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The coffin of Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, a Lebanese Shiite killed by a Sunni on Sunday (AP)
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| December 5, 2006 |
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Lebanese troops in armored cars deployed to Sunni Muslim neighborhoods of the capital after the shooting death of a Shiite youth but that failed to prevent renewed friction late Monday.
Shiite leaders urged the family of the victim to avoid revenge, fearing sectarian violence that could detonate Lebanon's political crisis.
Lebanese were struggling to contain tensions after Sunday's shooting on Shiites who were walking through Sunni and mixed neighborhoods on their way back from an anti-government demonstration in downtown Beirut.
The attack has raised memories of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, when Beirut was physically divided by the Green Line between its warring Christian and Muslim districts.
Now Lebanon's divisions fall along different lines. The government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has widespread support among Sunni Muslims, while its opponent, pro-Syrian Hezbollah, is backed by Shiites. Lebanon's Christians largely support the government, though a major faction has allied to Hezbollah.
The body of Ahmed Mahmoud, a Shiite killed in the shooting, was brought by ambulance Monday night to downtown Riad Solh Square, where thousands of pro-Hezbollah protesters were camping for the fourth straight night demanding the ouster of Saniora's U.S-backed government.
The protesters cheered, blared nationalist songs and waved the Lebanese flag as the coffin draped in the Lebanese tricolor was placed on a platform in front of the crowd, just a few hundred meters (yards) from Saniora's offices, which was ringed by troops.
"Mahmoud is the martyr of Beirut, the martyr of Lebanon," one speaker, standing in front of the casket, told the crowd. The coffin was taken away a half-hour later. Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station, which aired the event live, called Mahmoud "the martyr of national unity." Mahmoud's funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.
Mahmoud's father, Ali, said he had initially thought of revenge, but had backed down after a visit by envoys of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his ally, Parliament Speaker and leader of the Shiite Amal Movement Nabih Berri, who told him vengeance would only play into the hands of those trying to divide Lebanon.
"They said my son was martyred for the homeland and they don't want chaos, but want all sects to live in harmony, to love each other," the 47-year-old Mahmoud said as he received well-wishers at a funeral hall in a Shiite cemetery in the suburb of Ghobeiri.
All he's going to do, he said, was to hope that Saniora, who has been holed up in his office since Friday, will quit. "Then, everything will be fine. We don't want problems between Sunnis and Shiites, Christians and Druse," he said.
The Lebanese army deployed reinforcements on full alert in the Beirut neighborhood of Qasqas, the mainly Sunni area where Sunday's shooting took place. The Sunni-Shiite divide is evident on the wide highway through the district, now dotted with armored cars and troops. Troops also guarded the entrances of other Sunni areas, fearing revenge attacks.
But the strong military presence did not prevent a renewal of the violence late Monday. Two people were injured when a group of Shiites, returning home from downtown Beirut, smashed windows of parked cars and stores in a neighborhood near Qasqas, police said.
Troops fired several warning shots in the air and intervened to prevent the friction from escalating, said the security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
About 300 people also gathered on the highway to Beirut international airport, in an apparent attempt to block the road, but security forces prevented them, the security officials said.
Monday's clashes appeared less severe than Sunday's when Mahmoud was killed and 21 others injured.
Mahmoud, a car mechanic, and his brother Hassan were among several hundred Shiites returning home from the Riad Solh protest Sunday afternoon. They had just turned a corner in Qasqas when heavy gunfire started raining down.
"Ali said let's run the other way," said Hassan, 22. In the confusion, Hassan heard his brother scream. He turned and saw Ahmed fall to the ground, but Hassan kept running. An hour later, the family got a call saying Ahmed was killed by a bullet to the back.
Hassan Mahmoud accused Saniora and his top ally, Saad Hariri -- son of slain Sunni former prime minister Rafik Hariri -- of causing problems "so Sunnis and Shiites start fighting each other."
"Enough of problems, we can't go on like this. I want the government to fall," said his friend, Omar Darwish, 17, a Sunni. "I feel guilty for what happened to Ahmad because it might be a Sunni who killed him."
He said before Rafik Hariri's assassination in February 2005, there was no talk of Sunni-Shiite enmity. "But now, that's all we hear."
But Mohammed Barakat, a 34-year-old Sunni in Qasqas, blamed Hezbollah for fueling the crisis and criticized them for taking the country to five weeks of a devastating war with Israel last summer.
"We (Sunnis) feel like foreigners in our own land," Barakat said. "We're living on the edge."
Accounts of how Sunday's shooting started varied. Sunnis in the neighborhood say the Shiites returning from the rally began chanting rude slogans against Sunni leaders, provoking Sunnis to throw stones at them. Some -- Sunnis and Shiites -- said they believed the insults were from outsiders not connected to the rally, intentionally meant to stir up trouble.
Mazen Mizhir, 19, a Sunni college student in Qasqas, said he was worried about his safety because his college was in a Shiite neighborhood.
"Tomorrow, Nasrallah and Saad Hariri will kiss and make up. It's only the ordinary people who will lose," said Mizhir.
The political crisis began escalating when six pro-Hezbollah ministers resigned from the Cabinet last month after Saniora and his anti-Syrian majority in parliament rejected the group's demand for a new national unity government that would effectively give it and its allies veto power.
Hezbollah says it will continue its protest campaign until Saniora agrees to step down, while the prime minister and his supporters -- emboldened by Arab and U.S. support -- have vowed to stay.
Saniora, a Sunni, gave a veiled warning Sunday of the possibility of open Sunni-Shiite fighting, saying that any attempt by Hezbollah's supporters to storm his office would lead to "a major and serious problem."
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