Lebanon holds funeral for slain lawmaker
Saturday, 22 September 2007
BEIRUT, Sept 21 (Agencies): Family, colleagues and supporters marched Friday in a mass funeral procession for a slain Lebanese lawmaker, the latest victim of a campaign the country's anti-Syrian faction accuses Damascus of orchestrating to scuttle the upcoming presidential election. A brass band played the anthem of killed lawmaker Antoine Ghanem's political party as hundreds of mourners carried flags while they walked down a packed street in a Beirut neighbourhood.
Women ululated with their tongues as Ghanem's coffin, draped in the Lebanese and Phalange Party flags, and the caskets of his driver and bodyguard, who also were killed in Wednesday's bomb blast, were held above people's heads as they marched.
Schools and universities across the country as well as some businesses in Christian areas of Beirut and in Mount Lebanon, a region north and east of the capital, were closed for a second day Friday as the government called for a day of national mourning.
Wednesday's car bomb killed Ghanem, 64, and six others in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut. He was the seventh anti-Syrian personality and fourth anti-Syrian lawmaker killed in Lebanon since 2005.
Government supporters accuse Syria of seeking to eliminate US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's small majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition, which now holds 68 seats to the opposition's 59. The US government condemned the attack and the UN Security Council demanded an immediate end to targeted killings of Lebanese leaders.
Ghanem's assassination threatened to derail efforts to bring the country's rival parties together to agree on a president before a two-month election period begins Tuesday in the deeply divided parliament. Lebanese leaders from all factions have pledged to press ahead with the election despite the latest killing.
Women ululated with their tongues as Ghanem's coffin, draped in the Lebanese and Phalange Party flags, and the caskets of his driver and bodyguard, who also were killed in Wednesday's bomb blast, were held above people's heads as they marched.
Schools and universities across the country as well as some businesses in Christian areas of Beirut and in Mount Lebanon, a region north and east of the capital, were closed for a second day Friday as the government called for a day of national mourning.
Wednesday's car bomb killed Ghanem, 64, and six others in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut. He was the seventh anti-Syrian personality and fourth anti-Syrian lawmaker killed in Lebanon since 2005.
Government supporters accuse Syria of seeking to eliminate US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's small majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition, which now holds 68 seats to the opposition's 59. The US government condemned the attack and the UN Security Council demanded an immediate end to targeted killings of Lebanese leaders.
Ghanem's assassination threatened to derail efforts to bring the country's rival parties together to agree on a president before a two-month election period begins Tuesday in the deeply divided parliament. Lebanese leaders from all factions have pledged to press ahead with the election despite the latest killing.