Lebanonwire.com | Lebanese opposition maintains 'freedom camp', adds demands

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April 30, 2005

Lebanese opposition maintains 'freedom camp', adds demands
by Nayla Razzouk

BEIRUT, April 30 (AFP) - Lebanese youth opposition movements decided late Saturday to maintain their "freedom camp" in Beirut until more key demands of their "uprising" are met following the Syrian troop pullout from the country.

Christian opposition youth movements decided to go back on their decision to take down tents on Martyrs' Square, where they have spent the last 74 nights, to keep burning the flame of the "uprising for independence" from Syria.

Other youth groups then decided to join them in order not to break opposition ranks.

"We cannot interrupt the liberation process halfway through," said a joint statement by the youth movements of several Christian groups, including the outlawed Lebanese Forces of jailed Christian leader Samir Geagea and the Free Patriotic Movement of exiled General Michel Aoun.

They said the camp will be maintained until Geagea is released from prison, Aoun returns from exile, Lebanese citizens missing in Syria are freed and the "Syrian-made" election law is amended to guarantee fair polls next month.

Sources close to the opposition said the decision not to dismantle the camp on schedule, late Saturday, mainly came after parliament failed to adopt amendments to the amnesty law to guarantee Geagea's release and changes to the existing electoral law.

Opposition youth movements have occupied the frontline of the "uprising for independence" that has gripped the country since the February 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

The killing, which many Lebanese blamed on the pro-Syrian regime and their political masters in Damascus, triggered massive protests that led to the resignation of the government and saw Syria end its 29-year military presence last Tuesday.

MP Ghinwa Jalloul, from the Sunni parliamentary bloc, told AFP that "we decided to stay in solidarity with the other groups in order to protect national unity."

"We will stay at the camp at least for the next 24 hours, so that we can discuss future steps in a serene way," she said.

Followers of the Druze-dominant Progressive Socialist Party of MP Walid Jumblatt also decided to go back on their decision to dismantle the camp "in order to protect national unity," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

However, some 300 youth opposition activists, who had been at the forefront of the people-power uprising against Syria's domination of its smaller neighbour, were preparing to take down their tents late Saturday.

"Now that our main demands have been achieved, the camp will be dismantled during an evening ceremony on Saturday," Muin Ahmadiyeh, coordinator for youth movements at the improvised camp, told AFP earlier.

"Syria is now out, the United Nations has launched an international inquiry into Hariri's killing, the government has resigned, security chiefs have been sacked and elections will take place on time next month," said Ahmadiyeh.

Veteran politicians have admitted the crucial role played by the youth movement that began with young men and women congregating on Martyrs' Square for Hariri's funeral, two days after his killing.

The biggest rally, on March 14, drew more than a million people, both Christians and Muslims, according to organizers.

The demonstrations -- dubbed the "cedar revolution" by the US State Department after the tree on the Lebanese flag which has been omnipresent at the protests -- were partly inspired by the "orange revolution" in Ukraine.