Several Hurt as Angry Mourners Try to Storm Grand Serail
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Several people were injured as security forces used tear gas on Sunday to repel demonstrators trying to storm the Grand Serail, the headquarters of the Lebanese government in downtown Beirut, amid calls for Prime Minister Najib Miqati to resign.
Following the funeral nearby of slain Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Internal Security Forces' Intelligence Bureau, "young people headed towards the building in the city center, but security forces blocked them by firing into the air and using tear gas," a policeman on the scene told Agence France Presse.
The group was estimated at a couple of hundred people.
During funeral orations for slain Maj. Gen. al-Hasan and his bodyguard Chief Warrant Officer Ahmed Suhyooni, former premier Fouad Saniora called on Miqati to resign and stressed that the March 14 forces will not engage in dialogue before the government's departure.
Also during the funeral, an angry pro-March 14 journalist, Nadim Qteish, called on mourners to head to the Grand Serail.
Clashes stopped around half an hour later, after opposition chief ex-PM Saad Hariri and Saniora urged protesters to refrain from storming the Grand Serail and to end the confrontation.
"We are not advocates of violence and I call on all supporters to leave the streets immediately," said Hariri in a televised appeal.
"It is true that we demanded to topple the government, but we want to this matter to be done in a peaceful manner," Hariri added.
"We want to keep Lebanon safe, a country for freedom and democracy. I reiterate my request to all supporters to depart immediately and I will ask security officers in charge of the Center House to protect the Grand Serail because what happened is totally unacceptable,” he announced.
For his part, Saniora said: "We express our great appreciation for the feelings of the citizens, but the use of violence is unacceptable."
Saniora noted that "the Grand Serail is a building for the Lebanese state and we must protect it."
"This approach is unacceptable and does not serve our cause," he added.
"We will not back down from our demand, which is the government's departure, and our morals do not approve the storming of the Grand Serail or any other institution," Saniora went on to say.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on all the supporters of the LF and the March 14 forces to refrain from attacking the Grand Serail and to "express their demands peacefully."
Phalange Party Central Committee Coordinator MP Sami Gemayel also denounced the violence, stressing that "the calls for storming the Grand Serail were not voiced by March 14.”
21 October 2012, 19:45
63
كان بطل في التعامل مع كل المخابرات الأجنبية ضد أبناء بلده إنهم لا يتركون عملاءهم أحياء أفهمو يا عملاء إسرائيل
الربيع العربي والشتاء السوري - وثائقي تركي
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twwjmAmuqeQ&feature=share
21 October 2012, 22:30
22
Maybe you are right. But then again may be you are wrong. You better be sure than make suppositions that suits your political stand. If we interpret things in a radical partisan way we will never be able to live peacefully with each other and build a state.
21 October 2012, 18:25
02
Whoever did it...Syria or Israel...bringing chaos to Lebanon is NOT in Lebanese's interest
21 October 2012, 18:29
43
oh but this will surely tarnish the mythical peaceful, civilized image of the march 14 followers. Was I mislead into believing that only the crazy, backward hezbollah followers had it in them to resort to such violence and the audicity to attack government institutions. Say it can't be so.
21 October 2012, 18:31
95
They say Lebanon First yet they put a Syrian Free Army flag on top of Martyrs' Statue.
They say and call for truth yet they lie.
They say they are peaceful while they incite hatred and anger and we all know what happened today.
They want to run the country, that means they say they can control and yet we saw that they cannot control their own people.
21 October 2012, 19:22
114
The coup d'état organized by Geagea and Hariri failed completely.
The End.
21 October 2012, 20:50
36
You are nothing but a big nail head Moron...I mean just look at what you chose as a profile pic, you must have thought about it long and hard.
Just for your info the coup d'etat hasn't even started...Stay tuned dick head...Ohh I mean nail head :D
21 October 2012, 21:30
33
You are a very funny gut FT and you are cute too ;)
Could it be that you are the same Nail Head that look like a Dick Head and using a different account aliases ? I say YES ...LOL ( I copied that from you cutie )
By the way I did not give you a thumb down so I won't upset you and that way you can sleep at night baby :D
21 October 2012, 21:29
23
@canadian_paul. I thought by you carrying a Canadian citizenship, you would be a bit civilized in your words and thoughts. Only the Lebanese flag should be there. What does Basshar have to do with this? What kind of logic is that if I am not with Free Syrian Army then I am with Basshar and if I am not with Lebanese Forces then I am with Aoun. Sick mentality!!! I advise you go to rehab!!!
