Cedar Revolution is the name given to the chain of demonstrations and popular civic action in Lebanon (mainly Beirut) triggered by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.
The primary goal of the original activists was the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and an end to what the demonstrators considered undue influence by Syria on Lebanese politics. During the period of the first wave of demonstrations, Syria had been maintaining a force of roughly 14,000 soldiers and intelligence agents in Lebanon [1].(For background information on Syria's involvement in Lebanese politics, see the articles History of Lebanon and Lebanese Civil War).
The opposition has taken, as its symbol, the white and red scarf, and the pro-Hariri, the blue ribbon. The movement's motto was either Horryeh, Syedeh, Este'lel (Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence), or Ha'i'a, Horryeh, Wehdeh watanieh (Truth, Freedom, National unity).
Name
The name "Cedar Revolution" has become Western media's most commonly used term to describe these events. It was coined by the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula J. Dobriansky in a news conference [2], and used to draw a comparison with the Rose Revolution of Georgia, the Orange Revolution of Ukraine, and "Purple Revolution" (as described by George W. Bush) of Iraq.
The word Cedar refers to a national emblem, the Lebanon Cedar, a tree featured on the flag of Lebanon. While the term is popular in the Western media, it is not widely used in the local press. Jefferson Morley reported in the Washington Post, "no one in the Lebanese press is talking about 'the Cedar Revolution.'"[3] and pointed out that the Cedar tree featured on the Lebanese flag once symbolized the country's Christian inhabitants (who at the time were a majority). It has long since grown to include a much wider acceptance as a national symbol independent of sectarian divisions. In 2005, the country's Shiite majority has not rushed to embrace the title.
However, the names used by the local media, like the LBC and Future TV, to describe this event include Lebanon Independence (Este'lel Lubnan), Lebanon Spring (Rabi' Lubnan), or just Independence 05.
The Cedar Revolution is also known by some media outlets [4] as the Cedar Spring in reference to the prevailing season when protests first broke out, and also as an allusion to famous freedom and independence movements like the Prague Spring; althought, it did not technically begin in the spring.
Assassination of Rafiq Hariri
On February 14, 2005, popular former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a car-bomb attack, which killed 16 and wounded nearly 100. This sparked huge demonstrations that seemed to unite large numbers of citizens from the usually fractured and sectarian Lebanese population. This attack was the second such incident in four months. Former minister and MP Marwan Hamadeh had survived a car bomb attack on October 1, 2004.
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 [5].
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 "[President of Lebanon] Lahoud is me. ... If you and Chirac want me out of Lebanon, I will break Lebanon."[6]. 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. [7] 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. [8]: 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.[9] (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 Emile 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. [10]
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, Dusseldorf, Montreal, and London.
Syria's rift with Hariri is believed to have stemmed from his opposition to the controversial Syrian-backed constitutional amendment that extended Lahoud's term as President.
International reaction
Hariri's murder triggered increased international pressure on Syria. In a joint statement, U.S. President George W. Bush and French president Jacques Chirac condemned the killing and called for full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which requires the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
At one point there seemed to be confusion about the extent to which Syria was willing to withdraw from Lebanon. Arab League head Amr Moussa declared that Syrian president Assad promised him a phased withdrawal over a two-year period, but the Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah said that Moussa had misunderstood the Syrian leader. Dakhlallah said that Syria will merely move its troops to eastern Lebanon. Since then, Syria has declared that Resolution 1559 will be fully complied with, and in a matter of months not years.
On March 15, upon hearing purportedly leaked information that the United Nations' special investigation may have found that the Lebanese authorities covered up evidence of the murder, Columnist Robert Fisk alleges that Hariri's two sons fled Lebanon, reportedly after being warned that they too were in danger of assassination [11].
