Thu, Mar 10, 2005 page7

• Syrian troops seen moving toward border

  LEBANON Syrian posts in the mountains overlooking Beirut were partially deserted yesterday after convoys began moving troops and equipment on Tuesday afternoon

  • DPA AND AP
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  Dozens of Syrian trucks loaded with soldiers and military equipment were seen moving early yesterday toward the Syrian border and the Bekaa valley, the day after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Beirut in a thundering show of strength by the Syrian-backed Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.

  Lebanese army sources said that a convoy of three buses loaded with Syrian soldiers crossed the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight.

  Meanwhile, Syrian posts in Hammana and Falgouha mountains overlooking Beirut were seen partially deserted.

  A convoy of around seven trucks was seen moving from the area of Hammana and stopping near the Lebanese-Syrian border.

  "So far around four posts were evacuated by the Syrian troops in Falougha and Boureij, they all headed towards the Bekaa valley," said the source in eastern Lebanon.

  The redeployment of Syrian troops started on Tuesday afternoon.

  Syrian President Hafez al Assad announced last week that troops will redeploy from areas overlooking Beirut toward the Bekaa Valley and then the Syrian border.

  Lebanese officials said the pullback would be completed by March 23. Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares said he believes the next phase, the full withdrawal from Lebanon, will be "speedy" -- but he did not give a date.

  On Tuesday, thousands of people crowded a central Beirut square, singing, waving Lebanese flags and chanting anti-US slogans in support of Hezbollah. The crowds vastly outnumbered anti-Syrian rallies of the past weeks.

  The rally -- many times larger than a demonstration the day before calling on Syrian troops to leave -- was a signal from Hezbollah that the anti-Israeli Shiite Muslim group remains a powerful force in Lebanon even if Syria leaves. Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran and backed by Syria, is under pressure from the UN to disarm with a Syrian pullout.

  Damascus also sought to send a message, that even if its forces are out, its influence will not be ended in the country it has dominated for more than a decade.

  The hundreds of thousands who streamed into Beirut's Riad Solh square on Tuesday waved a sea of red-and-white Lebanese flags, and two huge banners in the square read, in English: "Thank you Syria" and "No to foreign interference." That was a reference to US and UN pressure on Syria -- but not to the Syrian military, which the protesters made clear they were happy to have stay.

  "We're here for the independence of Lebanon but not for Syria to leave," said 16-year-old Esraa Awarki, who traveled to Beirut by bus with a number of schoolmates from Sharkiya, in southern Lebanon. "Syria was helping to protect us."

  The sprawling crowds burst into the national anthem, some touted posters with pictures of the Lebanese and Syrian presidents. Throughout the afternoon, loudspeakers blared songs of resistance and officials gave nationalist speeches.

  "We are manifesting here against foreign intervention in our internal affairs, and we're supporting Hezbollah," said Maha Choukair, a 21-year-old Lebanese University student. "Here we are saying thank you to Syria, not asking them to leave."

  Many of the signs in Riad Solh square on Tuesday denounced UN Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon and demands the disarming of militias, referring to Hezbollah.
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