Lebanese bid farewell to assassinated Christian leader
Lebanon began to bid farewell to an assassinated young Christian politician today, and his anti-Syrian allies sought to turn an expected huge turnout at his funeral into a massive show of force against opponents led by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah and their Syrian backers.
About 2,000 people, some carrying flags of Lebanon and other burning pictures of Syria’s president and Lebanon’s pro-Syrian leaders, began convening in downtown Beirut in the morning, hours before Pierre Gemayel’s early afternoon funeral, which was expected to turn into a display of anti-Syrian feelings.
