Lebanese crowds commemorate Hariri assassination anniversary
Lebanon-Syria-UN, Politics, 2/15/2006

On the first anniversary of Rafiq al-Hariri assassination which falls February 14, the UN renewed commitment to disclose the truth and bring the executors to the judiciary and stressed standing beside Lebanon in the efforts made in search for justice.

The spokesman for the UN Stefan De Jarick commended the late Lebanese premier, adding that Hariri will remain in the memory "as a person who devoted himself for the Lebanese people."

For her part, the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice stressed the stand of the USA and the international community with the Lebanese people "at a time when it seeks to reassure independence and enhance its own democracy."

In a statement on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Hariri assassination, Rice commended what she called the desire of the Lebanese to maintain independence. She said "let's remember the heritage left by Hariri represented in the ability of Lebanon to resist after decades of the civil war, as well as its determination to rebuild the country so as to have a democratic and prosperous Lebanon."

Rice also said that those who killed Hariri and 21 of his friends one year before, are definitely the same who tried to overcome these efforts and ensure keeping Lebanon under foreign hegemony.

Al-Hurrieh( freedom) square in Beirut was crowded on Tuesday with a large crowd that included almost one million Lebanese on the occasion of the first anniversary on the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

Amid tough security conditions, leaders of the so called "March 14 forces", especially the leader of the parliamentary majority Saad al-Hariri, delivered speeches in which they concentrated on removing the President of the republic Emil Lahoud.

Saad who returned back to Lebanon just two days before from abroad said "they had left us in Baabda a deposit from those deposits of the mandate regime, and we say to them withdraw the deposit of your mandate from Baabda ' the Lebanese Presidential palace," in reference to Lahoud considered by him as a remain of the Syrian control of Lebanon.

The Druze leader and member of the Lebanese parliament Walid junblat strongly criticized President Emil Lahoud and the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He described the first as "a hireling" and the second as a "terrorist."

Previous Stories:
  Amal: UN Hariri assassination probe should not be politicized   (2/14/2006)
  Daily Star: Brammertz concentrates on interviewing Syrians   (1/31/2006)
  UN Security Council calls Syria to help Lebanon spread its sovereignty   (1/24/2006)

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