Waving red hammer-and-sickle flags and banners of Lebanon's Communist Party (LCP), thousands of people marched through Beirut on June 24 behind the hearse carrying the body of assassinated LCP leader George Hawi. Hawi led the LCP during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. He was killed on June 21 when a bomb exploded under his car. His death was the latest in a recent string of political assassinations in Lebanon that began with the February 14 killing of former Lebanese prime minster Rafik Hariri, and are widely believed to be instigated by the Syrian security services. The LCP is part of the anti-Syria coalition that won a majority in staggered parliamentary elections that ended on June 26. The Syrian army entered Lebanon, with the backing of the US and other Western powers, in 1976 but withdrew in April after the adoption by the UN Security Council of a US-French resolution demanding their evacuation.

From Green Left Weekly, July 6, 2005.
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