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Author Topic: One-quarter of Lebanon's population stages anti-government demonstration
unionist
rabble-rouser
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posted 01 December 2006 11:30 AM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
About 800,000 protest in Beirut for new government

quote:
Hundreds of thousands of protesters organized by the militant group Hezbollah and its allies rallied outside the downtown Beirut office of Lebanon's prime minister on Friday, calling for his resignation in what's being called "the great showdown." [...]

Police estimated the crowd at about 800,000, while Hezbollah said it believed the number was closer to one million — one-quarter of Lebanon's population.

"It's an incredible scene here," CBC's Nahlah Ayed reported from Beirut. "It's an incredible show of force actually. This is the opposition essentially flexing its muscles. They are all here with the same aim and that is to topple the government."

The protest is expected to last for days, which could affect the delivery of government services. Ayed said there are fears it could lead to violence if the demands aren't met.


When Hezbollah takes over in Beirut, will Canada cut diplomatic relations because they are "terrorists"?


From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
a lonely worker
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posted 01 December 2006 08:07 PM      Profile for a lonely worker     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
When Hezbollah takes over in Beirut, will Canada cut diplomatic relations because they are "terrorists"?

Unfortunately yes. Even worse our media is totally misrepresenting key elements of this story:

1 - It was the leader of the largest Christian party (FPM) Michel Aoun who led the rally and who spoke first. Represntatives from the Druze community were there as well. Having a majority of Christians united with Hezbollah is obviously something that will totally blow away the propoganda created to prop up the neo-lib puppet "March 14" government currently in place.

2 - A key demand of the protesters is to redraw the election process closer to this quaint notion of one person one vote instead of the EU and American (including our colonial government) imposed religious block voting system which unfairly distorts results like the lackey Sinora getting half the votes of Aoun but all of the power.

3 - The reason many christians, shiites and druze are working together is because they rightly see the March 14 movement as a US backed coup. The main example:
- after Lebanon was attacked, the "west" offered financial assistance. Our media made a great deal of our "genorisity". They never mentioned in exchange for the aid Lebanon had to privatise key facilities (ports, airports, water services, power, etc.) to our western corporations at fireslae prices as well as severely curtail government funding of social programmes like health, education and others. Sinora gladly accepted which is why so many government ministers resigned. Hence today's protest and calls for this puppet to go.

4 - Another key demand is that Lebanese stop being divided by religious lines and work towards a cohesive nation state. It is the March 14 group who are playing up these old divisions with threats of civil war.

There are times when I'm disgusted to be a Canadian. What we're doing to Lebanon and how we are so unquestioningly accepting the shit our media is feeding us is one of these times.


From: Anywhere that annoys neo-lib tools | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
a lonely worker
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posted 02 December 2006 05:22 PM      Profile for a lonely worker     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Here's the best article of the "western" media that covered the event:

quote:
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Christians waving Lebanese flags poured into central Beirut yesterday as opposition leaders gave impassioned speeches calling for the resignation of the cabinet and the formation of a new, more inclusive government.

A tent city was set up for the thousands who vowed to stay outside the government offices where the prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and most of his ministers were holed up behind barbed wire and barriers until the cabinet stepped down.

"I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit," said opposition leader Michel Aoun, to roars of applause. Mr Aoun, who fought a 15-year campaign to rid Lebanon of Syrian influence and commands the largest Christian following, led the opposition speeches. The Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, seen by many as a driving force of the opposition, did not make an appearance.

"Our government are in their offices hiding from us - the Lebanese people. We will stay on the streets until they leave," said 22-year-old Ali.

Saha Samat, 30, whose family had come from the north of Lebanon, said she was fed up with the exclusion of much of the country's Christian community. "We want a government that represents all Lebanese. I'm not with any political party; we have come as Lebanese. It's not just the economic situation; we want a unified government. It's not fair that all these people are not represented," she said, pointing at tens of thousands of Lebanese flags fluttering in the sun.

Many protesters believe the government is corrupt and has failed to address the country's nearly £20bn debt.

"These are the same people that ruled under the Syrians - the same crooks. We want a new government that is responsible and actually works for the good of the country," said 36-year-old electrical engineer Raymond Khouri.

The government also came under fire over its relationship with Washington and its conduct during the summer's 34-day-war between Israel and Hizbullah.

"Our people were being killed everyday by Israel and they [the government] were taking orders from its ally, America. No one from this government has even visited the south yet," says Khaled Khadash, a 47-year-old marketing manager.



Muslims and Christians demand new government

So much for the myth of this being a "pro-Syria Hezbollah rally".

Bravo to the Guardian for being the only paper to be brave enough to print the truth.

[ 02 December 2006: Message edited by: a lonely worker ]


From: Anywhere that annoys neo-lib tools | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
sidra
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posted 02 December 2006 08:49 PM      Profile for sidra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
So much for the myth of this being a "pro-Syria Hezbollah rally".

"Or Hizbullah supporters" as many media in Canad and the USA referred to the 800 000 protesters. Looked at through Canada's "lenses", that would be 800 000 criminals roaming the streets. Good Golly

[ 02 December 2006: Message edited by: sidra ]


From: Ontario | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
a lonely worker
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posted 03 December 2006 07:59 PM      Profile for a lonely worker     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Man killed after Beirut rally

quote:
Ahmed Ali Mahmoud was shot dead during a clash in west Beirut that occurred as a group of Hizbullah supporters were passing through a Sunni neighbourhood on their way back from a rally in central Beirut. In another Sunni-Shia clash troops fired smoke bombs to disperse rock-throwing groups of antagonists.

