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Lebanon mourns slain general amid political crisis

Kafa el-Alam, the mother of Major General Francois Hajj, mourns as an army officer tries to calm her during her son's funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

A mournful farewell to a top general slain in a car bombing turned on Friday into a rallying point for calls for Lebanon's deeply divided politicians to agree on a new president and end the country's worsening political crisis.

The assassination three days ago of Major General Francois Hajj, the first military figure to be killed by a string of attacks since 2005, shook a Lebanese public accustomed to death but unprepared for an assault on the army -- seen as the sole institution holding the country together.

Citizen's from feuding factions seized on that emotion on Friday, standing together in the rain to say goodbye to the military's second highest ranking officer with a shower of tears and rose petals.

Army chief General Michel Suleiman -- seen as the likely consensus candidate for president -- bid farewell to Hajj during the funeral with a sharp salute in front of his coffin, as the military called on Lebanon's Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition to end their political deadlock.

"In unity, we will have the strength and we can achieve the impossible," army chief of staff, Major General Shawki Masri said during Hajj's funeral.

Masri promised the military would "not rest until the murderers are apprehended and punished," a reassuring message to Lebanese citizens who saw Hajj's assassination as an assault on the country itself.

Hundreds of grieving Lebanese stood in the downpour as Hajj's flag-draped casket was taken from his home in the Beirut suburb of Baabda to a Maronite Catholic basilica in Harisa.

An old woman threw rose petals in front of the procession as it passed through the port city of Jounieh.

Hajj's slaying has heightened tensions at a time when Lebanon is embroiled in the latest chapter of its yearlong crisis -- a dispute over electing a new president. The post has been empty since Emile Lahoud's term ended Nov. 23, with supporters of the Western-backed government and the opposition, led by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, unable to agree on a successor.

There was no claim of responsibility for Wednesday's bombing. Investigators are focusing on the possibility that Hajj was killed by Islamic militants because he led a three-month campaign this summer against an al-Qaeda-inspired group holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

But investigators are also looking into the possibility he was killed in connection to the dispute over the presidency. Hajj was expected to succeed Suleiman at the military helm if he was elected president.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to political leaders in Lebanon on Friday to elect a president who can unite the nation, saying a parliamentary vote scheduled for tomorrow was "the last chance."

"France urges all parties, at home and abroad, to do all they can for Lebanon to have a president of unity and consensus," Sarkozy said after a EU summit in Brussels.

Pro-government and opposition politicians, including a delegation from Hezbollah, attended Hajj's funeral mass in Harisa. Bells tolled while army pallbearers carried the coffin and hundreds of mourners applauded.

The service was led by Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, head of the influential Maronite Church from which Lebanon's presidents are drawn and to which Hajj belonged.

"Today, the hand of treachery has reached the army and its brave leaders," Sfeir told mourners at the ceremony.

After the mass, the coffin was driven to Hajj's hometown of Rmeish near Lebanon's southern border with Israel for burial in his family's cemetery.

Also on Friday, Hajj's driver, Khairallah Hadwan, a Shiite who was killed alongside his boss in the bombing in Baabda, was buried in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
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