Source: Al-Manar TV, 4-2-2008
One week has passed on the Black Sunday incidents which led to the martyrdom of seven civilians and the demands are still the same: serious and swift investigations before anything else, in order to punish the killers who wanted to cause damage to national unity.
Two events were organized on Sunday to commemorate the first week after the crime. The first one took the form of a mass that was held in Mar Michael church in which hundreds of Muslims and Christians participated including representatives from the Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah, and Amal Movement. The picture of Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and the head of FPM General Michel Aoun taken two years ago at the occasion of signing the understanding between their parties at the very same church was adorning its main entrance. Opposition flags were all present as a sign of unity and solid positions. The setting at the church was impressing: a Lebanese flag fluttering over the heads of Muslims and Christians who came here to reject all division
attempts.
The scene was similar at "Rawdet Al Chahidayn - Chiyah" cemetery in the afternoon. Here also, the different opposition groups were present to stress that revealing the truth as well as protecting the country and the army are the best ways to frustrate the unrest that some "black hands" seek. "The Mar Michael" mass has proved what kind of country the Lebanese want", said MP Ali Hassan Khalil, who was representing Amal movement. He pointed out that "leniency is not acceptable anymore and we have to be partners in the decision making process in our own country".
Resigned Energy and Water Resources Minister Mohamed Fneish, who was representing Hizbullah, elaborated sayimg that the opposition "has found out that the ruling bloc (February 14) is not qualified to be the decision maker in this country". He added that "the ones who didn't feel embarrassed when exploiting innocent blood won't be embarrassed to make the country involved in tutelage schemes".
For his part,, the vice president of the Higher Shiite Council, Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan, reiterated support for the Lebanese Army and added that the culprits "ought to be severely punished."
Nearly every political group was represented at both events, except for the unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora, maybe because this scene of unity is intolerable to it.