In Beirut, Thousands Mourn Ex-President Chamoun

Thousands of mourners escorted the flag-draped coffin of former President Camille Chamoun through East Beirut on Saturday, paying tribute to the man who led a Christian alliance in the fight against Muslims in Lebanon’s civil war.

Church bells rang and businesses were closed throughout the war-torn capital in respect for the 87-year-old Chamoun, who died Friday of heart failure.

The casket was carried six miles from St. George’s Hospital in East Beirut to the Mar Elias Church in the suburb of Antelias for a state funeral, which is set for today.

Many in the throng of mourners wept and women pushed through tight security to toss flowers and sprinkle perfume on the coffin bearing Chamoun, who survived five assassination attempts, the most recent a car-bomb explosion that targeted his motorcade in East Beirut on Jan. 7.

A government statement said Chamoun will be buried at his hometown of Deir el Qamar southeast of Beirut.

President Amin Gemayel ordered a weeklong period of mourning.

Chamoun was eulogized by both Muslim and Christian leaders.

Chamoun, whose career spanned five decades, was president of Lebanon from 1952 until 1958 and was head of the Christian-rightist National Liberal Party as well as the Lebanese Front--a coalition of Christian rightist parties.

Elected to Parliament in 1929, Chamoun was named interior minister in 1943 in Lebanon’s first Cabinet following independence from France before being chosen president in 1952. He also served as a U.N. delegate. In 1958, he asked for U.S. military intervention to quash a Muslim revolt.

At the time of his death, Chamoun was minister of finance and housing and cooperatives in the divided Cabinet of acting Premier Salim Hoss, a Sunni Muslim.