Pro-sovereignty groups protest in France and in Lebanon

December 2003

PARIS - Pro-sovereignty groups including supporters of former Army Commander General Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the disbanded Lebanese Forces, the Phalange rank and file and the National Liberal Party (NLP) held demonstrations in France and Paris to protest what they described as the “lack of independence” on November 22.

Thousands of demonstrators tool to the streets of Paris carrying Lebanese flags and pictures of Aoun. They chanted anti-Syrian slogans demanding that Syrian troops withdraw from Lebanon so that real independence would be restored.

In Lebanon, rightist groups held two separate demonstrations one at the Nahr al-Kalb venue, where the famous 1943 Independence Day inscription stands as a historical landmark, and the other one in front of the National Museum in Beirut.

Despite their past clashes with security forces, the Interior Ministry appeared to have given its personnel orders to “protect” the two demonstrations instead of clashing with them.