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Lebanon's 2 main Shiite groups welcome arrest of 11 soldiers over riots that killed 7 |
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Written by News Editor
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Sunday, 03 February 2008 |
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BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon's two main Shiite Muslim groups welcomed on Sunday as a "positive and serious step" a military prosecutor's decision to arrest 11 soldiers and six civilians in connection with last weekend's clashes between troops and Shiite Muslim protesters that left seven people dead.
The conciliatory positions by the militant Hezbollah group and the moderate Amal Movement are likely to help defuse tension between the army and the two opposition factions, which has been simmering since the riots erupted south of Beirut on Jan. 27.
The rioting was the worst in the Lebanese capital in a year. What started as protests against electricity rationing degenerated into clashes with troops in mostly Shiite areas of the south Beirut suburb of Shiyah.
On Saturday, military court magistrate Jean Fahd issued arrest warrants for 11 soldiers, including five officers, and six civilians in connection with the clashes after questioning 120 soldiers and 85 civilians, according to court officials.
A senior Hezbollah official described the ongoing military investigation into last weekend's riots as "serious" and demanded that those found guilty of killing the seven be executed.
"It is a first step marked by seriousness. The investigation should be quick and sentences should be compatible with the size of the crime. This means that a killer should be executed," Mahmoud Koumati, deputy leader of Hezbollah's political bureau, told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel Sunday.
"This is what we and the parents (of the victims) are demanding in order for (the culprits) to be punished and justice to be applied," he said.
A key political adviser to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also the head of the Amal group, described the results of the preliminary military probe into the riots as "a positive step" that could lead to uncovering the circumstances that led to the deaths of the seven people.
"We look positively at the (results) announced yesterday by the military and judicial investigation committee and consider it as a development that could lead to revealing the circumstances (of the crime)," Shiite legislator Ali Hassan Khalil told a rally south of Beirut Sunday to commemorate the first week after the death of the seven.
"What happened is a positive step that paves the way in a serious manner for reaching the truth," he said.
Hezbollah, which leads the Syrian-backed opposition against Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government, has criticized the military for its handling of the protests and demanded a quick investigation and bringing those responsible for the riots to justice.
Two Hezbollah and two Amal members were among the seven Shiites killed Jan. 27 in the Mar Mikhael intersection in the south Beirut suburb of Shiyah near the former 1975-90 civil war demarcation line between Christian and Muslim areas.
The army, which had been neutral in the yearlong government-opposition struggle, fired into the air to disperse the crowd protesting electricity rationing — the initial spark that set off the rioting. It remained unclear how the deaths occurred and whether soldiers intentionally fired on civilians.
The arrest warrants came a day after an attack on an army post left two soldiers wounded a few hundred meters (yards) from where the riots against electricity rationing occurred.
The army said it was one of several attacks against army posts in Beirut and its suburbs in the past days, but did not say where the other attacks occurred or whether any troops were hurt.
Lebanon is mired in its worst political crisis since the end of the civil war. Parliament has been deadlocked for months over the election of a new president, divided between the U.S.-backed parliamentary majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition. |
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