Killing casts shadow over Lebanese poll
The FT's Ferry Biedermann reports:
“Every time he goes out we all watch the television, listen to the radio, listen for the sound of a bomb. When he comes home it’s, oof, a relief,” says Anne Franjieh of her husband Samir, a member of parliament for Lebanon’s ruling anti-Syrian March 14 movement.
Security is topmost in her mind in the aftermath of the killing on Wednesday of Antoine Ghanem, the fourth anti-Syrian MP to die in an attack since the elections in May 2005. Mr Franjieh’s name has appeared on purported lists of anti-Syrian politicians who have been slated for assassination.
Lebanon on Friday held the funeral for Mr Ghanem, who was killed along with seven others in a massive blast in a suburb of Beirut. His death comes less than a week before parliament is due to convene to choose a new president on Tuesday, although few believe that the vote will go ahead on the first attempt because of a possible lack of a quorum.
The presidency is one of the core issues in the bitter and drawn-out political struggle between the western-backed government of Fouad Siniora, prime minister, and the opposition, which is led by the pro- Syrian and Shia Hizbollah movement. Mr Ghanem’s killing may now have deprived the anti-Syrian coalition of the necessary votes to push through its choice.
Mr Franjieh, an independent MP for a constituency in the north of the country and scion of a prominent Christian family, knew Mr Ghanem well and is stunned by his death. “To be killed only because you are a number on a list,” he says, shaking his head.
He sees the assassination as a clear attempt by Syria to whittle down the government majority and help its allies in the presidential vote. Damascus has denied all involvement in the murder of Ghanem and of other prominent anti-Syrians over the last two-and-a-half years.
Anti-Syrian politicians and activists have been regularly targeted since the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, a former prime minister, in February 2005.
The United Nations investigation into the Hariri killing has taken on board the five political murders since then and may do the same for the case of Ghanem.
Mr Franjieh estimates that until a president has been decided on, the next two months will be extremely dangerous. He and other anti-Syrian members of parliament have been taking extra security measures since the murder in June of government MP Walid Eido.
The dominant anti-Syrian Future movement of Saad Hariri, the son of the former prime minister, is offering dozens of coalition MPs a safe haven in a wing of the luxurious InterContinental Phoenicia hotel on Beirut’s seafront for the duration of the presidential election process.
But Mr Franjieh says that he will stay put in his house in central Beirut. Several policemen guard the en-trance to his building. One is slumped in front of a TV set, his gun leaning against the back of his chair.
Mr Franjieh has restricted his movements, does not go into his office any more and spends a lot of time at home. “One of the worst things is that you lose touch with the people. You need to be in touch as a politician,” he says.
The situation is also trying for his family and friends, says Mr Franjieh. His wife says that even though they lived through Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war she is more concerned now. “Then everybody was a target but now Samir is specifically a target.”
She compares the feeling to the plot of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None where characters are killed off one by one. “They all feel they may be next,” she says of her husband and his colleagues.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/360d846e-6865-11dc-b475-0000779fd2ac.html
“Every time he goes out we all watch the television, listen to the radio, listen for the sound of a bomb. When he comes home it’s, oof, a relief,” says Anne Franjieh of her husband Samir, a member of parliament for Lebanon’s ruling anti-Syrian March 14 movement.
Security is topmost in her mind in the aftermath of the killing on Wednesday of Antoine Ghanem, the fourth anti-Syrian MP to die in an attack since the elections in May 2005. Mr Franjieh’s name has appeared on purported lists of anti-Syrian politicians who have been slated for assassination.
Lebanon on Friday held the funeral for Mr Ghanem, who was killed along with seven others in a massive blast in a suburb of Beirut. His death comes less than a week before parliament is due to convene to choose a new president on Tuesday, although few believe that the vote will go ahead on the first attempt because of a possible lack of a quorum.
The presidency is one of the core issues in the bitter and drawn-out political struggle between the western-backed government of Fouad Siniora, prime minister, and the opposition, which is led by the pro- Syrian and Shia Hizbollah movement. Mr Ghanem’s killing may now have deprived the anti-Syrian coalition of the necessary votes to push through its choice.
Mr Franjieh, an independent MP for a constituency in the north of the country and scion of a prominent Christian family, knew Mr Ghanem well and is stunned by his death. “To be killed only because you are a number on a list,” he says, shaking his head.
He sees the assassination as a clear attempt by Syria to whittle down the government majority and help its allies in the presidential vote. Damascus has denied all involvement in the murder of Ghanem and of other prominent anti-Syrians over the last two-and-a-half years.
Anti-Syrian politicians and activists have been regularly targeted since the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, a former prime minister, in February 2005.
The United Nations investigation into the Hariri killing has taken on board the five political murders since then and may do the same for the case of Ghanem.
Mr Franjieh estimates that until a president has been decided on, the next two months will be extremely dangerous. He and other anti-Syrian members of parliament have been taking extra security measures since the murder in June of government MP Walid Eido.
The dominant anti-Syrian Future movement of Saad Hariri, the son of the former prime minister, is offering dozens of coalition MPs a safe haven in a wing of the luxurious InterContinental Phoenicia hotel on Beirut’s seafront for the duration of the presidential election process.
But Mr Franjieh says that he will stay put in his house in central Beirut. Several policemen guard the en-trance to his building. One is slumped in front of a TV set, his gun leaning against the back of his chair.
Mr Franjieh has restricted his movements, does not go into his office any more and spends a lot of time at home. “One of the worst things is that you lose touch with the people. You need to be in touch as a politician,” he says.
The situation is also trying for his family and friends, says Mr Franjieh. His wife says that even though they lived through Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war she is more concerned now. “Then everybody was a target but now Samir is specifically a target.”
She compares the feeling to the plot of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None where characters are killed off one by one. “They all feel they may be next,” she says of her husband and his colleagues.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/360d846e-6865-11dc-b475-0000779fd2ac.html
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