It was the third day of protests led by Hizbullah, and on this occasion tens of thousands of Christians gathered to support the opposition, which is calling for the western-backed government to step aside and allow the formation of a more inclusive cabinet.

But the government remained defiant, calling on the opposition, led by Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Christian leader, Michel Aoun, to engage in dialogue not protest. Fouad Siniora, Lebanon's prime minister, was buoyed on Saturday by a string of statements by European ministers, including the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, who declared their support for his cabinet.

"This is a government elected by the people of Lebanon and a government which has the constitutional authority that election gives it," said Mrs Beckett, after meeting Mr Siniora in Beirut. "I believe the world community supports the constitutional government."

Organisers estimated that more than 70,000 Christians gathered for the mass outside Saint Joseph cathedral yesterday, the third day of anti-government protests. "The Christians are being marginalised today just as they were under the Syrians. We are invisible in the foreign media," said Sonya Saab, 35, an advertising manager, sitting outside one of the hundreds of white tents erected to accommodate the opposition's indefinite sit-in to bring down the government.


If the victim would have been pro-western and it was them protesting the "west" would have been calling it something stupid like "the cedar revolution". Oh wait, they did and demanded the overthrow of the then equally undemocratic government.

Still the biggest story in all of this is the total refusal of our media to even acknowlege the "christians" protesting. The colour of the FPM is orange. Every time the media says "hezbollah rally" the images always show people wearing orange as well as hezbollah yellow and even some communist red.

This censorship is unbelievable.


From: Anywhere that annoys neo-lib tools | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
a lonely worker
rabble-rouser
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posted 04 December 2006 08:28 PM      Profile for a lonely worker     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Since the media continues to distort this story, here is the actual speech that Michel Aoun made at the beginning of Frday's rally:

quote:
Today we represent the national and ethical principles that were never just fake rhetoric but have become a reality lived daily in every house and in the every heart. Today we revive national coexistence and reinforce our national unity not in words but this has become a way of living we adopt as a basis for the future.


Our values and principles are not founded on a political discourse. There may be others who speak better than we do. But in reality we respect our commitments before the Lebanese people better than anyone else.
We are not at a crossroad as they claim but we are on the right path we have decided to take leaving the troubles and the rumors behind.

I greet those present among us here today and those absent too. And we would have loved that the ministers in Grand Serail be present with us here today. We do not seek to isolate them and we do not seek to monopolize power. Nor do we seek to obtain personal or even sectarian interests.

Even though we warned of these dangers that we consider as momentary, we thank the television stations that seek, even in such national events that happen under the Lebanese flag, to have confessional counters to count thousands of Christians and hundreds of thousands of Muslims or Shiites! It is a shame and a disgrace to separate between a confession and another as we have met under the Lebanese flag and we are proud of this; in front of the entire world we are not ashamed of our national principles.

Yes we are extremists: extremists in preserving the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon, in safeguarding the free decision making, in leading moderate lives. Moderation is in the coexistence and reaching out to the other. Moderation is not sacrificing one’s rights and independence. Moderation is not the search for a lost decision in close and far capitals of the world. Today we seek to liberate the free decision making. The decision is here when we meet as united Lebanese and agree on our internal, external and defense policies. Thus we make our free decision. A free decision does not change according to geography from a Lebanese area to a non Lebanese area. That’s why we will always seek to maintain our friendships and we want to be friends with everybody in the East and the West provided they respect our national will and let us deal with our problems on our own. We consider that any factional support to the government coming from any country whatsoever is not a friendly support but it is a support that creates confrontation in the society as conspiracy looms over the nation and its unity.

Today we do not seek power just to occupy posts, be it the third plus one, or ten or 9 ministerial seats, but to be part of the national decision making so that this decision is right to the Lebanese people and not to block it or hamper it as some officials claim.


But when I talk about the prime minister, I refer to the prime minister of Lebanon and not to a Sunni prime minister or a Maronite president of the republic or of a Shiite house speaker. I refer to a prime minister that represents me as a maronite as it represents the Sunnis.

There should be no confessional favoritism in dealing with public affairs and there is no qualification of the prime minister except that he is Lebanese and that he represents all the Lebanese people. As we criticize him today, we do not criticize, as some like to claim, the entire Sunni community. But our criticism and demands are directed towards the prime minister who made a lot of mistakes and must step down and be replaced by another Sunni who is more qualified and who has more expertise and knowledge of the Lebanese social fabric and its national issues.

This is your will and we are here to express this will in front of you and all the Lebanese people who are listening. Lebanon is a free country and will remain free for all its people. Coexistence does not need to be defended because we are living it every day and it is not just rhetoric emptied of meaning.

I call on you to support our mission of change and reform and the preservation of free decision making and of the rights of the Lebanese people, all the Lebanese people. The rights of the Lebanese people should not be subjected to favoritism and confessionalism or political affiliation. These are absolute rights that all the governments should safeguard and for all the people, supporters and opponents.

Today we are suffering from an isolation campaign waged against us as if those in power intend to create a confrontation. But we do not want this confrontation. We seek openness in order to reach a national unity in which all the Lebanese people take part.


Michel Aoun's speech

This speech more than any other should end the gross distortion our media and governments are doing.

These are the words of a movement that wants true independence grounded on democracy and human rights; free of foreign interference, corruption and religious (confessional) sectarianism.

No wonder our elites are trying to destroy it.


From: Anywhere that annoys neo-lib tools | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged

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