Tragedy brings rival political camps together
Posted by tearsforlebanon on April 30, 2007
BEIRUT:
A delegation from Hizbullah and another from the March 14 Forces met
for the first time in many months on Sunday at the family homes of two
Sunni youths killed last week in a crime that shocked the nation and
threatened to plunge the country into renewed sectarian conflict.
Hizbullah MP Amin Cherri, speaking from the home of slain Ziad
Ghandour, 12, quoted Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah as saying that the murderers of Ziad Ghandour and Ziad
Qabalan, 25, “ought to be severely punished to preserve unity among the Lebanese.”
Source:Daily Star
authorities have pinned the abduction and murder of the two Sunni
youths on four brothers of Adnan Shamas, who died in the January 25
riots. The brothers are believed to be on the run in Syria.
The Hizbullah delegation, headed by Cherri, had visited Wata al-Mosseitbeh to offer condolences to the families of the victims.
The March 14 Forces delegation was headed by Information Minister Ghazi Aridi and included MPs Ammar Houri, Wael Bou Faour, Samir Franjieh, Antoine Zahra and former MP Fares Soueid, among others. They had also visited the Ghandour family home to offer condolences.
Aridi
said that “we have to overcome the blood to reach a point that will
calm the people and give them comfort, as well as reinstate the role of
the state.”
He also thanked
Hizbullah for coming to pay their respects. “I consider this meeting of
delegations a commitment to the state and its role,” he added.
The bodies of Ghandour and of Qabalan
were recovered in the town of Jadra, near Sidon late Thursday night
after the two were kidnapped last Monday. Ghandour’s father and Qabalan
are members of the Progressive Socialist Party.
Cherri
said that the Lebanese judiciary “ought to assume its responsibilities
now,” since, he added, it has been “absent on many occasions lately.”
“However,”
Cherri said, “it is now high time that the judiciary takes action in
order to preserve national unity and cohesion and punish anyone who
messes with stability.”
Lebanese politicians rallied around the state over the weekend, with the head of the PSP Walid Jumblatt applauding authorities on Sunday “for keeping the situation in Lebanon under control after the killing of two youths.”
“The
state played an exceptional role in keeping peace in this country,”
Jumblatt told his supporters during a tour of the Chouf area.
The criminals behind the murder of the two boys will be brought to justice next week,” vowed Jumblatt.
“We have the state to thank for their prompt act to bring about Justice,” he added.
Jumblatt
said he was optimistic about the country’s future, saying “there will
be a promising summer” with no wars or conflicts, as had been widely
rumored in the media.
In a
rare stance of agreement between the two opposing camps, politicians
from the opposition camp praised Jumblatt’s recent speeches calling for
calm and for leaving it up to the state and the security apparatus to
bring the criminals to justice.
Hizbullah
MP Hassan Fadlallah praised Jumblatt’s statements over the past few
days as “positive” and said he hoped that they would be translated into
“actual constructive steps toward a political plan.”
In
a news conference in the southern town of Khiam on Sunday, Fadlallah
nevertheless reiterated his party’s call for early parliamentary
elections as the “only way out” of the current deadlock.
“True
reconciliation can only be obtained through fair parliamentary
elections that will lead to the election of a far more representative
political body that later can form a new ruling authority,” said Fadlallah.
Free
Patriotic Movement MP Nabil Nicola also praised Jumblatt’s speech and
said he viewed the change in the Druze leader’s typically critical tone
toward the opposition as “a change for the better.”
“It
is a sign that there are winds of change approaching the country, and a
change in the stance of the ruling parties,” he said in an interview
with Hizbullah’s Al-Manar channel.
“We
can clean up Downtown from the sit-in within 24 hours, but who will
clean up the corruption in governance and the many mistakes made by the
current ruling party and the $45-billion debt?” he said.
Former President Amin Gemayel also stressed the importance of elections: not parliamentary but presidential ones.
“Presidential
elections are the most important phase for the settlement of the
political crisis and will dictate the future of this country,” said
Gemayel during a ceremony for his Phalange Party on Sunday.
The
former president also criticized the opposition for “not bringing forth
a concrete plan for the reforms that they have been calling for.”