21 October 2012, 18:32
33
there was one particular security police that seemed to initiate the whole violence and caused a backlash. i hope he is punished for his actions.
21 October 2012, 18:38
00
I love the M8 supporters comparing a few angry protesters to the actions of Huzb Allah who has bombed and killed several politicians and security officials and took over Beirut with armed militias along with amal and other syrian backed parties. What a load of hypocritical crap...
21 October 2012, 18:41
00
Odd, no M14 comments here. Must be all gone down there attacking the Serail.
21 October 2012, 18:41
49
There is a big difference between a peaceful and civilized demonstration and storming the serail. Get those punks off the streets and throw them in jail. They are acting like Hizbullah when they stormed Beirut. They should all be rounded up and thrown behind bars. Instead of calling for the government to resign, they should be calling on the government to lift the cover over criminals and bring in Hassan Narsallah for questioning because either his party did it or for sure he knows who did it (and I'm not talking about the Israel lame excuse).
21 October 2012, 19:33
05
There are always rotten apples on all sides. they represent nobody
21 October 2012, 20:08
37
We! People of the free, are being assassinated! one by one! The Tuth is Murdered! The Independance, is murdered, Sovereinty, is murdered! ENOUGH!! This is the government that was chosen by Bashar el Assad! Mikati is Bashar's man! Sleiman is Bashar's man! Don't you forget that!! We are fed up with all this terror, assasinations, and tired by the Syrian hand over Lebanon! Go to hell all you Bashar lovers, and let us be free!!!!!!ENOUUUUGH!!
21 October 2012, 20:27
24
yes FT, be happy to be the best one! waw! you are soooo perfect while all the others are dumb! always defending hezbis like a true patriot, always trying to convince people they are democrats and wish the best for lebanon!
always telling us aoun changed camp because he is pragmatic but the others, gosh, they change camp but are traitors! how come we don t see how wrong we are!
how come we don t understand you? despite all your convincing efforts to prove us wrong!
hiding between hezbi legs like a faithful dog, sure to be safe coz they have the weapons, so barking is easy from there! 3aw 3aw! only cowards act like that or faithful puppies!
happy you!
21 October 2012, 21:48
33
@FlameThrower M14 don't suck at everything. I think you are being a little harsh. They are the masters of inciting hatred and anger through their media and they lie. They can even manipulate STL evidence. They built an empire like Solidere and Ogero from hard working sweat. They even took billions of dollars from taxmoney and still have the courage to show their ugly faces on TV.
21 October 2012, 21:59
23
happy you then, so calm and full of yourself...
it is so funny to see you struggle to defend your puppets...and try to justify M8 is working for lebanese while in fact just obeying orders from damascus...and proud of it! proud to see innocent lebanese people get killed because of your friends! yes you are morally accomplice by defending such a regime with such practices the same violent country as israel but for M8 they are the nice ones and only israel is the bad one, lol! we take israel AND syria (sorry the assad regime the one aoun wanted to destroy but now licking their boots for a few dollars!) as enemies of lebanon...
21 October 2012, 22:00
23
you cry like a virgin because the lebanese gvt used to be at the orders of syria under hariri, but you still support those whho are still doing the same! see how stupid and not credible you are despite all the efforts you deploy to try and prove M8 arethe good ones? what is different from the past 30 years with this regime? nothing and you are proud to defend it and that your puppets are at their orders like before! ignoring all those from CPL who used to believe that syria was the enemy,fought aggainst it, you are just spitting on your martyrs
21 October 2012, 23:45
12
I can not recall the reason for the long long sit-in that was meant to paralyze downtown .... so F.T. can you jog my memory as to what prompted such an illegal takover of public land?
22 October 2012, 05:39
10
Stop putting peaceful and Hezbollah in the same sentence for God's sake... I understand you're hard-wired and brought up to see things your way (right or wrong, who knows). But I'm sure you are not totally blind. Hint: July 2006 - an act of war -instigated by your party- which cost us all a lot (and Hezbollah nothing because Iranian money flows generously in your parts of the country). Come on with the peaceful protest mumbo jumbo...
22 October 2012, 10:07
11
What about May 2008. Was that peaceful? Come on, if anything you M8 have double standards for everything.
