A protester in the
southern Lebanese city of Sidon blocks a road with blazing tyres
yesterday. Photograph: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images
The crisis in
Lebanon
following the assassination of Beirut's top police official appeared to
be deepening as the prime minister, Najib Mikati, announced his cabinet
would resign as soon as a caretaker national unity government could be
formed.
General Wissam al-Hassan was one of 10 people killed and
more than a hundred wounded on Friday after a car bomb exploded in a
cramped middle-class Christian neighbourhood in central Beirut. The
explosion rocked the Sassine Square area just after 3pm, leaving windows
shattered and broken glass littering the streets.
The killing of
Hassan has followed months of rising tension as Lebanon has been drawn
ever deeper into the conflict in neighbouring
Syria – whose government has been blamed for the murder.
Hassan
was a key investigator for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the
international investigation into the 2005 assassination of another
former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, and several other bombings that the
Lebanese street has blamed on the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
Tensions
between the pro-Syrian government and an opposition that is openly
backing the rebels in Syria's 18-month civil war have steadily risen
over the past year and the death of Hassan, a Sunni, left supporters
around the country calling for a national strike and retaliatory
violence against the Shia militant group Hezbollah and its allies in the
government. Hezbollah denied that it was behind the blast.
Gangs
of angry protesters took to the streets on Friday night, blocking roads,
burning tyres and calling on the government to resign. As protesters
demanded justice and revenge, Hezbollah and its allies began deploying
their gunmen to the streets to protect Shia neighbourhoods from revenge
attacks by infuriated Sunnis.
Immediately after Hassan's
assassination, the ruling coalition, led by Hezbollah, announced that it
would block any attempt to transfer jurisdiction over the investigation
into the car bombing to the STL, a move that prompted Mikati to
announce that his cabinet would resign as soon as a caretaker national
unity government could be formed.
The dramatic announcement came
after a security council meeting with President Michel Sleiman to
determine the proper course forward the day after the worst bombing to
strike Lebanon in the past five years.
The Lebanese government had
previously thrown its support behind the STL, but after it became clear
that prosecutors planned to indict members of Hezbollah in the Hariri
assassination, the group's allies in the cabinet took steps to limit
co-operation with the tribunal. After the cabinet refused to discuss
transferring the investigation into Hassan's murder to the STL, the
prime minister made his announcement that he would resign as soon as a
caretaker government could be formed.
"The request for a timeframe
stems from a realisation that Lebanon is facing a plan to create strife
in the country," the prime minister said. "This is a national issue and
we are keen on preserving the nation. We do not want to leave Lebanon
in a vacuum," he added in a statement to reporters after meeting the
president.
Hezbollah has described the STL as an Israeli project
to sow discord between Lebanese factions already bitterly divided over
support for the rebels battling for control of Syria. Hassan was
considered one of the key backers of the tribunal and sources say he had
recently turned over a considerable amount of evidence in the form of
telecoms records to prosecutors, in a move widely criticised by
Hezbollah and its allies.
In announcing his eventual resignation,
the prime minister also stated that he did not believe that Hassan had
been acting in an irresponsible or politically biased manner. "I have
never felt that Hassan was aligned with any political camp," said the
premier. "I stress that the investigations must take their course until
the truth is revealed."
Hassan had recently uncovered an alleged
plot by Syria's Lebanese allies to spread discord and instability
throughout Lebanon with a wave of bombings and assassinations. Arrested
in that plot was former minister Michel Samaha, who prosecutors allege
had smuggled explosives into Lebanon from Syria to support the bombing
campaign.
The prime minister said it was obvious that Hassan's
murder was tied to that case, as well as to other investigations into a
series of political assassinations from 2005 to 2008.
The killing
comes as Lebanon is struggling over how to respond to the civil war and
humanitarian crisis in Syria. Syrian rebels have taken to using Lebanon
as a safe haven and as a jumping-off point for military operations
against Syrian troops posted along the border. A close ally of the
Syrian regime, Hezbollah is often said to be conducting military
operations inside Syria to help dampen the rebellion,in which more than
30,000 people have been killed since it began in the spring of 2011.
The
assassination of Hassan prompted Lebanon's political opposition to
place the blame for the killing squarely on Assad, who has had a poor
relationship with Lebanon's Sunnis since Syria was accused of murdering
the former prime minister.
Following the car bomb and ensuing
violent protests that erupted around the country, the streets of the
capital were almost deserted as people stayed indoors in case of
violence or further assassinations. In one incident, Lebanese army
troops opened fire on a car that ran a roadblock in the Beqa'a Valley,
wounding two people.
Throughout Lebanon, security forces took
steps to protect government buildings and maintain order. But in Sunni
areas, security forces were scarce and cars cruised the streets ordering
Sunnis to call for the government's removal. Several Sunni militiamen
could be seen carrying weapons on Friday night in a clear violation of
Lebanese law.
Lebanon appears to be destabilising as more than
100,000 Syrians fleeing violence in their country have taken refuge
within the country, causing friction between government supporters who
oppose supporting the rebels and Sunni politicians who strongly and
openly support the Syrian rebel movement.
end quote from:
Lebanon cabinet to quit as protests over Beirut bomb mount
The sectarian war in Syria and the bombing that killed the Lebanese Top Police official yesterday has collapsed the Cabinet of Lebanon and may plunge Lebanon once again into civil war unless a way is found to stop it.
The Syria war will continue to harm regional governments in a variety of ways until it is resolved with Assad removed from power.
This is beginning to look a lot like how world war I began. It kind of turns the stomach.
Email
No comments:
Post a Comment