Opposition Sacks Aoun, Vows 'Unto Death' Crusade to Depose Lahoud

A national schism has developed in the aftermath of writer Samir Kassir's assassination as the Pan-Lebanon opposition front sacked Gen. Aoun from its ranks and vowed 'unto death' campaign to overthrow President Lahoud, while the Gen. rushed to Lahoud's defense, holding the opposition indirectly responsible for Kassir's death. "Yes, definitely we have expelled Gen. Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement," Marwan Hamadeh said over slain ex-Premier Hariri's Future TV network hard on the heels of an opposition declaration that formally proclaimed the General a renegade, citing his electoral coalition pacts with "the lingering symbols of Syria's tutelage over Lebanon." "The situation must henceforth be crystal clear. Ambiguities are no longer permissible," Said Hamadeh, who miraculously survived a car-bomb assassination attempt near his Beirut house Oct. 1. "The General has to either quit his election pacts with the lingering symbols of Syria's trusteeship or face a head-on confrontation with the united opposition front." Hamadeh also hinted that the opposition might stage a million-strong demonstration to march from Beirut's downtown Martyrs Square to the Presidential palace in Baabda to force Lahoud to resign. An Nahar's General Manager Gebran Tueni, in turn, made a fervent appeal to Gen. Aoun to return to the opposition fold for a united, collective drive to wipe out "the last traces and the last vestiges of Syria's hegemony over Lebanon." Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement representative Jubran Bassil attended the opening part of the opposition meeting at the Bristol hotel, but walked out in a huff minutes later, saying the opposition, which holds the interior and justice ministries, "should do better and act faster" in coping with security blowups. The 2-hour Bristol meeting issued a statement read to the press by Leader of the Democratic Left Movement Elias Attallah, which called for : 1- Continuation of the Independence Uprising. 2- Demanding the resignation of the President of the Republic in his capacity as the actual leader of the police regime, security and intelligence-wise. 3- Asserting the persistence of the parliamentary election as a public referendum. 4- Pleading with the U.N. Secretary-General to send back the international verification commission to ascertain that all Syrian secret services have been withdrawn from Lebanon. 5- A call for a general strike on Friday. Expediting on Aoun's expulsion, Walid Jumblat told reporters after the meeting "those who view the crime of Samir Kassir's assassination a security rather than a political case have taken themselves completely out of the opposition." As for Lahoud's ouster, Jumblat said "there are no halfway solutions. The regime should be deposed in its entirety. We will accept no compromise as part of the opposition had done to return from abroad as a Trojan Horse. There is no way of compromise with the police state. With this regime, you're either dead or alive, victor or vanquished."