Lebanon's Government Quits in Face of Mass Protest
Mon Feb 28, 2005 03:44 PM ET


By Lucy Fielder
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Syrian-backed government resigned on Monday in
a surprise decision greeted with jubilation by thousands of protesters in
central Beirut gathering to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

Prime Minister Omar Karami's government came under unprecedented pressure
after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Protesters turned their sights on the president and demanded he also step
down.

"The people have won," main opposition leader Walid Jumblatt told LBC
television after Karami announced the resignation of the cabinet to a
parliament session debating Hariri's killing.

Ecstatic protesters, having got their wish for the government's resignation,
chanted "Syria out" and "Freedom, sovereignty, independence." Syria has
wielded political and military power in its smaller neighbor for decades.

They also chanted "Lahoud, you're turn is next," in reference to pro-Syrian
President Emile Lahoud.

Martyrs Square, by Hariri's grave, was a sea of Lebanese flags -- red and
white with a cedar tree in the center.

Thousands of protesters watched the debate live on large screens while
loudspeakers blared patriotic songs.

Cheers and applause erupted when Karami resigned. In parliament, opposition
MPs wearing the red-and-white scarves that have come to symbolize their
movement, gave a standing ovation.

"Out of concern that the government does not become an obstacle to the good
of the country, I announce the resignation of the government I had the honor
to lead," Karami said.

A 22-year-old Karami supporter was shot dead as supporters of the prime
minister rioted in his home town of Tripoli, firing assault rifles in the
air and burning tires and photographs of Hariri, witnesses and hospital
sources said a

Karami's government had a majority and was expected to win a no-confidence
vote that was to close the debate on the killing that brought back memories
of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

But peaceful protests against the government and its Syrian backers were
unprecedented in their scale and scope.

On Monday, banks, schools and businesses closed in a general strike the
opposition called to coincide with the debate. A government ban on protests
escalated the tension, but thousands defied it, some by camping out
overnight in central Beirut.

Hundreds of Lebanese soldiers with assault rifles had fanned out in downtown
Beirut and barred roads to the protest scene and to parliament with metal
barricades and barbed wire. But protesters who pushed through met little
resistance.

A Syrian official source said the resignation was a Lebanese "internal
affair."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters the event "represents
an opportunity for the Lebanese people to have a government that is truly
representative of their country's diversity."

NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told an Italian newspaper a total
withdrawal of his country's 14,000 troops from Lebanon, would be linked to
peace with arch-foe Israel and was not therefore imminent.

"From a technical viewpoint, the repatriation (of Syrian forces) could
happen within the end of the year. But from a strategic viewpoint it will
only happen if we get serious guarantees. In a word, peace," Assad said.

Jumblatt offered an olive branch, appealing for calm and calling for a
national unity government including opposition figures to lead in the runup
to May parliamentary elections.

"I believe the main aim was to bring down the government. We achieved this.
Today we are at a new crossroads in the history of the country ... we have
entered a stage where there must be calm," he said.

Opponents of Syria's presence just wanted it to implement the Taif Accord
that ended the civil war, Jumblatt told CNN.

"I think we should now enter into serious negotiations with the Syrians
according to the Taif agreement which implies honorable withdrawal from
Lebanon," he said.

Taif required that Syrian troops redeploy to eastern Lebanon then withdrawal
would be negotiated.

"The battle is long, and this is the first step, this is the battle for
freedom, sovereignty and independence," opposition MP Ghattas Khouri told
the crowd.

Opposition MPs and many ordinary Lebanese hold Damascus and Beirut
responsible for the deaths of Hariri and 17 others when a bomb blew apart
his motorcade two weeks ago to the day.

Assad again denied Syria had a hand in the bombing in the interview with la
Repubblica newspaper. "For us it would be like political suicide," he said.

"The time has come for the Lebanese people to be able to face their own
decisions," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State David Satterfield, in Beirut for
four days, said earlier on Monday. (Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki, Lin
Noueihed and Roula Najem)

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Ruh-roh. If the Iraqi WMD *are* hidden in the Bekaa Valley region (as some
have suggested), Syria has to be sweating the fact that they won't have a
friendly government in there any longer to help them conceal the fact.