syrian troops, and Syrian officials sought Arab backing for their insistence on managing any pullback on their own terms.

The US deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, David Satterfield, called for a "credible investigation" into Hariri's killing and for "concrete steps towards the immediate implementation" of Resolution 1559, passed last September, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign troops.

Satterfield said Washington was still waiting for a Syrian pullback to the eastern Bekaa valley announced by Lebanese officials on Thursday.

"We have seen nothing happen on the ground," the US envoy told Future TV, which was owned by the slain former premier.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara meanwhile launched a regional tour to seek Arab support for his government's refusal to bow to US-led pressure for a rapid withdrawal.

His Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit said he was seeking a compromise under which Syria would be allowed to pull back gradually under existing bilateral greements which would be seen as an indirect way of implementing the Security Council's demands.

"Egypt believes the situation is delicate and sensitive, and requires action" that achieves an "overlap between the Taef agreement and Resolution 1559," Abul Gheit said after talks with Shara in Cairo.

But the next leg of the foreign minister's travels was Saudi Arabia, where officials promised him a more demanding time amid strong interest from the royal family in the fate of Hariri, a close business partner and naturalised Saudi citizen.

"We cannot accuse Syria or Syrian security services of orchestrating Hariri's murder because there is no proof of that," an official told AFP, ahead of Monday's visit, asking not be further identified.

"But we hope Syria will have information about the murder, given its military and security presence in Lebanon ... and we hope the Syrian foreign minister will brief us on the information available to his government."

Beirut has denied any responsibility in Hariri's killing and agreed to cooperate with a UN commission of inquiry which arrived in Lebanon last week, but has rejected a full international probe.