Funeral for Lebanese minister turns into anti-Syria rally

Story Highlights

• Anti-Syrian backers make strong showing at Pierre Gemayel's funeral
• Gemayel's father says his son's death marks beginning of a new uprising
• Report: U.N. Security Council agrees to probe Gemayel's slaying
• Some Lebanese fear Gemayel's slaying is a sign of worse things to come

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BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands packed Martyrs Square in Beirut on Thursday to honor slain Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, cheering speeches by his supporters who turned the funeral into a show of defiance against Hezbollah and its Syrian backers.

Gemayel, a 34-year-old rising Cabinet official from a prominent Christian political family, was shot to death Tuesday in his car in Beirut.

His anti-Syrian allies told the flag-waving crowd that they -- not Hezbollah, which has been trying to topple Lebanon's Western-backed government -- represent the real majority in the country. (Watch the massive show of support at Gemayel's funeral )

Former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel called his son's death the beginning of a second uprising, one that would follow the outrage stemming from the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"The martyrdom of Rafik Hariri ignited the independence uprising. And today we should commit ourselves to a second independence uprising, which begins today and will not cease until real change occurs," Gemayel told the crowd after his son's funeral service at St. George Cathedral in Beirut.

"Change will start at the top by electing a new president," he said, referring to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, who is pro-Syrian.

Syria dominated Lebanon militarily and politically for nearly 30 years until its troops were forced to pull out after Hariri's assassination last year and a wave of protests, dubbed the "Cedar Revolution."

U.N. investigators have linked Hariri's killing to Syria and its allies in Lebanon, but Syria has denied any role in that or in Gemayel's slaying, which it has condemned.

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council approved Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's request for U.N. investigators already probing Hariri's assassination to help in the Lebanese government's investigation into Gemayel's death, The Associated Press reported. (Full story)

In less than two years, five prominent anti-Syrian politicians and journalists have been assassinated.

Amin Gemayel said his son's killing marks the beginning of a "countdown" for the convening of an international tribunal into all of Lebanon's political assassinations.

Last week, Hezbollah -- whose militia fought a monthlong war against Israel over the summer that left much of Lebanon in ruins -- pulled its four ministers from Siniora's government to protest his support of such a tribunal.

Gemayel has said he suspects Syria to be behind his son's death but said there is no proof. Other anti-Syrian politicians, including Hariri's son, Saad -- the majority leader in Lebanon's parliament -- have openly blamed Damascus for the younger Gemayel's assassination.

Speaking to the crowd in Martyrs' Square behind a bulletproof-paneled dais, Saad Hariri urged Hezbollah's supporters to "leave your imaginations and come back to the truth."

"The national unity [is] stronger than their weapons, stronger than their criminality and stronger than their terrorism," he said.

Other speakers included Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Jumblatt's close ally, Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanon's communications minister. Hamadeh, a former economy minister under Rafik Hariri, was badly wounded in an October 2004 bombing that killed his driver.

Pallbearers and mourners carried the slain Gemayel's coffin, draped in the banner of his Christian Phalange party, down a mountain road from his ancestral hometown of Bikfaya to the cathedral in Beirut. (Watch the grief and anger spill from Gemayel's assassination )

Sitting at the front of the church were Siniora, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and pro-Syrian parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri. Amin Gemayel greeted Moussa and Siniora with a kiss, but not Berri, before taking his seat.

During the service, Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Boutrous Sfeir called the slaying a "brazen act" by perpetrators who "dared this in daylight hours without masks and in a crowded area as if they had no fear of punishment."

As a mix of thousands of Lebanese filed into the church at 6 a.m. for the funeral, pro-Syrian politicians and their supporters were met with boos while anti-Syrian politicians received cheers.

Washington has not openly linked Damascus to Gemayel's killing, but President Bush has called for a full investigation and urged the Security Council to move ahead with the international tribunal to prosecute the Hariri case.

CNN's Anthony Mills and Brent Sadler contributed to this report

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