TENS OF thousands of Lebanese poured into Beirut’s Martyrs Square yesterday to try to revive the “Cedar Revolution” that pressured Syrian troops to leave Lebanon exactly six years ago.
This time, their sights were trained on the weapons of Hizbullah, Lebanon’s powerful armed Shia party. Caretaker prime minister Saad Al-Hariri was greeted like a rock star as he took to the podium.
But yesterday’s flag-waving crowd, although large and exuberant, was far smaller than the estimated million who filled the square on March 14th, 2005, after the assassination of Mr Hariri’s father, Rafik, to demand an end to three decades of Syrian dominance.
“We demand a state where nobody else carries arms,” Mr Hariri said. “We demand a state which has one sole army standing in the face of Israel.” Hizbullah’s alliance resigned from Mr Hariri’s national unity government in January, bringing it down, after he refused to drop official support for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The Hague-based court is expected to accuse members of Hizbullah of killing Rafik Hariri in the coming weeks.
Mr Hariri has refused to join the cabinet of prime minister-designate Najib Mikati, appointed with Hizbullah’s backing. Yesterday’s demonstration was intended to be a show of strength backing his newly strident stance concerning the weapons.
Hizbullah, which denies involvement in the Hariri killing, was the only party to keep its arms after the civil war ended in 1990 to defend Lebanon against Israel.
In May 2008, the group seized control of parts of Beirut after a government clamp-down on its communications networks. Mr Hariri’s alliance, which is backed by the US and Saudi Arabia, has since accused it of turning its weapons on the Lebanese.
“All weapons should be in the possession of the army, not threatening the citizens,” said Ghada Bitar, a Beiruti woman in a peaked cap bearing the Arabic word for “no” – the slogan of Mr Hariri’s disarmament campaign.