Lebanonwire.com | Lebanon polls in danger, nine wounded as bomb blight returns

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April 2, 2005

Lebanon polls in danger, nine wounded as bomb blight returns
by Rouba Kabbara

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BEIRUT - Lebanon's pro-Syrian forces on Saturday went on the counter-attack with a demand that could delay elections due in May, as the country was shaken by another bombing amid a quickening Syrian troop withdrawal.

In Damascus, an official said that Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara would unveil a timetable for a full pullout after talks with UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen Sunday.

Prime minister-designate Omar Karameh, at a meeting late Friday with his pro-Syrian allies, decided to stay on, despite having failed over the past three weeks to form a new government to ease Lebanon's political crisis.

Karameh, who said Tuesday he would resign, was tasked with forming a cabinet "to save the country", following the opposition's refusal to join a national unity government, said parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

He said the new government would draw up an electoral law based on larger constituencies and proportional representation, changes favouring the pro-Syrian camp.

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"We will not agree to anything else," Berri, a key figure in the pro-Syrian camp, told reporters.

The opposition accuses the pro-Syrian camp of foot-dragging ever since the February 14 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri to retain its control of parliament and not face the electorate's anger over the murder.

The killing of Hariri, blamed by the opposition on the Lebanese authorities and their backers in Damascus, sparked a wave of popular protests which led to Karameh stepping down on February 28.

President Emile Lahoud asked Karameh to return 10 days later, while the Syrian army has since March 5 been withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, a process Damascus pledged will be completed ahead of polls.

"On Sunday, during a joint news conference to be given by minister Shara and ambassador Terje Roed-Larsen, it is planned that an announcement will be made on the timetable for a full withdrawal by Syrian forces from Lebanon," an official said in Damascus.

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Washington and Paris, which sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 1559, have been pressing for the elections -- which Lebanon carries out in phases -- to go ahead as scheduled by the end of May.

The resolution calls for Syria to end its military presence in Lebanon dating back 29 years to when its soldiers were deployed as a buffer force during the early stages of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Opposition MP Nassib Lahoud said his camp would cooperate with Karameh in forming a government if it was composed of "acceptable personalities" and stressed that the priority was for elections to go ahead on time.

But the demand for a new electoral law at such a late stage was only "a means to delay the elections", the MP charged.

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Lahoud and Shiite movement Hezbollah Saturday condemned the latest bombing in a Christian area around the capital, saying the country's enemies were trying to sow discord.

Nine people were wounded in the night-time bombing in Brumana, a popular Metn mountain resort some 20 kilometres (13 miles) east of Beirut, police said.It was the fourth such attack in two weeks.

"The aim of this wave of attacks, including in Brumana, is to harm citizens and their economic and commercial interests, as well as embarassing the state and putting into doubt the capacity of Lebanese security forces to keep order," Lahoud said in a statement carried by the official ANI news agency.

The Syrian-backed Hezbollah warned "against the seriousness of these acts which target security and stability, as well as civil order."

The opposition swiftly blamed the Lebanese intelligence services, which it says take their instructions from Damascus, for the latest bombing.

"The same criminal hand has struck in Brumana" as the previous three attacks since March 19, charged MP Lahoud.