Lets now talk about the one year peaceful sit-in? What was it for? To block the International Tribunal to bring justice about. What did it achieve? Financial ruin for all who had invested to create economic opportunities for the many.
Yes M8 are much stronger these days, especially with armed to the teeth HA supported by tyrant regimes Iran and Syria.
FT, pls how can you suppert the Syrian regime when there are mountains of evidence they were plotting bomb attacks with the help of Samaha. How can you overlook this. Is your hatred to part of your fellow country men and women that big?
We need to stop all this cold war getting hot and look into breaching our gaps so we can leave peacefully.
21 October 2012, 19:09
15
The dangers of street protests is their susceptibility for incitement towards violence. The emotionally charged masses could be penetrated by agents and easily led towards illegal actions. This is why street protests should be avoided by those who truly care about Lebanon.
Destroying lebanon will not hurt Assad and his regime.
21 October 2012, 19:55
32
شخص واحد يموت، وقال انه هو البطل. ما هو بطولي جدا من ما فعله؟
ماذا عن الأبطال الأبرياء الذين لقوا حتفهم والحقيقية لأحد أن يتكلم عنهم عار على أولئك السياسيين الكلاب،
21 October 2012, 20:17
00
لله يرحم جميع الشهداء ولكن ما يستفز هو وجود اعلام غريبة يحملها بعض المشيعين وخاصة قد وضع أحد هذه الاعلام على رأس تمثال الشهداء وهذا معيب علينا جميعاً وخاصة في يوم مثل هذا اليوم
21 October 2012, 20:29
34
soo funny as usual the faithful hezbi dog hiding between their legs and barking from a safe spot trying to frighten the others! hahaha!
so pityful and funny!
21 October 2012, 20:31
24
yes true, no thugs from M8 burnt tires to block the airport a few weeks ago! no M8 thugs took the streets burnt tires, a tv station and so on because their master didn t agree with a decision from the gvt!
sure the thugs are only from M14! hahahaha!
3aw 3aw
21 October 2012, 20:56
24
stupid FT, you forgot the other example even more relevant MORON! but you deliberately forgot it...
what is the difference with the violence of today? none!!!! and spare us your family sh... hundreds of people were all from the kidnapped families? lol!
i see one pathetic person here and it s you , you seem so desperate that it turns out bad for you and your gang of M8 collaborators with a murderous regime killing innocent lebanese people...
3aw 3aw!
21 October 2012, 20:59
24
hahaha! so funny loser in distorting facts... the truth is your gang refused to obey the gvt...but as we all know M8 obeys the gvt only when it suits them, otherwise they take the streets by force, moron
21 October 2012, 21:01
34
hahaha! that s why the leaders of M14 urged people to stop the violence...if it was as you said they would have shut up and encouraged the violence, moron....
21 October 2012, 23:37
12
you seem pretty pissed off tonite brave little M8 soldier...
why is that? oh! i see you are desperately trying to make M8 look like angels and taking a little riot to try and make believe that M14 are all like that...
but there are dozens of examples showing who the real thugs are and to which flag they obey... and that you cannot deny which make you bark to look important!
facts are here, truth hurts we understand why you are so pissed off and filled with rage...
calm down little boy, now go educate urself and understand why M8 are desperate to create chaos in lebanon (michel samaha is one example among many others!)
so be quiet and take your pills and go to bed , it s too late for baby boys here now.
21 October 2012, 21:28
03
yes... people, please calm down and relax...at least till the next bomb.. or after that..or the after...
This country is a joke!
21 October 2012, 21:56
01
this country is a joke indeed, but we love it cause this is our history and our land... let us unite, defend democracy and fight for economic development!
21 October 2012, 22:13
00
This country is a joke indeed! Ft is the biggest joke though!
FT please refrain from commenting on Naharnet and I don't know which other websites for a single day and take this day off to reflect and think about your stupid views & leader.
I know it will be very hard, almost impossible, but please try it, we never know..
You can start with those videos if you want:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCltslVqsM4 (and guess who's the "gouvernement fantoche" now?)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SfTAVvMka4
21 October 2012, 23:27
00
all your leaders a criminal and you all follow them like a herd of goats
21 October 2012, 23:49
12
I can not recall the reason for the long long sit-in that was meant to paralyze downtown .... so F.T. can you jog my memory as to what prompted such an illegal takeover of public land?
