BEIRUT - Thousands of partisans of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah gathered on Sunday for the first time at the tomb of Rafiq Hariri to pay tribute to the slain former prime minister.
They placed a floral crown and Lebanese flag on the grave, located near a mosque in central Beirut's Martyrs Square.
Hariri and 18 other people were killed in a bomb blast February 14, an attack that shook Lebanese politics to its roots and sharpened the rift between an anti-Syrian opposition and parties such as Hezbollah more sympathetic to Damascus.
An estimated 3,000 scouts attached to Hezbollah carrying portraits of Hariri and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah later marched to the tomb where they observed a minute of silence, recited verses from the Koran and sang the Lebanese national anthem as well as a hymn to the dead.
"We have come to express our sorrow and our pain before a symbol of reconstruction and liberation and to say that we want the assassins to be identified," said a young woman, speaking for the gathering.
"We renew our allegiance to Lebanon, the country you (Hariri) served with devotion and we swear to you that you will remain the symbol of our national unity."
Hariri, a billionnaire businessman, is widely credited with having rebuilt Beirut after 15 years of a bloody and devastating civil war, 1975-1990.
Martyrs Square until now has been occupied by supporters of the Lebanese opposition, drawn largely but not exclusively from the Sunni Moslem, Druze and Christian communities. They have renamed the site Freedom Square as Syria undertakes a military withdrawal from Lebanon.
On Sunday they observed the Hezbollah ceremony peacefully and there were no reported incidents.
The Hariri family and opposition leaders are demanding an international probe into the assassination, blamed by opponents here on Syrian and Lebanese agents despite denials by authorities in Beirut and Damascus.
Sheikh Nasrallah, who supports calls for the truth to be established, has said he prefers an Arab-lead investigation.
The opposition has also pressed for the full withdrawal of Syrian forces while Nasrallah has repeatedly expressed his loyalty to Damascus.
03/20/2005 11:25 GMT