More than a million people in Beirut to force government out
Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) More than a million people swarmed the heart of Beirut in response to Hezbollah's call for popular mobilisation to force out anti-Syrian Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Siniora said last night that he would not be intimidate by manoeuvres and threats and reiterated that only parliament had the power to remove him from office.
Security was tight in the capital. March organisers did their best to prevent the protest from degenerating.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt called the demonstration an "attempted coup".
Demonstrators gathered at Riad al-Solh square near the seat of the government, but they rapidly spilled over into Martyrs' Square.
No incidents were reported but many Lebanese fear protests could turn violent. Tensions between Sunni Muslims and Shiites are running high, as is bad feeling between Christians who support leaders allied to the rival camps.
Hezbollah and its allies claim that the government is illegal and demand a third of all cabinet posts in a government of national unity in which they would have a veto power.
The "Party of God" can count on support from Amal whose leader is Shia parliamentary speaker Habih Berri, pro-Syrian Christian President Emile Lahoud and the Christian faction led by former Prime Minister Michel Aoun.
"I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit," Aoun said to the cheers of protesters in downtown Beirut.
For him, Siniora should resign in favour of a more competent Sunni: Siniora's fault is that he did not support Hezbollah during the war with Israel last summer.
By contrast, the anti-Syrian camp accuses the opposition of trying to bring down the government in order to derail an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose killing in 2005 many blame on Damascus.
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