Lebanese head of Maronite Church warns of street protests

(30 Nov 2006)
1. Wide top shot of widows and families of victims clapping in Maronite church
2. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, Head of Maronite Church:
"Strikes and protests do not solve the problems. It will further complicate it."
3. Wide top shot of crowd applauding
4. Mid shot of widows, some holding up photographs of dead men
5. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Solanje Gemayel, widow of former Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel:
"We have had enough assassinations of our leaders and husbands of our fathers and sons."
6. Wide top shot of widows
STORYLINE:
As Hezbollah and its allies call for open-ended protests to oust Lebanon's Western-backed prime minister, the head of Catholic Maronite church on Thursday said protests only "complicated" problems.
"Strikes and protests do not solve the problems. It will further complicate it," Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir told scores of widows and relatives of slain politicians and activists on Thursday.
"We've had enough assassinations, death and clashes," Sfeir told a crowd packed with black-clad women at the church's mountain seat in Bkriki, northeast of Beirut.
He said protesters from both camps could clash "and we don't know where that will lead."
Hezbollah and its allies have called for a mass demonstration on Friday against Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
But anti-Syrian supporters of the prime minister say they won't cave into pressure, setting up the possibility of a violent showdown.
Solanje Gemayel, the widow of former Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel, called for an end to assassinations of "our leaders and husbands of our fathers and sons."
Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon's president-elect, was killed in a bomb blast in 1982 only days before his inauguration.
Last week, Pierre Gemayel, the scion of his powerful Maronite Christian family and Bashir's nephew, was killed when two cars blocked his vehicle at an intersection as he left a church in a Beirut suburb and assassins shot him numerous times through a side window.
He was the sixth anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in two years.
Pro-government groups have blamed Gemayel's assassination on Syria and warned that more killings may be in store.
Syria has denied the accusations and condemned the killing.

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