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Lebanon
Pierre Gemayel
murdered
BEIRUT, November 21 —. Pierre
Gemayel, Lebanon’s minister of industry and a leader
of the Maronite community, was shot to death while
he was in his car, on a street in Chtaide, a suburb
of this capital, in an event that Prime Minister
Fuad Siniora called “sedition,” according to the
Associated Press.
According to witnesses, another
auto charged at Gemayel’s, and then a gunman got out
and fired at close range at the minister.
Gemayel is the third high-ranking
politician to be assassinated in Lebanon in the last
two years. Former Prime Minister Hariri was killed
by a bomb in February 2005, and legislator Gibran
Tueni was killed in December of that year by a car
bomb.
According to the EFE news agency,
Amin Gemayel, father of the slain minister, and
president of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988, did not want
to bring concrete charges against anyone; he asked
the Lebanese people not to take to the streets to
protest his son’s murder, and to not be carried away
by sentiments of vengeance.
Hezbollah parliamentary deputy
Sheik Hasan Fadalla urged for people to refrain from
making baseless accusations. “Neither side should
rush to accuse the other, or another country, of
being behind this assassination,” he said, adding
that the main goal of the killing was to cause
conflict among the Lebanese people.
President Emile Lahoud described
Gemayel’s death as “a tragedy for all,” and Prime
Minister Fuad Siniora called on the Lebanese people
to remain united.
(Translated by Granma International)
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