21 October 2012, 23:55
22
If Hezb leaders were assassinated and the suspect was M-14 camp, then you would have seen all-out war. So yes M-14 have been very peaceful considering what has befallen them by your cronies.
21 October 2012, 23:57
22
Your Hezb has taken the Chia of Lebanon from being patriotic and moderates to being extremist Islamist such as the Salafists you keep on admonishing.
22 October 2012, 00:20
02
God you are retarded FT... Wow I was there. I can't believe how you warped the facts in Your brain... Strange???
22 October 2012, 01:30
00
Lebanon is a lost cause. There are too many traitors, Anyone is willing to sell their loyalty to a third country. you have Hizbollah betraying their country for Iran/Syria, Future movement behind Saudi, Aoun behind Iran.
It is unfortunate, but where has it gotton us?
only a few weeks ago, a traitor (Michel Sma7a) was caught red handed bringing explosives from Syria into Lebanon to kill Lebanese. This act alone should have been a major scandal, televised, and followed by the entire country. Let me tell you - if this happened in Australia, France, the US, UK or even Liberia, this would be on TV day and night, from the moment he had confessed, to the minute he is hanging in Martyrs Square.
Instead of the people fighting to protect their country, you are all here bickering on who / what this or that politician said or done.
22 October 2012, 01:35
12
When an HA was nailed by the FSA, we all saw and heard about the civilized Mekdad's and how many kidnappings and threats including airport road closing and etc...
You simply cannot have a state with one militia or religion carrying weapons and the rest are unarmed. Either everyone is armed or not.
22 October 2012, 06:05
00
I think the entire population agrees on what you're saying my friend. However, the disagreement is about how to proceed and disarm.
One party wants Hizbollah to disarm leaving Lebanon defenseless to foreign invasion; even though we have semi-hostile neighbours.
Another party wants to arm the Lebanese Army first and then disarm Hizbollah.
I don't know about you, but I prefer the second party.
22 October 2012, 01:38
00
I'm sorry, but all your politicians are traitors, none are looking out for what is best for your country. I used to identify myself with M14, but I dont anymore, they are useless. I will not identify myself with M8 as they are traitors of the first degree, and boast about it openly now.
I've seen people here on this forum willing to meet up in beirut and fight it out - but seriously - ask yourself - what the fuck are you doing - are you guys acting like adults when you post most of this rubbish on this board? really ?
22 October 2012, 01:39
00
Hezbollah is sending fighters to Syria, but the govt's official line is to disassociate itself from the Syria conflict.
Bashar is embroiling his country in an orgy of bloodshed so that he can stay ruling. Hassan Nasrallah is willing to sacrafice hundreds if not thousands of his own countrymen at the first order from Iran.
Now - I'm not supprised by Hassan, by Aoun, by Bashar even - but I am surprised that the sheep following them do so, dont question, dont ask wtf are we doing - why are we killing each other for?
22 October 2012, 03:19
11
Au-delà des clivages politiques et des responsabilités des uns et des autres, ce que je trouve dingue c'est qu'un haut fonctionnaire de police, donc de l'Etat soit totalement assimilé à un camp politique donné et phagocyté par lui... C'est aberrant... ça montre le degré de déliquescence de l'Etat Libanais, la corruption de sa classe politique et le pourrissement du système...
22 October 2012, 03:28
00
You cannot blame these thugs and hoodlums for not respecting the soul of Wissam al-Hassan because they have no self respect. They are simply two-legged beasts.
22 October 2012, 05:54
00
7 may 2006 wasvery peaceful ya bsthrower right? Who gave the right to a militia to invade beirut for their illegal telephone lines? How about the black shirts? Really man i wonder how ur mind works sometimes. Your hate for samir geagea blinds you to the truth. Ya khayi kinna kilna against geagea during the civil war but after he cameoutof jail he is making the most sense..
22 October 2012, 10:09
00
what about May 2008. Was is that peaceful? Please tell this to the relatives of all the dead and injured as well as those who suffered material damage.
22 October 2012, 10:15
00
Would be interested where you have all these information. Pls five evidence of all this. It is really dismal that you find excuse for HA by saying that their were armed opponents that start it all. The government took decisions in line with the sovereignty of a country against a militia that does everything to undermine the political institutions. Yet your excuse is that there were sunni militias. Stop those lies and wake up. All we are asking is for a normal country and normal government.
