Syrians rally against UN’s Hariri report

HUNDREDS of thousands of Syrians rallied yesterday against a UN report implicating Damascus in the killing of Lebanon’s former prime minister as the government pulled out all the stops to show it enjoys support at home, if not abroad.

The mass demonstrations in the capital of Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo were a concerted attempt to drum up support for President Bashar Assad ahead of expected international pressure.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss the report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis today, and the United States and Britain are pushing for the world body to take a tough stand on Syria.

The report implicated Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an opponent of Damascus’ domination of Lebanon, in a February 14 bombing that also killed 20 other people. Syria countered by discounting the report as an American plot and began a diplomatic drive to explain its position.

The Syrian government gave students the day off and encouraged civil servants to take part in the demonstrations, which were organised by state-run labour unions.

“Mr Mehlis: we are not murderers,” read one banner. “Syria will never be another Iraq,” said another in central Damascus’ Sabe Bahrat Square, where the crowd chanted: “With our soul and our blood, we redeem you, Bashar!”

State newspapers published editorials condemning the UN report, which found Hariri’s assassination could not have been carried out without the complicity of Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services. State radio and television ran live reports of the protests, with an anchorman saying Hariri had been “a son of Syria as much as of Lebanon“.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged nations to take a strong position on the UN report.