BEIRUT: The centre of Beirut was a sea of red and white flags on Thursday as Lebanese turned out in strength for the funeral of anti-Syrian minister Pierre Gemayel, whose murder threatens to plunge the country deeper into political turmoil.
The huge crowd, which Lebanese media estimated at hundreds of thousands, heard fiery speeches from leaders of the beleaguered pro-Western governing coalition castigating Syria and its local allies for the violence dogging the country.
Gemayel was the sixth outspoken critic of Damascus to be killed in the past two years, and speaker after speaker vowed that they would not rest until the truth had been established and justice was done.
"We will not tire until we bring the killers to court," the murdered minister's father, Amin Gemayel, told the crowd from behind a bullet-proof screen.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Pierre Gemayel joined "the previous martyrs ... who had refused ... the regime of tutelage, killings and assassinations."
Sunni leader Saad Hariri, who lost his five-time prime minister father Rafiq to an assassin's bomb in February 2005, told the crowd that they had shown the world that those opposed to Syria's machinations, and not Damascus's allies, were in the majority in Lebanon.
"You are here for a new revolution to show the entire world that the sons of Rafiq Hariri and the brothers of Pierre Gemayel are the majority in Lebanon," he said.
