Rain-Soaked Opposition Activists Ring Parliament for Geagea's Release

Thousands upon thousands of opposition activists staged a sit-in protest at the rain drenched outskirts of parliament in downtown Beirut Wednesday, shouting demands that Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea be freed from 11 years in jail 'at once.' More than 40 opposition members of parliament took part in the mass protest amid hostile chants against Speaker Berri for failing to convene a special session of parliament to vote on a draft bill for an unconditional Geagea parole. Geagea's wife, Sitrida, drew thunderous applause when she arrived at the sit-in scene in the downtown Riyadh Solh square on the northern entrance to parliament, wearing a white blouse over blue jeans and escorted by a squad of LF bodyguards. She has said that Berri had promised her to hold a parliament session on May 20 to vote a parole for her husband. But the local media said Wednesday Berri is determined not to let the current parliament convene before the end of its mandate on May 31. Mrs. Geagea was flanked on the frontline of the sit-in by Marwan Hamadeh, Druze opposition leader Walid Jumblat's senior-most aide who survived a car-bomb assassination attempt Oct. 1 on one side, and legislator Naila Mouawad, widow of Lebanon's first post-civil President Rene Mouawad who was assassinated in 1989, on the other. The protestors waved Lebanese flags and brandished life-size portraits of Geagea as well as slain ex-Premier Hariri and Gen. Aoun, who is scheduled to return from 14 years in exile in France on Saturday. Crowds chanted "without Geagea, without Aoun, no national unity will dawn." Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party activists turned out en masse for the protest, standing shoulder-to-shoulder next to protestors from the LF, Hariri's Tayyar Al Mustaqbal Movement, Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and Elias Atallah's Democratic Left organization. One opposition leader after another addressed the crowds from a make-shift podium, urging Berri to convene a parliament meeting to vote on Geagea's release. But whenever Berri's name was pronounced, the crowds booed. The media said the 2-hour peaceful sit-in has showed all major factions of the opposition solidly united in a national front that would contest the May-June elections with united lists despite earlier reports of inter-opposition cracks.