Jumblat Pleads with Druze to 'Stay Sensible if I am Assassinated'

Walid Jumblat has appealed to the population of the Druze hinterland to "remain sensible and calm" if he is assassinated next on the hit list that claimed the lives of ex-Premier Hariri, his economic advisor Bassel Fleihan, An Nahar's Journalist Samir Kassir and Communist ideologue George Hawi in the last five months. "This is my last will and testament," Jumblat said in an interview aired by Beirut's NBN TV network late night Wednesday, grabbing newspaper page-one banner-lines Thursday morning. "No to agitation and no to what happened on March 16, 1977." This was a reference to the throat-slitting bloodbath in which some 200 Lebanese Christian villagers perished after the assassinations of Walid's father Kamal Jumblat in the aftermath of Syria's military intervention in Lebanon to halt the civil war. Walid has squarely accused Syria's Baathist regime of engineering his father's assassination. Jumblat, who has been confirmed by the May 29-June 19 parliamentary elections as the standard-bearer of Lebanon's Druze community, said he wanted his funeral, if he is murdered like his father, to be like the million-strong farewell given to Rafik Hariri Feb. 15 and will be given to George Hawi on Friday June 24. The local media expressed alarm over what it called 'Jumblat's moving plea,' which reflected a conviction that Syria's secret service assassins would keep after the Lebanese political leaders who forced the Assad regime to terminate a 29-year reign of terror in Lebanon.