LEBANON:Hundreds of thousands of opposition demonstrators flowed into the centre of the Lebanese capital yesterday, filling two wide squares and engulfing a tent encampment set up by protesters 10 days ago.
Since the area has been sealed off by the army, the multitude came on foot. Ranks of men, women, children and babes in pushcarts, bearing or wearing Lebanese flags or the flags of the coalition of parties, called for a national unity government. People swept like rivers along wide avenues and trickled along narrow alleyways, through army barricades, down steps.
It was a powerful, unstoppable current, the largest popular gathering ever staged in Lebanon.
A single Lebanese flag hung limply from the roof of the Serai, the seat of government where prime minister Fouad Siniora and his cabinet have been besieged since industry minister Pierre Gemayel was assassinated late last month. A sea of thousands of waving red, white and green national flags stretched below in the squares, in the streets and on the flyovers which connect east and west Beirut.
The chant, "Siniora out" bounced off the buildings bordering the demonstration and rose to the Serai, enclosed in coils of razor wire and guarded by tanks and well-armed soldiers. Loudspeakers blared the opposition's nationalist theme calling on Shias, Sunnis and Christians to unite so Lebanon could be free.
The first protest tents went up on December 1st. Now there are 9,000 people living permanently in 650 tents pitched in neat ranks in Riad Solh square, named for the country's first prime minister, and at the foot of the hill leading to the Serai.
While security men deployed by Hizbullah, the leading party in the opposition coalition, imposed order, checked for weapons and kept watch for potential troublemakers, protesters greeted each other and chatted. Boys and girls flirted. Vendors sold corn on the cob and nuts and balloons. Children held tight to their parents' hands so they would not get lost in the crush. Protesters, who came from every corner of the country, wore scarves in the colours of the rainbow: yellow for Hizbullah, green for the secular Shia Amal movement, orange for the Maronite Christian Free Patriotic Movement and red for the communists.
Lamiya, a young woman wearing a headscarf who had come from distant Baalbek said: "The government must see what the people want. They want to be represented in the government by parties who can make policy not by parties who simply bow to Siniora and his group."
Assad Zoghby, an engineer with an orange scarf round his neck, observed: "This government must see it has followed wrong economic strategies for the past 15 years."
He gestured towards the luxury blocks and shops built in the city centre under the post-civil war construction programme carried out by billionaire premier Rafiq Hariri, whose assassination in 2005 gave rise to the ongoing crisis. Mr Zoghby said: "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer and the young have no jobs and leave. We need a new kind of government with new financial and economic strategies."
Among the political figures addressing the rally was the deputy leader of Hizbullah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, whose appearance on the platform was greeted by a roar of approval.
Mr Siniora responded to the protest by saying that Lebanon could absorb such shocks, indicating he plans to stay in his post.
On Saturday, President Émile Lahoud, who is allied to the opposition, refused to sign the Bill for the creation of an international tribunal to try Lebanese and Syrian intelligence figures accused of being involved in the slaying of Mr Hariri.
The opposition, which supports the tribunal, argues that it has not been consulted on its composition or operating procedures.
A source close to Hizbullah said that pressure on Mr Siniora is likely to be stepped up mid-week through short strikes in the port and airport as well as the commercial sector. While Hizbullah and its allies have pledged not to resort to violence, there is fear that a single incident could spark a conflagration.