Tears and fears at Hariri’s tomb in Beirut

Agence France Presse — English
February 17, 2005

BEIRUT Feb 17 — Black-clad mourners from across Lebanon flocked
Thursday to the grave of slain former premier Rafiq Hariri with tears
and fears for the future after the death of the architect of their
country’s post-war revival.

Men stood with open palms whispering the Fatiha, the first verse of
the Koran Muslim holy book, as Christians crossed themselves before
Hariri’s tomb, at the foot of the monumental Mohammad Amin mosque in
downtown Beirut.

The site has already become a pilgrimage site, with a constant flow
of men, women and children, following Hariri’s killing along with 14
other people in a massive bomb blast in the capital on Monday.

Verses from the Koran echoed from the area of the mosque, nestled
between Maronite, Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches whose
church bells rang throughout Wednesday’s funeral.

The tomb stands on the edge of what was to have turned into an open-air
archaeological museum known as the “Gardens of Forgiveness,” at the
heart of downtown Beirut, an area revived from the ashes of civil
war by Hariri.

Mourners on Wednesday night continued to light candles and lay flowers
at the tombs of Hariri and seven of his personal bodyguards also
killed before heading to the nearby site of the bombing.

“Join the peaceful candlelight vigil every night to express our
rejection of violence … Ukrainians did it, so can we,” say mobile
telephone text messages being flashed across the city.

“We cannot remain silent anymore to the series of assassinations
since the beginning of the war that have never been uncovered,” said
a member of a group of activists behind the initiative, film director
Tima Khalil.

On Thursday, women wearing black wiped their swollen eyes as teenage
girls sobbed aloud and men fought back tears in an ever-growing circle
around a heap of wreathes over Hariri’s tomb.

“We are all crying the loss of our dream for a new Lebanon with a
bright future. He was the guarantee for moderation in Lebanon at such
critical times,” said Elizabeth Nasrallah, a Christian.

“Hariri was more than a mere politician, he was the statesman who
rebuilt modern Lebanon, the man who gave us hope after (the 1975-1990)
civil war. Now, we lost this hope,” she said, tears running down
her cheeks.

Her husband, Samir, offered some consollation.

“The only good thing in this whole affair is this sight: Christians
and Muslims, poor and rich people, all sorts of people from around
Lebanon are coming to his tomb,” he said.

“On Wednesday, the authorities and their Syrian masters were banned
from the funeral. Today, we are showing them that Lebanese people
from all confessions can peacefully live, work and pray together,”
chimed in Mohammad Haidar.

Jacques Mandalian, an Armenian-born art dealer, said: “Hariri was a
school for us, a school of optimism. Everytime there were problems,
he was always optimistic and continued to work for a better Lebanon.”

“Hariri was a guarantee for our future, for Lebanon’s economic and
monetary stability. He had relations with world leaders, he had the
means to put Lebanon on the world map,” said businessman Khalil Alameh.