Syrians protest Hariri report en masse
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-25 08:58

Civil servants and students massed in the streets Monday to protest a U.N. report implicating Syria in the killing of a Lebanese leader, joining in a campaign to drum up support before a U.N. Security Council meeting.

The United States and Britain were pushing for the council to take a tough stand against Syria at a meeting Tuesday, but France said sanctions shouldn't be voted on until investigators finish looking into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"Let us allow that commission to run its full course," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters in Paris.

At the same time, French diplomats at the United Nations were working with U.S. officials trying to mobilize support for a strong resolution demanding that Syria cooperate fully with the investigation.

Syrians shout against the U.N. Mehlis report as they flash a poster showing Syrian President Bashar Assad Monday, Oct. 24, 2005, in Damscus, Syria. [AP]

"This is true confessions time now for the government of Syria," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. "No more obstruction. No more half measures. We want substantive cooperation and we want it immediately."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the U.N. report "very troubling" and said President Bush had directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to arrange a Security Council meeting at the earliest possible date "to discuss how to proceed." The U.S. target date for Rice and her counterparts to agree on a resolution is Oct. 31.

Syria's official SANA news agency said "hundreds of thousands" of people gathered in Damascus and Aleppo to demonstrate against the "unjust accusations" made by the report, released last week by chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis.

Thousands of Syrians rally in central Damascus in support of the government, on the eve of a UN Security Council meeting on a UN report that implicated Damascus in the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. [AFP]

The report implicated top Syrian security officials in Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination, drawing a strenuous denial from President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime. Syrian officials called the report politicized, biased and inaccurate.

Lebanon's major pro-Syrian groups, Amal and Hezbollah, also criticized the U.N. report, saying in a statement Monday in Beirut that a more thorough investigation was needed "based on facts and tangible evidence — not politics." Their position conflicts with that of Lebanon's Cabinet, which has endorsed the U.N. report.

The mass demonstrations in Syria were a concerted attempt to drum up support for Assad amid heightening international pressure.

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