Beirut: Thousands march in funeral of slain editor

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Thousands of flag-waving Lebanese, Christians and Muslims, bid farewell to their leading newspaper editor Gibran Tueni, marching behind his coffin Wednesday in a display of anger against Syria that has been blamed for the car bombing which killed him. A general strike called in mourning for Tueni was widely respected with banks, businesses and schools closing their doors for the day. Hundreds of Lebanese troops and police took up position in a central square where, on March 14, about a million people heard Tueni call for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon. "Everyone who takes to the street is saying 'enough killing,"' said Ghenwa Jalloul, a legislator colleague of Tueni. An outspoken critic of Syria, Tueni was killed by a car bomb Monday as he was being driven to work through an industrial suburb of Beirut. He was the fourth anti-Syrian figure to be killed since the series of bombings began in February with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.