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Packed funeral for journalist

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT

December 15, 2005

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A huge portrait of slain Lebanese journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueni loomed over the crowds outside his newspaper's office, awaiting his funeral procession yesterday. "The difference between darkness and light is a word," it said.

With such fervor, Tueni was elevated onto the long list of political martyrs in Lebanon's tortured history. Tens of thousands poured into the streets to mourn the newspaper publisher and longtime critic of Syria. By turns angry and solemn, the crowds transformed the funeral into a protest against the Syrian regime and its remaining allies in Lebanon: President Emile Lahoud and officials entrenched within the Lebanese security services.

"Down, down with Lahoud," many chanted, pumping their fists in the air. Others directed their anger at Syrian President Bashar Assad, shouting: "We want your head, Bashar."

Tueni, 48, was killed by a car bombing on Monday, a day after his return from France, where he had stayed for months, off and on, because he feared an attempt on his life. He was the fourth Syrian opponent to be killed in Lebanon since Feb. 14, when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated. That killing prompted international pressure and popular protests that led to the resignation of the Syrian-backed Lebanese prime minister and forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon.

Many Lebanese blame Syria for the assassinations, and a United Nations investigation has implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in Hariri's killing. But Syria denies responsibility.

"Who's going to be killed next?" asked student Samer Fathi, 22, outside the office of Tueni's newspaper, An-Nahar. "We're tired of being pawns in games played by other countries."

At a special session of the Lebanese parliament in Tueni's memory, legislator Akram Shehayeb said "the one who gives orders sits in Damascus, while the executioner is here in Beirut."

Tueni, who was elected to parliament in June, had lobbied for years against Syria's military and political domination. His main platform was a weekly, front-page editorial in An-Nahar.

Syria had kept troops in Lebanon since 1976, a year after the start of a civil war. But when the war ended in 1990, the troops remained and Syria's influence extended to all parts of Lebanese political and economic life.

As Tueni's cortege neared St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral yesterday, the peals of surrounding churches' bells mixed with mourners' chants and Quranic prayers warbling from the mosque where Hariri is buried. The pallbearers rocked Tueni's coffin back and forth as they walked, a traditional sign of grief.

Mourners tossed rice and rose petals onto the coffin, which was draped with a Lebanese flag. Along the route, people waved more flags and hoisted pictures of Tueni, Hariri and political leaders assassinated during the civil war. Shops, schools and businesses throughout Beirut were shuttered.

In eulogizing his son, Ghassan Tueni, a respected journalist and diplomat, pleaded for an end to the bloodshed. "I call today not for revenge, hatred or blood," he said. "I ask that we bury with Gibran all our hatreds and controversies ... I call on all Lebanese - Muslims and Christians - to be united in the service of a great Lebanon and its Arab cause."