Shane Farrell

A clammy, abandoned warehouse in the Adlieh area of Beirut was not the first choice of venue for a conference held Tuesday by a group of Lebanese activists. Nor was it the second, third, or even twenty-eighth on the list of suitable places for the meeting to be held. Almost 30 hotels had been contacted, event organizers told AFP, before the location was approved.
The activists had gathered to put forward a message of support to the anti-regime protesters in Syria.

The group, Lebanese in Solidarity with the Dignity and Freedom of the Syrian People, had planned a previous conference to take place in the Bristol Hotel on May 17, but it was cancelled by the hotel administration due to safety concerns. According to Saleh Machnouk, one of the organizers of the event, a delegation from the Arab Socialist Baath Party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party made implicit threats to hotel staff on the eve of the event, which caused the hotel management to cancel the conference out of concern for the safety of its staff.
Tuesday’s meeting, however, took place without protesters, although some of those attending voiced their anger and frustration at the way the Bristol conference was cancelled.

“The fact that we are meeting here clearly demonstrates that we are not even allowed to practice our minimum right to express ourselves freely,” said journalist Hazem Saghieh at the meeting.
Machnouk, however, took a more positive view, telling NOW Lebanon that the fact that the meeting took place in the face of the threats the previous week demonstrates that “there will always be enough courageous people in Lebanon to strive for freedom.”

The meeting itself took the form of a brief discussion among participants before the group released a statement calling on Syrian authorities to “Immediately stop the genocides against their people as well as to stop exporting their unrest to Lebanon and foreign countries,” and for the Arab League and the United Nations to “assume full responsibility toward Syria and guarantee the protection of its people.”
Attending the conference were some 50 activists, several March 14 MPs, as well as journalists and around a dozen people who came to show their support.

As well as this, several Syrian Kurds – who preferred not to be identified out of concern for their and their familys’ personal safety – were present, holding banners condemning the Syrian regime. One of the individuals told NOW Lebanon that a cousin of his was recently imprisoned for singing a Kurdish nationalist song in his own home and has not been heard of since. “I don’t think demonstrations and meetings will make any difference to what is going on on the ground, but I have to do something,” he said.

In another demonstration of solidarity with Syrian protesters, a vigil was held in Hamra on Monday in memory of those killed since unrest began in Syria two months ago. The anti-regime demonstrators, who were carrying roses and intended to walk around Hamra promoting their message, were prevented from going further than the Bank du Liban building due to the heavy presence of security forces blocking the street. These precautionary measures were taken to prevent any clashes from taking place between the demonstrators and a larger group of people who were holding pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and shouting slogans like “God, Syria, Bashar.”

The vigil was part of an international initiative that was scheduled to take place in many cities across the world, including London, Vienna and Sydney. A similar vigil was scheduled to take place in Damascus, but was cancelled due to fears that it would create further unrest, according to a statement released by its organizers.