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As Many As A Millon Protestors Demand Syrian Withdrawal
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2005-03-14
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Hundreds of thousands of protestors chanted "Freedom, sovereignty, independence," and waved a sea of Lebanese flags in Beirut on Monday, the biggest anti-Syrian protest yet in the opposition's duel of street rallies with supporters of the Damascus-backed government.
Mounib Nassereddine, a city official for Beirut, said the gathering was "at least two and a half times" larger than last Tuesday's turnout called by pro-Syrian Lebanese parties, notably the Shi'ite Muslim movement Hizbollah. It was estimated that the crowd last week was around 400,000.
A protestor named Nada was quoted as saying "Hizbollah organised a giant demonstration last Tuesday to intimidate us,"
"Today we're taking up the challenge and invite (Hizbollah) to join us because we represent the true majority of the country."
The march comes exactly a month after the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Hariri's killing is widely blamed on Syria and has energized an opposition movement aimed at forcing the withdrawal of all Syrian military and intelligence units from the country.
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