2ND Geagea warns of civil war amid uneasy Lebanon calm


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Friday January 26, 2007

Beirut- Christian Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea
warned of civil war Friday as an uneasy calm prevailed in Beirut's
streets after an overnight curfew was lifted at 6 am.
A few shops and businesses opened their doors, but schools and
universities remained shut in accordance with an order by Education
Minister Khaled Kabbani following Thursday's student violence.

Geagea, speaking at a press conference north of Beirut, issued a
warning to Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah: "The government
of premier Fouad Seniora will not fall by force, and if these
attempts continue, there will be a civil war in the country."

He added: "I know Nasrallah has no intention to reach a civil war,
so I propose these actions be dropped and (we) resort to democratic
practices like a dialogue among leaders."

For many Lebanese, fears of civil war were revived after this
week's violence during a general strike organized by the opposition
that left three people killed an more than 100 wounded.

Those fears only increased Thursday when an argument between an
opposition student and a follower of the government broke out inside
a university campus and expanded into street riots leaving three more
killed and more than 110 wounded.

The army said around 200 people were arrested as a result of the
student riots which erupted near the Arab University on Thursday
between followers of the Hezbollah-led opposition and others
supporting Seniora's Western-backed government.

Thursday night's curfew was the first since violent labour
demonstrations took place in 1996. Beirut residents woke in shock
when they saw the damage caused by the street-fighting, which evoked
ugly memories of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Lebanese Army troops were still deployed in the area and were
monitoring the movement of cars and people. "During the night it was
very calm," an army officer told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

According to Lebanese security sources, the army managed to catch
two snipers firing at soldiers and students during the riots. The
sources said one sniper was a Syrian and the other was a Palestinian.

Shiite groups held funerals Friday for the three killed Thursday.
An angry crowd of Amal and Hezbollah supporters shouted anti-
government slogans and vowed revenge at one funeral in the district
of Ouzai on the outskirts of Beirut.

"Down with the government" chanted angry crowds at this and other
funerals in Beirut and the eastern city of Baalbeck. Gunmen fired
shots into the air as a gesture of mourning and anger, while others
carried pictures of the dead men.

Addressing mourners in eastern Lebanon, Sheikh Mohamed Yazbeck, a
Hezbollah politburo member, called for unity among Lebanon's various
communities. "The problem is not religious, it's political," he said.

The latest violence overshadowed an international aid meeting for
Lebanon in Paris where donors pledged more than 7.6 billion dollars
to bolster the Western-backed government and help the country recover
from the summer's Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency