Thousands Join Beirut ‘Unity’ Run 

Agencies, Arab News

BEIRUT, 11 April 2005 — Tens of thousands of Lebanese men, women and children wearing white thronged the streets of central Beirut yesterday to join a “unity” run 30 years after the start of the devastating civil war.

People from Christian and Muslim regions across the country walked or ran through the city in answer to a call by opposition MP Bahia Hariri, sister of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri whose assassination in February sparked a national crisis.

“We are not scared for our country anymore because you have proved, by crowding public places, that you will not let those who assassinated Rafik Hariri destroy Lebanon,” Bahia Hariri said. “You have broken the wall of fear by filling up public places and by demonstrating that you have not been terrorized by the murderers.”

Under the slogan “running hand in hand,” the participants ran or walked a five-kilometer route between the city’s Riad Solh square and Martyrs’ Square where Hariri was buried. The run began after Bahia Hariri set free 50 doves as well as balloons in the white, red and green national colors, while singers sang patriotic songs and troupes of dancers performed in the streets.

Chocolate houses and oriental sweet shops offered candies bearing the words: “We want the truth.” Hariri’s Future Current has launched a campaign with the slogan “we want the truth and an international inquiry” into Hariri’s assassination through a petition that has gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures. The UN has described Hariri’s assassination as an act of terrorism and decided Tuesday to create an international inquiry commission to probe the killing.

At the end of the running course, an olive tree symbolizing peace was planted near Hariri’s tomb in earth gathered from various parts of Lebanon, which on Wednesday marks the clashes which triggered the start of the 1975-1990 war. On Saturday, thousands of people crowded cafes and restaurants in the downtown area, answering a call by Bahia Hariri to revive nightlife in heart of the capital which has been deserted since the former premier’s murder.

Revelers gathered at Parliament Square where Hariri, a five-time prime minister and billionaire tycoon, sat at a sidewalk cafe minutes before being assassinated in a massive bomb blast in a seafront area of the capital. Hariri’s portrait was raised near the table where he sat.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblatt rejected a delay in upcoming elections and urged opposition factions yesterday to draw up a political program for Lebanon after a May general election.

Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami is expected to unveil a long-awaited new government today to lead the country into the election but his insistence on a new law organizing the poll makes a delay almost inevitable. “Of course we insist on elections on schedule,” Jumblatt told a news conference, predicting an opposition win regardless of the shape of the electoral law. “I call on the opposition to meet and come up with a program, because it’s not enough that we reach the elections and vote. We should have a clear and ambitious answer to what’s next,” the Druze chieftain said.