BEIRUT, 24 November 2006 — Tens of thousands of Lebanese paid tribute to assassinated Christian politician Pierre Gemayel yesterday, turning his funeral in central Beirut into a display of defiance against Syria and its Hezbollah allies.
Raucous crowds carrying Lebanese flags and those of Christian factions, including Gemayel’s Phalange Party, swarmed around St. George Cathedral, where Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir conducted the rites.
Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian leaders, standing together behind bullet-proof glass, called for solidarity in the struggle against Syria and its allies in Lebanon.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan sent cables of condolences to Amin Gemayel, the father of Pierre. The king expressed to the Gemayel family his heartfelt condolences and wished security and stability for Lebanon.
In Beirut, Saad Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri who was assassinated in 2005, told the mourners: “National unity is stronger than their weapons, their crimes and their terrorism.” The leaders had accused Syria of killing the industry ministe.
“We will not rest until all the criminals are brought to justice,” Amin Gemayel told mourners.
Gemayel was shot dead Tuesday in the sixth killing of an anti-Syrian figure in less than two years in Lebanon.
“Our suspicions are big that Syria is behind this (killing) to destroy national unity, to destroy us living together and to fuel sectarianism,” Sunni mourner Ghada Hakim, 63, said.
The mood was one of anger at Syria and resolve in support of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian majority coalition. Inside the cathedral, family members wept and prayed over Gemayel’s coffin. “Whatever they do to remove young men, there will always be more young men to raise the flag,” said Marwan Haj, 25. “Syria doesn’t want us to be free and make our own decisions.”
Mourners turned out in force but not in the vast numbers of March 14 last year after the killing of Rafik Hariri, when an outpouring of anti-Syrian anger led Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after 29 years.
The government says its Syrian-backed opponents want to weaken it and to scupper an international tribunal under UN auspices that is being set up to try suspects in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri.
“They will not suppress our demands for the truth, justice and the international court,” Druze leader Walid Jumblatt told the crowd. After the funeral, Gemayel’s coffin was driven back to the family’s mountain home town of Bekfaya where he was buried.
UN investigators have begun assisting the Lebanese inquiry into the murder of Gemayel after the Security Council agreed to a request for help. “We confirm that the commission is complying with the request of the Security Council,” Ashraf Kamal, spokesman of the UN commission of inquiry into the Hariri murder said. He declined to confirm media reports that UN investigators had already inspected the crime scene.
Syria yesterday strongly condemned Gemayel’s murder and accused unnamed people of “exploiting the crime for personal ends.” “(Syria) strongly denounces the odious crime which cost the life of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel and believes this attacks is aimed at Lebanon’s stability,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement coinciding with the funeral.
