State-Sponsored Pro-Syria Demo Sparks Calls for Karami's Resignation

The state-sponsored demonstration in support of Syria's tutelage over Lebanon shows the government would spare no effort to influence the upcoming general elections so that Lebanon's new parliament would be more of a rubberstamp for the Assad regime than the current legislature, the opposition charged Wednesday. The lengths to which the ruling authorities have gone to deluge the streets of Beirut with demonstrators pleading with Syria to tighten its grip on Lebanon leaves no doubt that it would do the same to flood the Lebanese polls with pro-Syria voters, opposition spokesmen charged. "It's like what used to happen in Albania under Enver Hoxha," quipped Druze leader Walid Jumblat, who dared to spearhead opposition by 29 parliament members to Syria's imposition of Gen. Emile Lahoud as president of Lebanon for three extra years. Hoxha was the Soviet-backed ruler of Albania who was notorious for using atrocious police state tactics to smother opposition to his regime. Nevertheless, he was eventually toppled by his own people. An Nahar noted that hardly 100,000 had turned out for the so-called 'demonstration of the one million' to shout against U.N. resolution 1559, which calls for a total Syrian military withdrawal from Lebanon and a timetabled disarmament of Hizbullah. "It was a lifeless demo boycotted by the Druze and by the Christians, as if they are no longer partners in the homeland," Jumblat said in an interview blared by Radio France Internationale. The Qornet Shahwan coalition of center-right Christian politicians said in a statement the government should resign to make way for a neutral cabinet to conduct the parliamentary elections in spring.