POLITICIAN’S KILLING PUTS LEBANON AT THE BRINK

A Christian Cabinet minister who had stood against Syrian interference in Lebanon was fatally shot Tuesday, stunning and infuriating a war-haunted nation and heightening the threat of unrest in the streets.

Pierre Gemayel, the 34-year-old minister of industry, was driving through a crowded intersection in the predominantly Christian outskirts of the capital at 3:30 p.m. The killers rammed his car from behind, walked up to the door and shot him point-blank, according to witnesses quoted in local news reports.

The assassination dealt a hard blow to Lebanese leaders struggling to maintain control of the country. The government was already fragile after a mass resignation of opposition Cabinet ministers. Now, the loss of one more minister could cause the government to fall.

Gemayel’s assassination was the latest in a string of attacks on Lebanese leaders critical of Syria.

To many Lebanese, the attack was also a painful, symbolically loaded strike against the Christian community. Gemayel was political heir to one of the most influential and controversial Christian dynasties in Lebanon; his family name was shorthand for Christian claims on Lebanese politics.

As condemnations poured in from Washington, Europe and even Damascus, the Syrian capital, grave-faced Lebanese leaders took to the airwaves to encourage their people to stay calm -- and out of the streets.

But the assassination stirred visceral rage at a time when the threat of street fights is already hanging over Lebanon. As word of Gemayel’s death raced through the Christian neighborhoods, furious men poured into the darkening streets, chanting obscene slogans against the Shiite Muslim organization Hezbollah, setting fire to garbage bins and attacking a Syrian laborer and a Syrian taxi.

“I hit him and I don’t care. What are we waiting for?” a young man shouted hysterically on a street in the Christian neighborhood of Achrafieh, defending the beating given to a Syrian laborer. “I hit him, and anybody who defends Syria is a dog like him.”

The other men quieted him down and led him away.

“The hand of killers will not terrorize us. Murderers will not control the destiny of Lebanon,” Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said.

“I call on all Lebanese to unite and cling together, to defend the security and safety of their nation and be careful of this conspiracy to create strife.”

Even before the assassination, Lebanon was embroiled in a mushrooming crisis over who should rule the country. Hezbollah and its allies among the Christians have been demanding a greater stake in the government. Hezbollah accused the “anti-Syria” bloc -- including Gemayel, other Christians, Sunni Muslims and Druze -- of ruling unconstitutionally and hijacking the country for U.S. and European interests.

For its part, the anti-Syria bloc has decried Hezbollah’s play for power as a menace to Lebanese independence. Hezbollah, the country’s most popular Shiite party, has long been backed by Syria and Iran. Some Lebanese are convinced that Damascus is working through Hezbollah to take control.

Just a week and a half ago, Hezbollah and its allies quit the Cabinet and declared the remaining government illegitimate. Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly threatened to stage massive street protests to topple the government, and many fear the gatherings could degenerate into street fighting that would further destabilize the nation.

Fueled by anger over Gemayel’s death, the anti-Syria bloc may end up beating Hezbollah to the streets. The coalition called on mourners to turn out en masse for Gemayel’s funeral Thursday; the procession will double as a pointed political display.

Gemayel’s death leaves the government dangling on a thread. According to Lebanese law, if one more minister quits, dies or is otherwise unable to work, the Cabinet will lose its right to govern.

Some analysts warned that those seeking to knock the anti-Syria coalition out of power might conspire to eliminate enough ministers to force the downfall of Siniora’s U.S.-backed government.

“This plot started with the resignation of the ministers,” said Antoine Haddad, a political analyst affiliated with the anti-Syria bloc. “It’s a bloody game. It’s a criminal game.”

Patrick Haenni, a Beirut-based analyst with the International Crisis Group, warned that more political violence could soon follow.

“We are not far away from the quota that should cause the government to fall,” he said. “The continuation of political assassinations should be considered as a possible scenario.”

The Bush administration viewed the killing as terrorism and “an act of intimidation,” said U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns. President Bush accused Syria and Iran of trying to undermine Lebanon’s government, and said the killing showed “yet again the viciousness of those who are trying to destabilize that country.”

Gemayel’s father and uncle were both elected president of Lebanon, and his grandfather founded the Falangist Party.

The family has a history of assassinations and retaliations. After the assassination of President-elect Bashir Gemayel, the uncle of Pierre, the Falangist militia massacred Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The rampage at the Palestinian camps remains one of the most notorious slaughters in Lebanon’s long and bloody civil war.

On Tuesday, former President Amin Gemayel made his way slowly through hordes of mourners toward a hospital. His son’s corpse was inside, and Gemayel’s face looked as if it had been washed blank with shock. With his head tilted and his eyes falling shut, he paused to plead for calm.

“I have one wish: That tonight be a night for prayer,” Gemayel said. “That we think of the value of martyrdom, and think of how we can protect this country from vengeance. We don’t want revenge. We want the Lebanese cause to win.”

But in the streets, where the death of a Gemayel dredged up memories of the 15-year civil war that began in the mid-1970s, fear was palpable. People disappeared indoors, and tugged their shutters closed. The Lebanese army set up checkpoints between Christian and Muslim neighborhoods.

“It’s Syria -- they want the civil war to return,” said Caroline Hayak, a Christian woman who stood clutching a poster bearing Bashir Gemayel’s picture. Her eyes filled with tears, and she stepped away, unable to continue.

In spite of talk of Lebanese unity, both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have been stiffening their spines. Even before the assassination gave fresh fuel to the two sides’ sense of outrage, the anti-Syria governing bloc had shown little willingness to bend to the demands of Hezbollah and its allies.

Just before news of Gemayel’s death began spreading through the jittery capital, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri sat before reporters in his hillside mansion, accusing his rivals in Hezbollah of trying to start a war.

“They say, ‘Just do what I say or I will go to the streets,’ ” Hariri said. “This is a war. They are trying to take us to a war.”

Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, was the most famous in a string of Lebanese leaders who tangled with Damascus and were later assassinated.

The Syrian regime was been widely blamed in all of the slayings, but it was the elder Hariri’s death in February 2005 that unleashed a decisive crush of anti-Syrian sentiment. Enormous street demonstrations and international outrage forced Damascus to withdraw its soldiers and end de facto military control over Lebanon.

Saad Hariri, backed by the United States, has been pushing the United Nations to establish an international tribunal to prosecute Hariri’s killers. He has also accused Hezbollah and its allies of quitting the government in an effort to block the court.

The United Nations approved the tribunal hours after Gemayel’s death. Next, the Lebanese government must give final approval.

As Hariri railed against Hezbollah, an aide approached and handed him a slip of paper. Hariri read the note, and his face changed.

“Pierre Gemayel has been shot,” he said. He paused, then added, “I announce the end of the press conference.”

A few minutes later, Hariri accused the Syrian regime of carrying out the assassinations.

“They are delivering the executions they promised us,” he said. “There’s nothing to say to this regime of killers.”

megan.stack@latimes.com

Times staff writers Paul Richter and Greg Miller in Washington and Maggie Farley at the United Nations and special correspondent Raed Rafei in Beirut contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Minister slain

Pierre Gemayel

Age: 34

Position: Lebanese minister of industry

Religion: Maronite Christian

Party: Christian Falangist

Family: His father, Amin Gemayel, was president of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988; grandfather Pierre Gemayel founded Lebanon’s Falangist Party in 1936; uncle Bashir Gemayel was assassinated in 1982 just 22 days after being elected Lebanon’s president.

Source: Times research by Scott Wilson