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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanese protestors seal off district after deadly riots |
| 2004-05-28 |
| Residents of an impoverished Beirut suburb sealed off their district to bury their dead, killed when a strike against high fuel and other prices turned violent and troops fired on protestors. Police said five people, including a woman, were shot dead by soldiers in the southern Shiite-populated suburb of Hay al-Sellom after demonstrators threw stones. The sixth was a civil defence worker who died of injuries received when the labour ministry was subsequently stormed and set alight. Troops were still present in force Friday on main roads fringing the southern suburbs, notably at the junctions on the highway to the international airport. But they were nowhere to be seen in Hay al-Sollom, where residents had blocked every access with burning tyres for the funeral of Ali Khorfan, 19. Hundreds of people marched behind the coffin, shouting slogans against Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's government, in the district battered by the clashes and the rioting. Protection was provided by members of the Shiite Muslim radical group Hezbollah which controls the southern suburbs, in civilian clothes and unarmed. Residents said three other young men had been buried in their home villages in the south and east of the country. Hariri said in a statement earlier he "deeply regretted" what had happened and warned "against the dangers of diverting the trade union movement from its objectives, exploiting social issues or using young people for personal political ends." He called on "all Lebanese to learn from what took place" and stressed that "anarchy is of no profit to anyone." All politicians should "reassess and assume their responsibilities," he said, adding that "attacking the prestige of the army is an attack on the dignity of the nation and the stability of the country." President Emile Lahoud, Hariri's political rival, who had earlier demanded a probe into the riots in order to "adopt the adequate legal measures," went to visit civilian wounded at the Hezbollah hospital on the airport road, state radio said. |
| Posted by:Fred |