Cedar Revolution - Background

Background

On February 14, 2005, the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a truck bomb attack, which killed 21 and wounded nearly 100. Former Minister of Economy and Trade Bassel Fleihan later died as well from injuries sustained in the blast. This attack sparked huge demonstrations that seemed to unite large numbers of citizens from the usually fractured and sectarian Lebanese population. It was the second such incident in four months: former minister and MP Marwan Hamadeh had survived a car bomb attack on October 1, 2004.

Within hours of the assassination, Lebanese prosecutors issued warrants for the arrest of six Australian nationals who flew out of Beirut to Sydney, Australia three hours after the explosion claiming that seats occupied by the men had tested positive for traces of explosives, and that they were traveling without luggage. The Australian Federal Police interviewed ten individuals in Sydney upon the arrival of the flight, and found the men they questioned did have luggage. Although Sydney air port security sniffer dogs trained to find explosives did react to aircraft seats occupied by the men, test swabs taken from three of the men by the Australian Federal Police tested negative for explosives. Within 48 hours, the Australian Federal Police absolved the six of any involvement in the assassination, giving little credibility to claims of the Lebanese officials.

Despite the lack, to date, of any actual substantial evidence implicating any party or individual, the Syrian government has borne the brunt of Lebanese and international outrage at the murder, because of its extensive military and intelligence influence in Lebanon, as well as the public rift between Hariri and Damascus just before his last resignation on October 20, 2004. The day after Hariri's resignation, pro-Syrian former Prime Minister Omar Karami was appointed Prime Minister.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a recent adherent to the anti-Syrian opposition, emboldened by popular anger and civic action, alleged in the wake of the assassination that in August 2004 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threatened Hariri, saying " Lahoud is me. ... If you and Chirac want me out of Lebanon, I will break Lebanon." He was quoted as saying "When I heard him telling us those words, I knew that it was his condemnation of death." The United States, the EU and the UN have stopped short of any accusations, choosing instead to demand a Syrian pullout from Lebanon and an open and international investigation of the Assassination. Jumblatt's comments are not without controversy; the BBC describes him as "being seen by many as the country's political weathervane" - consistently changing allegiances to emerge on the winning side of the issues de jour through the turmoil of the 1975-90 civil war and its troubled aftermath. He was a supporter of Syria after the war but switched sides after the death of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in 2000. His account is quoted, but not confirmed, in the UN's FitzGerald Report. The report stops short of directly accusing Damascus or any other party, saying that only a further thorough international inquest can identify the culprit. The Lebanese government has agreed to this inquiry, though calling for the full participation, not supremacy, of its own agencies and the respect of Lebanese sovereignty. (See international reaction below.)

On February 21, 2005 tens of thousands of Lebanese protestors held a rally at the site of the assassination calling for an end of Syrian occupation and blaming Syria and the pro-Syrian president Émile Lahoud for the murder. In the subsequent weeks, nearly every Monday, a demonstration has been held at Beirut's Martyrs Square (also referred to by protestors as "Liberty Square"), in addition to the constant daily gathering of Lebanese there.

Similar demonstrations by Lebanese immigrants have also taken place in several cities across the world, including Sydney - Australia (where over 10,000 people demonstrated in the city), San Francisco, Paris, Düsseldorf, Montreal, and London.