Syria not welcomed in Lebanon, Lebanese demanded them to leave.
…
BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 150,000 Lebanese have turned the funeral of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri into an outpouring of public anger against Syria, blamed by opposition leaders for the bomb that killed him.
Men wept uncontrollably on Wednesday as the procession wound through Beirut streets plastered with posters of the Sunni Muslim billionaire slain in a suspected suicide car bombing on Monday.
“Syria out, Syria out,” the mourners shouted as people threw rice from balconies on to an ambulance carrying the body of a man who had joined calls for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon.
A U.S. envoy in Beirut for the funeral said Syria must take Hariri’s death as a cue to end a military presence maintained since a 1976 civil war intervention and stop political meddling.
In tears, Hariri’s sons and relatives bore his coffin, draped in a Lebanese flag, from the ambulance into an unfinished mosque Hariri had financed in Beirut’s once war-shattered downtown.
Some mourners fainted amid chaotic scenes as the crowd surged around the coffin before Hariri was laid to rest in the grounds of the mosque a few hundred metres from the seafront.
His killing revived memories of the 1975-90 civil war and spotlighted Lebanon’s troubled ties with Syria. It has brought renewed international pressure for the Syrians to leave in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last year.
French President Jacques Chirac, a personal friend of Hariri, arrived in Beirut and went straight to the Hariri family mansion, where he presented his condolences.
U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration recalled its ambassador to Damascus on Tuesday for consultations.
“Hariri’s death…must give renewed impetus to achieving a free, independent and sovereign Lebanon,” Assistant Secretary of State William Burns said. “What that means is the complete and immediate withdrawal by Syria of all of its forces in Lebanon.”
Hariri’s family spurned government offers of a state funeral and made clear officials such as Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Omar Karami and Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh were not welcome to attend.
BEWILDERED SYRIANS
Syria, which has condemned Hariri’s assassination and denied responsibility, made no public comment on Wednesday, but people in Damascus voiced shock at the criticism from the Lebanese.
“If they feel this way, then I say we should withdraw and let them break each other like falling water melons,” said a Syrian student who gave his name as Amjad.
A security source said at least 150,000 people had joined the funeral march, but other witnesses estimated hundreds of thousands of mourners had taken to the streets in one of Lebanon’s biggest and most diverse gatherings for decades.
Several European and Arab ministers, along with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, were among foreign dignitaries in Beirut for the burial.
Mosques blared prayers and church bells tolled in Beirut. The march, initially silent apart from the ambulance’s siren, soon erupted in chants against Syria and its local allies.
“Revenge, revenge on Lahoud and Bashar,” some mourners yelled, referring to the Syrian-backed Lebanese president and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
“They feared you, they killed you,” read a banner near Hariri’s house. “We are all shouting for Syria to get out. I want to kill someone today – a Syrian,” one mourner said.
Hariri’s emotional supporters declared allegiance to his businessman son Bahaa, one of his five surviving sons, urging him to take on his father’s political mantle.
U.S. officials said they were considering new sanctions on Syria because of its refusal to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon and Washington’s belief that Damascus lets Palestinian militants and Iraqi insurgents operate on its soil.
The White House said it was too early to tell who killed Hariri. The Bush administration wants U.N. Security Council members to consider possible measures against the perpetrators.
Iran, also at loggerheads with the United States, said on Wednesday it would form a common front with Syria.
“We are ready to help Syria on all grounds to confront threats,” Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref said in Tehran after meeting Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari.
Old civil war foes joined to honour Hariri’s passing. The red flags of a Druze-led party and the green cedar emblems of the Christian Phalangists fluttered side by side in the crowds.
“Hey, Syria, who’s next?” a placard held by a mourner read.
Hariri, 60, the driving force behind an ambitious postwar reconstruction programme that left Lebanon heavily in debt, died in a bomb explosion that killed 14 others and wounded 135.
He resigned as prime minister in October after falling out with Syria over its role in extending Lahoud’s term. He then joined opposition leaders in criticising the Syrian presence.