BEIRUT - More than 100,000 people swarmed into Beirut on Tuesday for a rally called by pro-Syrian movements led by the powerful Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah to oppose Western interference in their country.
"Lebanon isn`t your playground," was the slogan on one poster bearing a picture of US President George W. Bush, who has been leading international calls for an end to Syria`s political and military dominance of Lebanon.
Streams of buses, pick-up trucks and cars were jammed highways leading to the capital where tens of thousands crowded the central Riad Solh Square in the heart of Beirut.
"Thank you Syria, no to foreign interference," read one banner in the square decorated with the Lebanese red-and-white national flags that have become a symbol of rival rallies by anti-Syrian oppoosition forces.
Protestors carried portraits of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, his successor son Bashar al-Assad as well as his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud and Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
The pro-Syrian groups -- in stark contrast to the opposition in Lebanon -- have voiced their opposition to the UN resolution calling for the pullout of troops saying that Lebanon was still at a "state of war" with Israel.
"We are going to protest to voice our condemnation of the UN resolutions and support the resistance. Neither Bush nor the UN can decide what sort of life and government we want," declared Hussein Faqih de Kafra, 24.
03/08/2005 12:23 GMT