Throngs besiege Beirut for anti-govt rally

It is reported that up to one million flag-waving protesters from Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies descended on downtown Beirut today in a peaceful but noisy protest to force the resignation of Western-backed Lebanese prime minister Fuad Saniora, who was holed up in his office ringed by hundreds of police and combat troops.

The prime minister went about his schedule, in what appeared to be a tactic to ignore the throngs who quickly began filling the streets and squares before the demonstration was set to begin later today.

As heavy traffic was reported on highways leading to downtown, pro-government factions continued to urge supporters for calm.

The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah and its allies mobilised their bases for the protest, arranging to bus supporters from all over Lebanon to downtown Beirut and handing out free petrol coupons to people in remote regions.

“Saniora Out!” “We want a free government!” protesters shouted through loudspeakers, and the crowd roared in approval amid the deafening sound of Hezbollah revolutionary and nationalist songs. “We want a clean government,” read one placard, in what has become the opposition’s motto.

Heavily-armed soldiers and police closed all roads leading to the sprawling Prime Ministry building that overlooks the demonstration site. They unfurled barbed wire and placed barricades to prevent any protests from spilling over into the stone-walled historic building during what some newspapers billed as the “great showdown” between the government and the opposition.

Hezbollah’s security men formed two lines between the protesters and the security forces to prevent clashes.

Although there have been assurances by organisers of a peaceful demonstration, the stringent security measures came amid fears that the protests may turn into street clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian factions or that Hezbollah supporters could try to storm Saniora’s government headquarters.

Tension already was running high between Sunni Muslims, who generally support the anti-Syrian government, and Shiites, who lead the pro-Syrian opposition, and Lebanon’s Christians, who are divided between the two.

In a stark sign of the divide, the spiritual leader of Lebanon’s Sunnis, Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, gave Friday prayers at the Prime Ministry in a show of support for Saniora, a Sunni.

“Fear has gripped the Lebanese,” Kabbani said, appealing for the protests to end. “The constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but trying to overthrow the government in the street is a call for stirring up discord among people, and we will not accept this.”

Launching a long-threatened campaign to force Lebanon’s US-backed government from office, Hezbollah and its allies said the mass demonstration would be followed by a wave of open-ended protests.

However a defiant Saniora vowed his government would not fall, warning in a nationally televised speech last night that “Lebanon’s independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger.”

Ironically, Saniora asked Lebanese to show support by raising the Lebanese flag on their windows and balconies. Hezbollah’s leader also called on protesters to also carry the same banner, the national red and white flag with the historic Cedar tree in its middle but both camps seemed wide apart on what kind of Lebanon they want.

Government supporters accuse Syria of being behind the Hezbollah campaign, trying to regain its lost influence in its smaller neighbour. Hezbollah and its allies, in turn, say the country has fallen under US domination and that they have lost their rightful portion of power.

Hezbollah had threatened to call for the demonstrations unless it and its allies obtain a veto-wielding share of the cabinet – a demand that Saniora and the anti-Syrian parties have rejected. The aim of the protests is to generate enough popular pressure to further paralyse the government, forcing it to step down.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassim, made it clear that the fight is against “American tutelage” and said the protest action will continue until the government falls.

The US has made Lebanon a key front in its attempts to rein in Syria and its ally, regional powerhouse Iran. US president George Bush warned earlier this week that the two countries were trying to destabilise Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, called for the protests to be peaceful. From the other camp, the head of the anti-Syrian bloc in parliament, Saad Hariri, said his supporters should not hold counter-demonstrations.

Lebanon has witnessed a string of assassinations of anti-Syrian figures over the past two years, including a prominent Christian government minister gunned down last week and Hariri’s father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a February 2005 bomb blast.

The battle is a fallout from the summer war between Hezbollah and Israel that ravaged parts of Lebanon. The guerrilla force’s strong resistance against Israel sent its support among Shiites skyrocketing, emboldening it to grab more political power. Hezbollah also feels Saniora did not do enough to support it during the fight.

Pro-government groups, in turn, resent Hezbollah for sparking the fight by snatching two Israeli soldiers, dragging Lebanon into war with Israel.