12:55 p.m.
BIKFAYA, Lebanon — Lebanon canceled Independence Day celebrations, and people huddled around televisions to watch the live broadcast today of dignitaries paying last respects to a Christian politician whose assassination threatened to push the country’s political crisis into wider violence.
Members of the Phalange Party and hundreds of villagers walked past the coffin of Pierre Gemayel and paid condolences to his father, former President Amin Gemayel, in the family’s home in this mountain town.
Pierre Gemayel, the minister of industry, was killed yesterday when two cars blocked his vehicle at an intersection in the suburbs of Beirut and an assassin shot him numerous times through a side window.
His killing — the fifth killing of an anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon in two years — immediately drew condemnation from all quarters.
The United States denounced the assassination as an act of terrorism. President Bush accused Syria and Iran of trying to undermine Lebanon’s government but stopped short of blaming them for the killing. Syria, too, condemned the assassination and denied any role in it.
In Vatican City, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the killing as a “brutal attack” and said he was close to the victim’s family and to the “beloved Lebanese people.”
“In the face of the dark forces that try to destroy the country, I call on all Lebanese not to be overwhelmed by hatred, but to strengthen national unity, justice and reconciliation and work together to build a future of peace,” Benedict told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly audience.
The tension has generated fears of a return to the sectarian strife that tore the nation apart in the 1975-90 civil war. Lebanese politicians struggled to pull the country from the brink, urging calm and unity.
There were calls for revenge among supporters, shouts that were put down by Amin Gemayel, who urged restraint in a call echoed by the Maronite Catholic Church. Nevertheless, there were sporadic cases of violence such as burning tires, wrecking vehicles and attacking offices of rival parties.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Mr. Gemayel’s assassination was part of a “conspiracy” that began with the February 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
“I tell the Lebanese that today is the time for them to unite or else all of Lebanon will lose,” Mr. Lahoud said in a TV address late yesterday, when he announced the cancellation of Independence Day ceremonies.
“We will do the impossible to uncover the criminals because they are against all the Lebanese,” Mr. Lahoud said.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora also went on TV to appeal for unity and warn that Lebanon was facing “sedition.”
Schools and shops were closed, and traffic was light this morning as Mr. Gemayel’s coffin, draped in the flag of his Phalange Party, was driven up to the mountains for mourning ceremonies at the family home before the funeral, scheduled for tomorrow.
Motorists waving the Phalange Party flag — white with a green cedar tree in the middle — followed the hearse. The cortege stopped at the entrance of Bikfaya where, next to a statue of Pierre Gemayel’s grandfather, pallbearers lifted the casket onto their shoulders and carried it to the stone-walled house.
Supporters jolted the coffin in a traditional expression of extreme anguish as it passed through hundreds of mourners, many of whom were weeping.
Anti-Syrian factions allied with the Phalange Party have planned a huge turnout for tomorrow’s funeral in central Beirut, intending to show their strength as they wage a power struggle against Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian parties.
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