March 14 lives, with or without Aoun

February 2006

BEIRUT: A million Lebanese took to the streets on February 14, 2006 to commemorate the first anniversary of the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.

The demonstration revived hopes that March 14, a movement triggered by the Hariri assassination that eventually forced the Syrians to withdraw from Lebanon after 30 years of occupation, was still strong and robust despite the departure of MP Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement.

Aoun had announced that March 14 was long gone and that without him, what was left of March 14 had no significant popular weight. "I dare them to topple the president in the street… they don't have enough people for a protest," he told Al-Arabiya's Giselle Khoury in her show Bil Arabi in November.

Aoun went as far as bragging that he was the undisputed leader of all of Lebanon daring the March 14 factions to repeat 2005 parliamentary elections, with the same 2000 electoral law, arguing that he would surely obtain a parliamentary majority in a repeat.

Along these lines, Aoun announced an alliance with Hizbullah whose Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah described the March 14 parliamentary majority as a fake majority a few days prior to the demonstration.

"We say it in the face of those who talk about fake majority that we are the majority," said Chouf MP and March 14's most prolific leader Walid Jumblatt during the Feb. 14 demonstration. Jumblatt argued that the March 14 business is far from concluded before President Emile Lahoud is removed from power.

"We refuse to be part of the Syrian-Iranian axis," he said. "Instead of liberating the Shebaa Farms, let's liberate the Baabda [presidential] farms," he added.

The other March 14 pole, Beirut MP Saad Hariri – who had come to Lebanon after 6 months of voluntary exile fearing for his security – also issued calls of the same nature. Hariri said that the removal of Lahoud was a prerequisite for completely ending the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

Other March 14 leaders including Lebanese Forces' Samir Geagea and Democratic Left Movement's Elias Atallah also fell heavily on Lahoud and the Syrian regime vowing to topple Lahoud and take the country back from the hands of the Syrian regime and its Lebanese cronies.