BEIRUT - An opposition Lebanese MP charged Monday that Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services are hiding the truth behind the assassination last month of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
"You want the truth on the assassination?" asked Marwan Hamade, addressing a crowd of 800,000 people at a massive demonstration called by the anti-Syrian Lebanese opposition.
"It's lying in the dark chambers of the (Syrian-Lebanese) intelligence services that are ruling us and that you are in the process of sweeping out."
His comments came as British newspaper The Independent wrote that a United Nations investigation into Hariri's killing will report that Lebanese and Syrian authorities are behind a cover-up of evidence from the February 14 blast.
"The UN investigators have become convinced that there was a cover-up of evidence at the very highest levels of the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence authorities," the daily said.
Hamade was the official opening speaker at the rally, held in central Beirut near Hariri's grave.
The former prime minister's murder has been widely attributed to Syria, which has had a strong military and intelligence presence in Lebanon since 1976.
Syria has denied involvement in the killing and, in the face of mounting public fury, has begun withdrawing some of its estimated 14,000 troops in Lebanon.
On Monday, Syrian intelligence services evacuated three posts in northern Lebanon and were preparing to leave four others, a Lebanese security official said.
The evacuated positions were immediately taken over by the Lebanese army.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend made a commitment to call home all his forces in accordance with a United Nations Security Council Resolution.
But his gesture has done little to calm the spirits of a Lebanese opposition that is pressing for a full withdrawal as well as for light to be shed on Hariri's assassination.
"They killed (Hariri) because he was thwarting their plan to make Lebanon submit. They killed him because they are the enemies of democracy and Arabism," said Hamade, who himself escaped assassination last year.
The opposition is seeking the removal of Lebanon's public prosecutor and the heads of the six Lebanese security services, which they see as perpetuating Syrian influence.
"The independence uprising will not stop until all our demands are met," Hamade said.

03/14/2005 16:08 GMT