LebanonÂ’s political crisis flared into violence yesterday as opposition supporters enforced a nationwide general strike in a renewed attempt to bring down the Western-backed Government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. At least three people were reported killed and more than 130 wounded as opponents of the Government blocked roads and rival factions fought each other with stones and sticks. Areas north of Beirut witnessed confrontations between rival Christian groups while Sunnis and Shia clashed in the capital.Plumes of thick black smoke hung over Beirut and the main north and south highways. Roads were blocked with burning tyres and rubbish bins, and the airport was cut off from the city centre, forcing the cancellation of several flights. Lebanese troops and riot police accompanied by fire engines fanned out at key intersections and trouble spots along the main roads, but did not attempt to remove the blockade by force.
Many Lebanese stayed at home for the day, some in observance of the strike call, others because they were afraid to venture out and challenge the opposition roadblocks. Some Lebanese, however, were determined to overcome the obstacles and reach work. When Mona Alameh, 32, encountered a road block of burning rubbish bins on a main Beirut street, she tried to shove them aside with her car. But a picket of club-wielding opposition supporters beat her car with sticks and told her to go back. “I was so angry I could not control myself,” she said. “I told them this was my street and my country and they had no right to stop me.”One of the men threw a burning stick into her car. She threw it back out and accelerated through the barrier. “If this keeps escalating it is going to be very bad for everyone,” Ms Alameh said.
The Hezbollah-led opposition, sympathetic to Syria, launched its campaign to topple the pro-Western Government on December 1, erecting a tent city in central Beirut to house thousands of protesters for an indefinite sit-in. But the Government, which has roughly equal public support to the opposition, refused to yield, creating a political deadlock that has so far defied even international mediation.
The opposition is demanding the formation of a national unity government, giving it an increased share of Cabinet seats, before holding fresh parliamentary elections. The strike came two days before a key fundraising conference in Paris in which the Lebanese Government hopes to raise up to $7 billion (£3.5 billion) to revive the debt-laden economy and push through a package of economic reforms.
Mr Siniora had urged the Lebanese to ignore the strike and go to work as normal, saying that the oppositionÂ’s action was intended to jeopard-ise the success of the donor conference. Although Mr Siniora was planning to fly to Paris yesterday, he was forced to delay his trip as it was considered too dangerous to attempt to reach the airport.
The confrontation between the Government and opposition has strained already tense relations between LebanonÂ’s Sunni and Shia communities, eclipsing for the first time the more traditional Christian-Mus-lim divide.
Fears that the strike could descend into sectarian violence were realised in the Beirut neighbourhood of Mazraa when Shia supporters of Hezb-ollah and the Amal movement fought with Sunni followers of the Future movement, which is headed by Saad Hariri, the leader of the parliamentary majority and son of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister many Lebanese believe was murdered on SyriaÂ’s orders.
Split by dozens of Lebanese soldiers, the two groups, numbering several hundred each, took up position on either side of the broad palm-tree-lined Corniche Mazraa and hurled insults and stones at each other.
The troops struggled to contain the situation. One soldier fired his automatic rifle one-handed in the air as others swung at rioters with batons. Armoured personnel carriers clattered up the street swerving wildly to herd the rioters back to their respective sides. Tear gas grenades were fired at both crowds, the canisters flying in steep arcs over the crowded apartment blocks trailing coils of billowing white smoke. But the gas could not curb the anger of the protagonists.
The soldiers regained control and the two groups began hanging large banners of their political leaders, while jeering and chanting insults across the barriers.