On 14 March 2005, and after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and his comrades, Lebanon experienced a huge, popular phenomenon that recalls the recent scenes in Cairo's Tahrir Square, which brought down President Husni Mubarak, and also the demonstrations in Tunisia that led to the ouster of President Zein al-Abidine bin Ali. The one million Lebanese who demonstrated in downtown Beirut, on the freedom square, were led by free innocent people, such as journalists Samir Kassir and Gebran Tueni. The Lebanese were demonstrating for freedom, sovereignty and the truth, because the prime minister of their government and his comrades dared to demand the ability to make free decisions, and not extend the term of President Emile Lahoud, who the fraternal country of Syria wanted to impose on the Lebanese people. When we see the demonstrations of Egypt and Tunisia, and their consequences, and we see what is happening in Lebanon, we can only say that the recent developments in Lebanon are going against the tide, compared to how the Tunisian and Egyptian peoples began to destroy the Arab Berlin wall. When the government of Saad Hariri was brought down and the former opposition became a new majority, following endorsement from outside powers to groups that obtained the majority in the parliamentary elections, it was under the rubric of no cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and no one from the Hariri family heading the government. In other words: no to sovereignty, no to truth, and no to democracy. The decision came from Damascus and Tehran, and this is the situation: either the one million Lebanese who went to the street to demand the truth, freedom and sovereignty agree to everything that is taking place, or else there will be armed strife. The new influential powers that worked to form a government headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati were trying to impose on Lebanon what these groups imposed when they forced the amendment of the Constitution and extended the mandate of President Emile Lahoud. Today, they want to form a government that must halt Lebanon's cooperation with the STL, because it is said that learning the truth about who killed all of these innocent people – Rafiq Hariri, Bassil Fleihan, Gebran Tueni, Samir Kassir, Pierre Gemayel and George Hawi, and all of the martyrs who led the revolution for freedom and the truth – will lead to strife and civil war. How can a Lebanese citizen who aspires to freedom, sovereignty and the truth fail to rise up, when peoples in other Arab countries are able to free themselves of authoritarianism and the imposition of a single view? In Lebanon, we are seeing a coup that is opposed to the move toward freedom and is imposing on a large segment of the Lebanese people the acceptance of a new de facto situation. We will either see either armed strife, oppression and intimidation, or submitting to the idea of not trying the people who killed innocent Lebanese and bombed them, in the manner of terrorist movements, such as al-Qaida and others. Mikati has international weight, and he cannot form a government and a political leadership that goes against the tide in the Arab world today, where the winds of freedom, justice and dignity have begun to blow. An Arab citizen today cannot compromise over the principles of sovereignty and free decision-making, whatever the pressures exerted domestically and externally. What happened in Egypt and Tunisia should sound the warning bell to Prime Minister Mikati and those who wanted this coup, in Damascus and Tehran. Arab peoples have awoken; they refuse the suppression of the principles of justice, and learning the identity of those who killed innocent people who were liquidated because they were ahead of their brethren in Egypt and Tunisia in their struggle for freedom, justice and sovereignty. In Lebanon, the matter today involves the consequences and repercussions of the STL indictment. International justice is coming, no matter how much Lebanese parties that overturned the balance of power want to halt cooperation with the STL or abolish it. The accusation of the STL will show who carried out the killing of Prime Minister Hariri. In the initial phase, justice might not reach the powers that planned the crime, or stood behind it, but in a few days the names of the perpetrators will appear, no matter how much the new majority in Lebanon wants to resist this. This is a big victory, even if it remains insufficient. When the founder of this newspaper, Kamel Mroueh, was assassinated in 1966, the Lebanese judiciary apprehended the killer who carried it out, Adnan Sultani. The crime was requested by the president of a big Arab country, and could not be touched. However, things have now changed and peoples have awoken. We do not know how things will change in Lebanon and in surrounding countries, but swimming against the tide, against the winds of justice and freedom, has become dangerous, since people are anxious to see accountability and true democracy.
