A sea of angry mourners converged on southern Beirut on Tuesday for the funeral of a young Shi’ite man killed during mass opposition rallies amid fears of an outbreak of sectarian violence.
The funeral, though emotionally charged, saw no violent incidents after police called on the Hezbollah-led opposition to prevent supporters from provoking clashes following two consecutive nights of street fights that have left one person dead and 15 injured.
”The blood of the Shi’ites is boiling,” shouted mourners as weeping women tossed rose petals on the coffin and men raised the green flags of the Shi’ite movement Amal, to which 20-year-old Ahmad Mahmud belonged.
”Death to [Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad] Siniora,” they cried as the coffin was carried through the streets of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a bastion of the pro-Syrian Shi’ite group Hezbollah that was battered during the July-August war.
The opposition has been holding an open-ended protest outside the seat of government since Friday as the deep political tensions have raised concerns of a resurgence of sectarian strife in a country still reeling from the 1975-1990 civil war.
As Arab diplomats attempted to mediate the crisis, Western governments have expressed their support for Siniora and his anti-Syrian government, which emerged from parliamentary elections held last year.
Germany and France issued a joint call for Syria to ”stop supporting forces that seek to destabilise Lebanon and the region”, after Damascus earlier this week threw its weight behind the opposition.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Jacques Chirac also called for ”an end to all interference in the affairs of Lebanon”, at a meeting in western Germany.
At the funeral ceremony, Sheikh Abdel Amir Qabalan, interim president of the Higher Shi’ite Council, appealed for calm and unity.
”We present the martyr as a sacrifice for Lebanon’s national unity,” he said. ”It is forbidden for Shi’ites to kill Sunnis, for Sunnis to kill Shi’ites, for Christians to kill Muslims and vice versa.”
Violence
Clashes erupted over the past two nights in several Sunni Muslim-majority neighbourhoods near where tens of thousands of people have been holding mass protests to demand the resignation of the government.
With troops and anti-riot police out in force around Beirut to keep the peace, Hezbollah and Amal have deployed their own security teams to keep watch over the rally and the funeral.
Hezbollah, Lebanon’s largest political party, accuses the government of being corrupt and no longer representative of Lebanon’s people after six pro-Syrian ministers resigned last month.
Christian opposition factions have also been taking part in the protest, where the orange scarves and flags of Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun’s movement have mingled with the predominantly Lebanese flags wielded by protesters.
Siniora has dug in his heels, insisting that only talks, not protest, can solve Lebanon’s political crisis. But the opposition has vowed to continue the demonstration until the government falls.
MP Walid Jumblatt, a prominent leader of the anti-Syrian ruling majority, said on Tuesday the Siniora government is determined to stay the course.
He called for calm and asked students from his Druze community not to attend courses at the state Lebanese University following ”incidents caused … by a party which monopolises the campus and Lebanon”.
Siniora and a number of his Cabinet ministers, spending the nights at his offices in downtown Beirut for security reasons, have otherwise been holding meetings as usual.
On Monday, they issued a call on all sides to show self-restraint to avoid ”general chaos which will have negative consequences on all”.
The deadlock threatens to block the government’s legislative programme, including its centrepiece plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq al-Hariri, widely blamed on Syria.
The United States accuses the opposition of trying to topple the government to halt investigations into the al-Hariri assassination. — Sapa-AFP