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in response to a request by the Security Council, sent a team of Irish, Egyptian and Moroccan specialists, led by Ireland's deputy police commissioner, Peter FitzGerald , to investigate the assassination. Even before the FitzGerald Report was published, Annan has said a further, more comprehensive investigation may be necessary. FitzGerald thanked the Lebanese government for its cooperation before departing [12]. The report cites the Syrian presence in Lebanon as a factor contributing to the instability and polarization that preceded the assassination. The report also criticizes the Lebanese government and intelligence agencies for the handling of their own investigation into the affair, calling it flawed and inconclusive. The Lebanese government in turn has described the report as "alien to reality" and criticized the UN team for not seeking broader government participation in the investigation. The government has agreed to a further, more comprehensive international inquiry, but insisted that any future inquiry would have to work with the government. At a press conference on March 25, Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud said the inquiry would be expected to work within an established framework "in co-operation with the state". [13]
Government resigns
Daily protests against the Syrian occupation attracted 25,000 people. While in the 1990s most anti-Syrian demonstrations were predominantly Christian and were put down by force, the new demonstrations were distinctly non-sectarian and the government had not, to date, responded with force or intimidation [14].
On February 28 the government of pro-Syrian prime minister Omar Karami resigned, calling for a new election to take place. Karami said in his announcement: "I am keen the government will not be a hurdle in front of those who want the good for this country". The tens of thousands gathered at Beirut's Martyrs' Square cheered the announcement, then chanted "Karami has fallen, your turn will come, Lahoud, and yours, Bashar" [15].
Opposition MPs were not satisfied with only with Karami's resignation, and kept pressing for full Syrian withdrawal. Former minister and MP Marwan Hamadeh , who survived a similar car bomb attack on October 1, 2004, said "I accuse this government of incitement, negligence and shortcomings at the least, and of covering up its planning at the most... if not executing".
On March 23, Michel Abu Arraj, the Lebanese magistrate responsible for the internal Lebanese investigation of the assassination asked to be excused, citing a heavy court schedule. The Judicial Council of Lebanon is expected to rule on his request shortly [16]. His resignation and the consequent need to replace him may result in a delay in the investigation.
Syrian reaction
On March 2, 2005, Syrian leader Bashar Assad announced that his troops would leave Lebanon completely "in the next few months". Responding to the announcement, opposition leader Walid Jumblatt said that he wanted to hear more specifics from Damascus about any withdrawal: "It's a nice gesture but 'next few months' is quite vague - we need a clear-cut timetable" [17]. The closure and evacuation of most Syrian military and intelligence offices and checkpoints in and around the capital and elsewhere, along with substantial troop movements, may indicate concrete moves towards full withdrawal. No actual complete pullout has yet been certified by the UN, although U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed cautious optimism on signs of some Syrian withdrawals.
On March 3, Russia, Syria's Cold War ally, and Germany joined those calling for Syria to comply with Resolution 1559. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said: "Lebanon should be given an opportunity for sovereignty and development and this can only be achieved by complying with Security Council resolutions that stipulate immediate Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon" [18].
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, stated that "Syria should withdraw from Lebanon, but we all have to make sure that this withdrawal does not violate the very fragile balance which we still have in Lebanon, which is a very difficult country ethnically" [19].
On March 5 Syrian leader Assad declared in a televised speech that Syria would withdraw its forces to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, and then to the border between Syria and Lebanon. He did not provide a timetable for a complete withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.
On the weekend of April 9th and 10, on the anniversery of the ignition of the Lebanese Civil war, the last remaining Syrian troops left Lebanon, ending their 30 year presence.[20]
Response from the Arab world
Arab states have also joined in with the withdrawal demands. As Al-Assad arrived in Saudi Arabia for emergency consultation with Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz, Assad was told in no uncertain terms that Syria must comply with UN Security Council demands immediately. It was reported by the opposition Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star that Assad offered to remove most of the 15,000 troops Syria has stationed in Lebanon during the talks, but insisted on leaving a force of 3,000 in the country [21]. This has not been independently corroborated.
