BEIJING,
Nov. 23 -- Lebanon began three days of mourning Wednesday for an
anti-Syrian cabinet minister whose assassination, blamed by his allies on
Damascus, raised fears of a new spasm of factional violence.
Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a Christian, was
gunned down as he drove through a Christian suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. He was
the sixth anti-Syrian politician to be killed in nearly two years.
The assassination turned Lebanon's Independence Day
yesterday into a sombre occasion. All festivities, including a military parade,
were cancelled.
The killing heightened tensions between the
anti-Syrian government and the pro-Damascus opposition led by Hezbollah, the
powerful Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group.
Anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt blamed Syria
for Gemayel's assassination and said he expected more killings aimed at
undermining parliament's ruling majority.
"I expect more assassinations but no matter what they
do, we are here and we will be victorious," he said.
Gemayel's body was driven from a hospital near Beirut
to his hometown of Bekfaya, northeast of the capital, where hundreds of
sympathisers walked behind the coffin, waving white-and-green flags of his
Phalange Party.
As the procession made its way to Gemayel's family
home, women on balconies threw rice at the coffin draped in his party's flag.
Gemayel's funeral will take place today and the anti-Syrian coalition has urged
a large turnout.
"It's an indescribable feeling," mourner Fadi Jalakh,
27, said. "Those who killed him don't want the Lebanese to unite. Anything after
this is going to make things worse."
There was a heavy police and army presence in Bekfaya
and in Christian neighbourhoods of Beirut.
Many Lebanese politicians accused Syria of killing
Gemayel and being responsible for the 2005 killing of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syria joined international condemnation of Gemayel's
murder.
"It is the destabilization of Lebanon that is under way today. We must respond to this destabilization with the greatest firmness, with courage," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told France Info radio.
(Source: China Daily)
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