6
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WORLD
WEDNESDAY FOOD SPECIAL
Relax in front of one of our
Hezbollah protest rages Anti-American sentiments at core of mob scene
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEJIRT, Lebanon — Thousands of Hezbollah-led protesters gathered in downtown Beirut on Sunday, demanding Prime Minister Faad Sanaora cede some power to the opposition or step down.
Cousins of demonstrators camped out in two downtown Beirut squares overnight, and thousands more joined the crowd early Sunday. Several hundred tents have lined the area for more than a week.
The political unrest has split the country along dangerous sectarian lines, with most Sunni Muslims supporting the Sunni prime minister and Shiite Muslims backing the militant group Hezbollah. Christian factions are split between the two camps.
Lebanese, combat troops and armed police sealed off major roads and added more layers of barbed wire around the prime ministers sprawling downtown complex, where he has been held up with most of his ministers since Dec. 1.
The demonstration could be a tipping point in Lebanon's burgeoning political crisis, ten days after a coalition of largely pro-Syrian opposition groups launched a series of rallies against Saniora's anti Syrian, U.S.-backed government.
Many of the protesters waved Lebanese or Hezbollah flags, as loudspeakers blasted anthems in support of the guerrilla group. Hezbollah security agents wearing white caps fanned out in the crowd.
Lebanon's political crisis began after talks on a national unity Cabinet collapsed, and Hebbollak's two ministers and four allies resigned from the Cabinet and joined the opposition. It erupted Nov. 21 with the assassination of an anti-Syrian politician Pierre Gemayel, followed by a national strike, his funeral and the opposition sit-in.
Street protests have since paralyzed the core of Barret. A Shite Muslim supporter of the opposition was shot dead in a Sumit Muslim neighborhood on his way home from protests a week ago.
Sanura has refused to quit and has received hundreds of supporters daily at his office complex to counter the opposition protests and sit its outside. He and Hebolla bill Sheik Hassan Nasrallah have exchanged unprecedented accusations and insults.
Tension had been brewing for months, and relations between the two camps deteriorated after the Israeli Hebronbell last summer and a U.N. push for the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.