March 14 groups in Washington protest the killing of Gebran Tueni

January/February 2006

WASHINGTON: A number of Lebanese held a demonstration in front of the Syrian Embassy in Washington to protest the practices of the Baathist regime in Lebanon.

“Embassy of oppression in the land of the free,” read one of the slogans. “Bring the criminal Syrian regime to justice,” read another one. “Syrian people, join us for liberty,” read a third.

The protest was sponsored by the March 14 alliance in Washington, which includes representatives from the Progressive Socialist Party, the Democratic Left Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Future Youth Organization, the Phalange Party and the National Liberal Party.

“We are here to protest all the Syrian regime’s assassinations and attempt murders that started with the attempt on the life of Marwan Hamade and ended with the killing of Gebran Tueni,” said Serge Selwan, NLP’s representative in Washington.

The logistics of the protest, however, mandated that demonstrators show up during working hours. “We wanted to protest while the employees of the embassy are inside, we didn’t want to hold it on the weekend even if that meant having less people join due to their work,” said one of the organizers.

This time overlap didn’t stop the Progressive Socialist Party from rallying a good number of its supporters who filled a bus and came all the way from the capital of Viriginia, Richmond, some 250 km to the south of Washington DC.

The protestors shouted anti-Syrian regime slogans using a megaphone. At times, the staff of neighboring Polish embassy stepped out to see what was going on. “They are bad neighbors, trust us,” shouted one of the protestors causing a burst among others.

The laughter didn’t last, however.

Amid a grim mood of assassinations and lack of security at home, the Lebanese demonstrators picked up again with their shouting of slogans that called on the world to help rescue Lebanese sovereignty, independence and freedom.