The annual Arab summit, which took place on March 23 in Algeria, did not ask Syria to withdraw, which would have given the pullback an Arab endorsement as envisaged in the 1989 Taif Agreement rather than making it dependent on Resolution 1559. Algerian Foreign Minister Abdel-Aziz Belkhadem discussed the consensus ahead of the summit, stating that "we all agreed to demand the implementation of the Taif Accord with respect to international legitimacy". Controversially, the crisis in Lebanon was not included on the agenda for the summit [22], which almost half of the Arab leaders did not attend.
Pro-Syrian demonstration
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called for a "massive popular gathering" on March 8 supporting Syria and accusing Israel and the United States of meddling in internal affairs. Nasrallah also criticized UN Resolution 1559 saying "The resistance will not give up its arms ... because Lebanon needs the resistance to defend it", and added "all the articles of U.N. resolution give free services to the Israeli enemy who should have been made accountable for his crimes and now finds that he is being rewarded for his crimes and achieves all its demands" [23].
This Beirut rally called by Hizbollah dwarfed the earlier anti-Syrian events; CNN noted some news agencies estimated the crowd at 200,000 [24], the Associated Press news agency estimated that there were nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protestors, while the New York Times and Los Angeles Times simply estimated "hundreds of thousands". [25], [26] Al-Jazeera reported a figure of 1.5 million, citing an unnamed official and the NBN television station run by the Syrian-backed militia Amal. This figure is disputed. The predominantly Shi'ite protestors held pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and placards reading, in English, "No for the American Intervention". A couple of media sources noted that it was likely that many of Lebanon's approximately 500,000 Syrian guest workers participated in the rally. [27],[28]. In addition to demonstrating the extent of popular support for Syria in Lebanon, the demonstration reiterated Hezbollah's rejection of Resolution 1559, whose call for the disbanding of all Lebanese militias threatens the continued existence of its military wing, the force widely credited for the liberation of south Lebanon. Nasrallah also held demonstrations in Tripoli and Nabatiyé on 11 and 13 March.
10 days after his resignation, Omar Karami was reappointed Prime Minister and called on the opposition to participate in government until the elections slated for April 2005.
On March 13, tens of thousands protested in the southern city of Nabatiyé in support of Syria and opposition to UNSCR 1559, according to reports. The Tripoli protests were cancelled.
Resurgent counter demonstrations
On March 14, the one-month anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, hundreds of thousands of confessionally diverse Lebanese, including significant numbers of Christians, Druze, Shiite and Sunni Muslims, rallied in central Beirut on Monday chanting "Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence" and carrying a huge Lebanese flag. They flocked from throughout the country, many unable to even enter the city due to heavy traffic. The peaceful rally was considered to be "the largest demonstration ever seen in Lebanon", with estimations of a turnout ranging from 800,000 to more than one million; the international news media also estimated that it was considerably larger than the earlier pro-Syrian rally. The demonstration was called by the Lebanese television network Future TV, a private enterprise that is part of the huge media empire controlled by Hariri's family. Hezbollah's television station, Al-Manar, on the other hand, is a much smaller venture with significantly less reach, based mainly in the South.
The demonstration occurred in Martyrs' Square, the site of Hariri's grave and the epicenter of the newly reconstructed city rebuilt in large part through Hariri's efforts. During the Lebanese civil war, factional infighting between the groups united in Martyrs' Square had turned the area into an impassable moonscape. Indeed, Lebanese unity was an important theme of the demonstration: both a crescent and a cross were displayed on the painted faces of the protestors and their banners, and veiled women stood alongside women with bare midriffs and pierced navels.
The Lebanese protestors demanded an international inquiry into Hariri's murder, the firing of Syrian-backed security chiefs in the Lebanese government, and a total Syrian pullout from Lebanon. [29], [30]
Wave of democracy?
