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Official: Syria troops out of Lebanon soon
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-22 01:30
The Arab League chief said Monday that Syria will "soon" take steps to
withdraw its army from Lebanese areas in accordance with a 1989 agreement.
The announcement by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa came after a
meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"Assad stressed more than once his firm determination to go on with
implementing the Taif agreement and achieve Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in
accordance with this agreement," Moussa said.
"Syrian withdrawal is part of Syrian policy and will see steps in this
direction very soon," Moussa quoted Assad as saying. Syria itself has made no
announcements about troop withdrawals.
The 1989 agreement signed in Taif, Saudi Arabia, ended the civil war that had
started in 1975. Among other things, it called for Syrian forces, which had
entered Lebanon ostensibly to separate the warring sides, to withdraw within two
years to the eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border.
It was not clear whether Moussa's statement meant Syria would completely
leave Lebanon. Syria has pledged before to honor the Taif agreement and has made
only minor withdrawals.
In Beirut, tens of thousands of opposition supporters shouted insults at
Syria and demanded the resignation of their pro-Syrian government at a Beirut
demonstration Monday.
Protestors carry Lebanese flags and anti Syria banners
during a street demonstration in Beirut, Lebanon Monday Feb. 21, 2005.
Thousands of opposition supporters shouted insults at Syria and demanded
the resignation of their pro-Syrian government, marking a week since the
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
[AP] | The massive protest — the largest
and loudest since the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990 — marked one week since
the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The four-hour Beirut protest passed without violence despite heavy military
and police presence.
Beating drums and waving Lebanese flags, those of their own parties and
portraits of past leaders killed during the 1975-90 civil war, the protesters
gathered at the site where Hariri was killed Feb. 14 in a bombing that the
opposition blames on Damascus.
Some in the crowd yelled "Syria out!" and "We don't want a parliament that
acts as a doorkeeper for the Syrians," competing with loud insults shouted
against Assad.
Protesters wore scarves of red and white — the colors of Lebanon's flag —
which have become the symbol of the opposition's "independence uprising,"
described as a peaceful campaign to dislodge the pro-Syrian government and force
the Syrian army out of Lebanon.
Some protesters carried banners reading, "Independence," and chanted, "The
government of puppets must fall" and "Enough blood, leave us alone."
The crowd was estimated in the tens of thousands, with many converging on
downtown Beirut from all parts of the Lebanese capital.
"It is my civic duty as a Lebanese to take part in this uprising," said
Youssef Mukhtar, a 47-year-old engineer. "Enough bloodshed and disasters. It is
the 21st century, and people should be able to govern themselves. The situation
has become unbearable and we have to regain our country."
Many held pictures of Hariri and sang patriotic songs. Some protesters held a
copy of the Quran in one hand and the cross in another hand to signify
Muslim-Christian national unity.
Police and army troops in full battle gear stood guard without intervening,
blocking roads with metal barriers. To prevent more potential protesters from
reaching Beirut, security forces set up checkpoints on the northern and eastern
entrances to the Lebanese capital.
The protest reached its peak shortly before 12:55 p.m., the time that
Hariri's motorcade was blown up, killing him and 16 other people and wounding
more than 100. The protesters, chanting "All for the Nation," the national
anthem, observed a moment of silence at the exact time of the bombing and then
began converging on the U.N. offices in the downtown Riad Solh Square to hand a
letter to representatives of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web
sites).
On the way, the protesters marched by the nearby Grand Serail, the prime
minister's office, shouting "Syria out!" and "We don't want an army in Lebanon
except that of Lebanon!"
The protesters then marched to Hariri's grave outside the Mohammed Al-Amin
Mosque at the central Martyrs' Square and sang the national anthem. "We want the
truth," said one speaker.
On Sunday, Lebanon said it would cooperate with U.N. investigators looking
into the assassinations, but stuck to its rejection of a full-fledged
international inquiry.
At the same time the Beirut protest was making its way to the grave, about
500 Lebanese in Kuwait gathered near their country's embassy, where they stood
for a moment's silence in front of a large poster of Hariri.
"What we want is an international committee to uncover the truth," said
Marwan Jamal, a business consultant, 39. "Nobody should think we are divided."
Hariri's killing shook Lebanon and sparked an outpouring of sympathy for the
man credited with rebuilding the country from the destruction of civil war,
cutting across the sectarian divide.
Hariri was one of the architects of the 1989 Taif agreement that ended
Lebanon's civil war, which started in 1975. It called for Syrian forces — which
had entered Lebanon ostensibly to separate between the warring sides — to
withdraw within two years to the eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. A
total withdrawal was to be discussed between the Lebanese and Syrian governments
at a later stage.
Syrian forces have redeployed several times since 2000, leaving Beirut and
the coastline. Syria currently maintains about 15,000 troops in Lebanon. Syria's
critics in Lebanon have said the withdrawals were tactical and demanded a total
pullout and an end to Syrian military intelligence involvement in the country's
politics.
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