L’ORIENT LE JOUR (Lebanon)
BEIRUT – “Bring Candles & Lebanese Flags only..” pleads the message on Facebook.
A group of young Lebanese activists have organized a meeting Monday night on Martyrs Square, in Beirut, under the slogan “Say no to War… we want Peace in Lebanon.”
Sunday, two anti-Syrian Sunni Muslim clerics were killed at a Lebanese Army checkpoint in north Lebanon, sparking violent clashes between pro and anti-Syrian groups that left 18 people injured.
Fears that the Syrian conflict could spill over into Lebanon had the Internet mobilized on Sunday, reports L’Orient Le Jour. “On twitter, Lebanese youths who haven’t lived through the civil war were worrying that it might all start again,” explains journalist Mario Garaieb, one of the organizers of Monday’s meeting. “We don’t want to be pulled into a new war,” adds student Jessica Obeid, another organizer.
The 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War resulted in between 130,000 and 250,000 deaths, one million wounded and an exodus of more a quarter of the population.
