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MPs death 'a bloody message'
20/09/2007 10:01 - (SA)
Jocelyne Zablit
Beirut - Lebanon was in mourning on Thursday after the murder of another anti-Syrian lawmaker in a powerful car bombing that could derail a key presidential poll and was widely blamed on Damascus.
MP Antoine Ghanem was killed along with at least five others in a massive car bombing on Wednesday in a busy mainly Christian neighbourhood of Beirut, the latest in a spate of attacks against prominent anti-Syrian figures.
Lebanese newspapers said his slaying was a clear message ahead of a crucial parliamentary session on Tuesday to elect a president amid a near total deadlock between the Western-backed majority and the pro-Damascus opposition.
"Antoine Ghanem, a bloody message for the majority and the presidential election," said the frontpage headline of the leading An-Nahar newspaper.
World powers condemned the attack as a blatant bid to destabilise Lebanon ahead of the parliamentary session, but the country's former powerbroker Syria denied any involvement.
"I strongly condemn today's horrific assassination of Lebanese member of parliament Antoine Ghanem," said US President George W Bush, who cited "a tragic pattern" of attacks against champions of "an independent and democratic Lebanon".
The United Nations and a host of foreign governments also denounced the car bombing in the Sin el-Fil neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital.
But Syria denied any involvement, saying the bombing was a "criminal act" aimed at undermining efforts at a rapprochement with Lebanon.
Call for United Nations to investigate
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora urged the United Nations to investigate the killing of Ghanem as part of its probe into similar murders of anti-Syrian figures since former premier Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in 2005.
In the aftermath of the attack on Wednesday, rescuers were seen pulling corpses from blackened and mangled cars, some still ablaze. Facades of nearby buildings were wrecked, with shattered glass on the streets of Sin el-Fil.
A police spokesperson said six people were killed, including the MP, and 56 others injured. Two of the deputy's bodyguards were among the dead, Ghanem's daughter Mounia told AFP.
Ghanem, 64, a lawyer, had been an MP since 2000. He belonged to the Christian Phalange party of former president Amin Gemayal, whose own son, industry minister Pierre, was killed last November.
The party said Ghanem's funeral would be held on Friday and called for a general strike on Thursday. The education ministry said all schools and universities would stay shut both on Thursday and Friday.
Fearing for his life, Ghanem had fled into exile following the assassination in June of another anti-Syrian MP, and only returned to Lebanon on Sunday.
'You cannot separate this killing from the presidential election'
Ghanem was the eighth member of the anti-Syrian majority to be assassinated since the February 2005 murder of five-time prime minister and billionaire tycoon Hariri.
Ghanem's death reduced the majority in parliament to 68 members out of the now 127-member house, with numbers set to play a key role in the presidential vote to replace the current pro-Syrian head of state Emile Lahoud.
"This is an attack aimed at sabotaging all efforts to reach a solution to the current political crisis," Butros Harb, an MP and presidential candidate, added. "You cannot separate this killing from the presidential election."
The country has been on edge since the February 2005 Beirut seafront bomb blast that killed Hariri, in an attack that was widely blamed on Syria and forced it to end three decades of military domination.
Damascus has denied any connection with the Hariri killing or any of the others since then.
Lebanon's political crisis was exacerbated when pro-Syrian opposition forces, led by the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, withdrew six ministers from Siniora's Western-backed cabinet in November.
Analysts say failure by the political foes to choose a consensus presidential candidate could spark a dangerous power vacuum or even lead to the naming of two rival governments - a grim reminder of the final years of the 1975-1990 civil war when two competing administrations battled it out.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has called for parliament to convene on Tuesday for the election, but confusion still reigns over whether the vote will actually take place on that date.
- AFP
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