Thousands of Lebanese attended the funeral Friday of an anti-Syrian lawmaker whose assassination further rocked Lebanon’s political order as the country prepares to select a new president.
Antoine Ghanem, 64, and six others were killed in a car bombing in a Christian neighborhood near Beirut on Wednesday. Ghanem was the fourth anti-Syrian lawmaker and the seventh overall to be assassinated since a huge blast killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
Family members, politicians and supporters flooded to an East Beirut neighborhood waving the white and green flag of the Phalange Party, to which Ghanem belonged.
A brass band played party anthems as pallbearers carried the coffins of Ghanem and two of his bodyguards, draped in Lebanese and party flags, from outside the party offices in Furn-Shubak to a nearby church.
Women on balconies threw rice and flowers on the procession. Others, dressed in black, wept and waved white handkerchiefs in a sign of mourning. Some mourners held banners that read, “We won’t kneel.” Others shouted slogans against Syria, which they blame for the killings.
The Syrian government has denied involvement. Security was tight as officials and diplomats came to the church to pay their respects.
Schools, universities and many businesses across the country remained closed for the second day of mourning and in observance of a strike called by the Phalange Party.
“We can’t keep burying people every couple of months,” said one party supporter, Nadine Akl, 27. “These assassinations have to stop. Syria and others have to leave us alone.”
Speaking inside the church was Amin Gemayel, the head of the Phalange Party and a former president whose son, Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, was killed last November. Gemayel vowed to stand up to the killers and urged lawmakers to attend next week’s parliament session to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud, who must step down Nov. 25.
“Those who wish evil for Lebanon will be deterred,” Gemayel said. “Your martyrdom is a new incentive to carry out the presidential election.”
The pro-Western government led by Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has been locked in a 10-month power struggle with the Hezbollah-led opposition backed by Iran and Syria. The election for president could play an important role in settling that confrontation. The ruling majority sees the vote as an opportunity to elect one of its own as president, but the opposition lawmakers have vowed to boycott the parliament session if a compromise candidate is not agreed upon.
If parliament does not agree on a president by Nov. 15, the governing majority contends, it can elect its candidate by a simple majority of 65 votes. It currently has 67 after Ghanem’s death. But many believe that such an election could lead the opposition to set up a parallel government and perhaps ignite factional violence.