BEIRUT, 15 June 2007 — Thousands of weeping mourners yesterday marched next to the Lebanese flag-draped casket of the latest anti-Syrian MP to be murdered in Beirut, crying for revenge as troops looked on.
“Beirut wants revenge on (pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile) Lahoud and (Syrian President) Bashar (Assad),” the crowd chanted alongside ambulances carrying the coffins of MP Walid Eido, his son and a bodyguard, killed with seven others in Wednesday’s seafront bombing.
Walid Eido was the seventh anti-Syrian figure to be assassinated since February 2005, when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a suicide truck bombing.
Allies of Eido alleged the killing was Syria’s response to a UN Security Council vote last week establishing a court to try suspects in the Hariri attack.
But Syria denied any links to Eido’s assassination. “Syria strongly denounces this crime and condemns the campaign of lies by some Lebanese used to accuse Syria after any killing and before an investigation even starts,” a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said.
Amid a heavy deployment of security forces, flag-waving mourners led by parliamentary majority leaders Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt marched from the family home toward a mosque in southeast Beirut for midday prayers and the burial ceremony.
“I tell the criminals that, God willing, you will be punished and dragged to jail like low-lives,” Saad told the crowd.
Parliament member Wael Abou-Faour said the assassination was aimed at cutting the majority of Saad’s bloc, which now has 68 seats in what was originally a Parliament of 128 members.
President Lahoud refused to call a by-election when another anti-Syrian MP, Cabinet Minister Pierre Gemayel, was shot dead in November, saying the government had lost its legitimacy.
“The dramatic scenario is clear: Bashar Assad is assassinating parliamentarians and Emile Lahoud is not allowing (by-elections) to elect others,” Abou-Faour said.
“The parliamentary majority is diminishing and they are trying to change the political equation through assassination.”
The United States, a strong backer of the Beirut government, and other Western states have condemned the killing.
