Lebanese rally draws 500,000 to mark Hariri's death

A crowd of 500,000 flag-waving Lebanese packed a square in central Beirut yesterday to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The turnout, reminiscent of huge protests after the February 14 2005 murder that forced Syria to bow to international pressure and leave Lebanon, looked set to give fresh impetus to the country's anti-Syrian coalition that dominates the government after winning a general election in May and June.

The coalition of Sunni Muslim, Christian and Druze political forces, which called the rally, is demanding to know the truth about Hariri's assassination, which it blames on Damascus, and the resignation of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

"We miss you," read large posters of Mr Hariri. "They feared you, so they killed you," others said. "He lived Lebanon and died for its sake," a black banner read.

"I came here to say that the terrorist Syrian regime that kills will never escape punishment," Amal Yassin, a mother of three, told Reuters as she waved a red-and-white Lebanese flag.

Leaders of the coalition, including Mr Hariri's son Saad al-Hariri, addressed the crowd, estimated by security sources at half-a-million of Lebanon's four million population.

Shi'ite Muslims, led by Syrian and Iranian ally Hizbollah, largely stayed away from the rally.

Thousands of Lebanese soldiers and police were deployed in Beirut and its suburbs as people converged from across Lebanon on Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut, where Mr Hariri is buried.

Security measures were tightened after a demonstration against cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad turned into a riot in which the Danish mission was torched and a church vandalised earlier this month.

"We salute the Lebanese for coming together around a just cause... and displaying their unity," Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the Maronite patriarch, told LBC television.

Many in Lebanon say Syria was behind the killing of Mr Hariri. A United Nations inquiry has implicated senior Syrian security officials and their Lebanese allies. Damascus denies any role.

Four pro-Syrian generals have been detained and charged with roles in the murder, but no indictments have yet been issued.

A poster carried the pictures of the four and that of Mr Lahoud above a sentence reading: "Four down, one to go". The killing of Mr Hariri, a billionaire construction tycoon and prime minister for 10 years between 1992 and 2004, galvanised international sympathy and support for Lebanon and piled pressure on Syria.

One of Mr Hariri's personal friends was French President Jacques Chirac, the driving force behind several UN Security Council resolutions on Lebanon and the Hariri investigation.

"I can tell you that the international community's determination to find and punish the guilty, on the one hand, and to give Lebanon all the means for independence, security, democracy and freedom, on the other hand, has not moved at all," Mr Chirac told Future Television on the eve of the anniversary.

But despite the Syrian pullout in April, a string of bombings and the assassination of three anti-Syrian figures as well as a series of political crises and the resurfacing of sectarian tensions have raised fears Lebanon could slide into instability.

Chronology - Events in Lebanon since Hariri's killing

The killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri a year ago turned the political landscape on its head with protests forcing Syria to end its military presence in Lebanon.

Here is a chronology of some of the main events in Lebanon since Mr Hariri's killing on February14, 2005.

February 16 - At least 150,000 Lebanese turn Mr Hariri's funeral into outpouring of anger against Syria.

February 28 - Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami resigns.

March 5 - President Bashar al-Assad tells Syrian Parliament his troops will start phased pullout from Lebanon.

April 26 - Last Syrian soldiers leave Lebanon.

June 2 - Samir Kassir, journalist opposed to Syria's role in Lebanon, is killed in Beirut by bomb in his car.

June 16 - UN probe into Mr Hariri's killing starts work.

June 19 - Lebanese parliamentary elections end in victory for anti-Syrian alliance led by Mr Hariri's son Saad al-Hariri.

August 30 - Four pro-Syrian former security chiefs are detained as suspects in Mr Hariri's killing and later charged with murder.

September 20 - UN investigators go to Damascus to interview Syrian officials, including Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan.

September 25 - May Chidiac, a Christian television journalist critical of Syria, is seriously wounded by a bomb in her car.

October 12 - Syrian state news agency SANA announces that Mr Kanaan has committed suicide in his office in Damascus.

October 20 - UN investigators say high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies were involved in Mr Hariri's killing, in a report to UN Security Council.

November 10 - Syrian President Assad launches a scathing attack on Lebanon's leaders, accusing them of turning their country into a hotbed of conspiracy against Damascus.

December 7 - UN investigators complete questioning five Syrian officials in Vienna in connection with the Hariri assassination.

December 12 - Gebran Tueni, staunchly anti-Syrian member of Parliament and Lebanese newspaper magnate is killed by a car-bomb in Beirut. The unknown group, "Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant" claims responsibility.

January 19, 2006 - Serge Brammertz, deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), arrives in Beirut to succeed Detlev Mehlis, as head of the UN investigation.

January 12 - Former Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam accuses President Bashar al-Assad of ordering Mr Hariri's killing.

- Syria says UN investigators probing the Hariri killing cannot meet the Syrian President.

February 11 - Saad al-Hariri returns to Lebanon more than six months after he left because of security worries.

February 14 - Around 500,000 gather in central Beirut to mark the first anniversary of Mr Hariri's assassination.