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LEBANON: LEBANESE MINISTER MURDERED November 22, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Pierre Gemayel, a Lebanese cabinet minister and strong opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, was gunned down in his car on Tuesday afternoon.
The killing of Mr. Gemayel, the 34-year-old scion of a prominent Maronite Christian family, inflamed tensions between the anti-Syria coalition trying to hold its government together and the Syrian-allied opposition, led by Hezbollah.
Lebanese radio reported that shots were also fired Tuesday into the Beirut office of Michel Pharaon, a Greek Catholic member of the ruling coalition and minister for parliamentary affairs.
Lebanon's Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, vowed in a televised speech that his government would hold firm. "I pledge to you that your blood will not go in vain," Mr. Siniora said. "We will not let the murderers control the fate of Lebanon and the future of its children."
In truth, his government may already be on life support. Last week, six pro-Syria ministers aligned with Hezbollah resigned after a failed effort to gain greater control over the government. A seventh minister had resigned earlier in an unrelated conflict.
With Mr. Gemayel's death, there may now be too few ministers to pass any measures, and it appears that if the government were to lose one more minister it would automatically collapse.
Syria is however believed to have a hand in the killings that have taken place in Lebanon. Officials in Damascus and Syria's allies in Lebanon condemned the killing. Mr. Gemayel, the industry minister, was the fifth anti-Syria figure to be killed since Mr. Hariri's assassination rocked Lebanon in February 2005.
The killing reverberated far beyond Lebanon. Condemnations poured in from Britain, Germany, Italy, France, the European Union, Jordan, Egypt and the United States.