Thousands rally behind Lebanese president

Unprecedented cross-sectarian demonstrations have gripped Lebanon since 17 October, demanding a complete overhaul of a political system deemed inefficient and corrupt.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Thousands of Lebanese protested Sunday to keep up a nationwide street movement that has brought down the government, hours after a mass rally to support embattled president Michel Aoun.

Unprecedented cross-sectarian demonstrations have gripped Lebanon since 17 October, demanding a complete overhaul of a political system deemed inefficient and corrupt.

On Sunday evening, thousands of protesters streamed into the main square carrying Lebanese flags and a flurry of inventive slogans on cardboard, an AFP correspondent said.

Draped in white sheets, three demonstrators staged a mock execution of the grievances that pushed them down into the street.

Nooses around their limp necks, they bore signs referring to corruption, sectarianism and the 1975 to 1990 civil war.

Protesters in the capital shouted in support of Shiite-majority areas such as Tyre, strongholds of the powerful Hezbollah movement, which has urged its backers not to protest.

Despite Hezbollah’s warnings, protests were also staged in the southern city itself, the National News Agency and television showed.

People also took to the street in Sunni-majority Sidon and the northern city of Tripoli.

Demonstrators’ roadblocks were lifted and banks re-opened after the government stepped down on Tuesday.

Protesters have however vowed to keep up the street movement until all their demands are met, including that a new government include independent technocrats.

But a female protester in Tripoli, who gave her name as Najwa, said it was still very unclear if the new cabinet lineup would actually be different.

“There’s no transparency,” she said. “The possible scenarios we’re hearing about through rumors are not very encouraging.”

Earlier in the capital, hundreds of men and women took part in a feminist march from the national museum towards the main square.

“Our revolution is feminist,” read a banner carried by marchers.

Protesters have called for an end to President Michel Aoun’s tenure, as well as drastic change to a political system dominated by the same figures and families since the end of the civil war.

Early afternoon, the president addressed Lebanese in a televised speech as thousands of his supporters thronged the road outside his presidential palace.

“I call on you all to unite,” the 84-year-old Maronite Christian president said from his palace in the town of Baabda outside Beirut.

He urged Lebanese to rally behind a roadmap to tackle corruption, redress the economy, and put together a civil government.

“It won’t be easy, and we want your efforts,” he said.