Lebanonwire.com | Lebanon president must go after journalist's murder: opposition

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June 3, 2005

Lebanon president must go after journalist's murder: opposition
by Nayla Razzouk

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's opposition urged pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud Friday to resign after the murder of an anti-Syrian journalist, as Washington increased pressures for an international probe into the slaying.

As the European Union presidency condemned Thursday's assassination of prominent columnist Samir Kassir, the United States called on the UN Security Council to investigate his slaying in a Beirut bomb blast.

The killing of Kassir rekindled anger at the Lebanese regime and its political masters in Damascus that was first unleashed by the February assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri.

The United Nations is probing Hariri's assassination, the aftermath of which brought about domestic and international pressure that pushed Syria to end its 29-year harsh military presence in Lebanon in April.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush is spending the weekend, that the United States wants the UN to expand its probe to include Kassir's murder.

"We would like to see the United Nations Security Council expand its mandate for a United Nations-led investigation into the assassination of prime minister Hariri to include an investigation into the assassination of Mr Kassir," he said.

"This heinous act was clearly an attempt to intimidate the Lebanese people and undermine their efforts to build a free and democratic future. I think it reflects an environment of political repression created by Syria's long military and intelligence presence inside Lebanon."

"We continue to call on Syria to comply fully with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for Syria to withdraw all its intelligence operatives from Lebanon in addition to the military forces," he said.

Brushing off calls for his departure Friday, Lahoud had already asked the head of the UN team, top German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, to widen the probe.

But diplomats told AFP Lebanon would first have to make an official request to UN chief Kofi Annan who would then submit it to the Security Council for approval.

Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrived in Beirut earlier Friday to aid the police investigation following Lebanese requests for foreign help into the probe.

Kassir's widow, Giselle Khoury, a star talk-show host on Al-Arabiya television, arrived in Beirut earlier Friday from a working visit to the United States. She toured the site while the FBI investigators took samples from the crime scene.

Justice Minister Khaled Qabbani said Lebanon had requested US and French help, and a diplomat said five French police experts, led by an anti-terrorism agent, were due to arrive late Friday.

Opposition leader MP Nassib Lahoud said "the responsibility falls on this security regime headed by Emile Lahoud, and we have asked for his resignation, as our battle is not over yet and it is a decisive battle.

"It is true that some of the security chiefs have been removed after the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, but its apparatus has not been dismantled," said an editorial in An-Nahar daily, where Kassir worked.

After a meeting late Thursday, the opposition "demanded by democratic means the resignation of the president as he is the effective leader of the security/intelligence regime."

But a united opposition, which succeeded in rallying huge protests after Hariri's assassination, recently suffered a break in its ranks over electoral rows, mainly with retired general and former exile Michel Aoun.

Crucial legislative polls which started in Beirut last weekend are to be held over the next three Sundays to elect a new parliament in which the opposition expect to win a majority and start procedures to remove Lahoud.

A Christian of Palestinian origin who held Lebanese and French nationality, Kassir regularly wrote virulent articles against the Lebanese regime and maintained close links with the Syrian opposition.

"Kassir was assassinated to silence him and to cut the links he had established with Arab intellectuals and opposition figures," wrote Joseph Samaha, a leading columnist on the As-Safir daily.

Raising black pens printed with Kassir's name, hundreds of grieving journalists stood in silence Friday in the capital's downtown Martyrs' Square to protest his assassination, which brought international condemnation.

Dozens also took part in a candlelit vigil Friday evening on Martyrs' Square, while a large demonstration was planned for Monday during which wreathes would be laid on the road leading to the presidential palace.