Both participants and observers of the Cedar Revolution demonstrations have asked if the movement was influenced by recent local and regional events supporting democracy. Recent elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, and by the Palestinian Authority, a recent announcement that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will allow multiparty elections, and recent limited municipal elections in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, may have provided examples of movement toward democratic governance. Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt -- who only recently switched from supporting Syrian occupation to opposing it[31] -- remarked to a reporter of the Washington Post, "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world". In this sense, the Cedar Revolution may also prove to be a dividend of the Bush administration's global war on terror, however, as stated previously, Jumblatts views are not entirely respected as they seem to change regularly. Indeed, Middle East Media Research Institute, a media monitoring service, recorded him saying "The oil axis is present in most of the U.S. administration, beginning with its president, vice-president and top advisers, including [Condoleezza] Rice, who is oil-colored, while the axis of Jews is present with Paul Wolfowitz, the leading hawk who is inciting (America) to occupy and destroy Iraq".
Other views maintain that Lebanese anger against perceived Syrian hegemony had been simmering for decades, and the assassination of a popular leader was the spark that gave birth to the movement, independently of foreign and regional developments. Lebanese opposition leader and newspaper columnist Samir Kassir, for example, wrote that "democracy is spreading in the region not because of George Bush but despite him." He gave far more credit to the Palestinian uprising as an inspiration to Lebanese activists.[32]
Others still maintain that very little as actually changed, apart from the mainly "cosmetic" disappearance of Syrian Soldiers from their presence on the outskirts of Lebanese cities, and that Syrian control of Lebanese foreign affairs and trade may yet endure. Some critics argue that the rush to celebrate a supposed 'Revolution' was far too premature. [33] Others point out that Lebanon has had democratic institutions for a long time, with parliamentary rule established in the Pact of 1943 .[34]
Latest Developments
- At about midnight on Saturday, March 19 2005, a blast shook the northern suburb of New Jdeideh , a part-residential, part-commercial area, injuring 11 people.
- Early on Wednesday morning, March 23 2005, a bomb tore through a shopping center in Kaslik , near the port of Jounieh, approximately 10 miles (15km) north of Beirut, killing an unidentified person and two Indian workers, and injuring one Lebanese. The bomb collapsed the roof of the center and shattered shop windows. The area is considered the heartland of the Christian, anti-Syrian opposition. President Emile Lahoud has ordered an investigation. He said the attack sought to propel Lebanon into "chaos and fear" and he renewed calls for discussions between opposition and government/loyalist politicians "as the only means to break the current deadlock and bridge all differences". The opposition has blamed Damascus supporters for recent violence, saying they are keen to stir unrest to justify the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon. "It is clear that those who carried out this attack are targeting the security and stability of the country," opposition lawmaker Faris Bouez told reporters at the scene.
- On Sunday night, March 27, 2005, a large bomb exploded in a mostly Christian suburb of Beirut, causing extensive damage and killing two Indian citizens who were working in the area and injuring eight other people. The United States condemned the latest attack, and called for improved security measures. The blast caused panic throughout Beirut, with mounting concerns of deteriorating stability. Pro-Syrian terrorist groups are suspected of undermining the country's stability to discourage the withdrawal of Syrian troops, although no persons or groups have yet been identified as suspects.
- On Thursday, March 31, 2005, a group of 70 opposition MPs met to demand that a neutral administration be in place to oversee the planned May 31 elections. In a statement, they said "The authorities are working to sabotage elections in a dangerous bid to prolong the mandate of the current parliament," the opposition said in a statement. The opposition blames the head of state Emile Lahoud, parliament speaker Nabih Berri and parliament for this situation, and calls for them to meet their obligations without delaying tactics." This was in response to the postponement of Prime Minister Omar Karami's official stepping down, which was meant to have taken place on April 5, and is now postponed until at least April 8. Karami was forced to step down again after being reappointed because he failed to prevail on members of the opposition to join a national unity government. [35]
See also
External links
