Around 300,000 Lebanese waving flags and blue balloons demonstrated in Beirut today to honour Rafik al-Hariri, two years after the ex-premier's killing, and show support for the anti-Syrian government.
Police guarded Hariri's tomb in central Beirut's Martyrs Square where a digital sign showed 730 -- the number of days that have passed without his assassins being brought to justice.
Hariri, a Sunni Muslim billionaire tycoon with close ties to Saudi Arabia and France, masterminded Lebanon's reconstruction after its 1975-90 civil war. He had fallen out with Syria, then the dominant power in Lebanon, in the months before his death.
"We are today in the hour of truth and the last leg for the setting up of the international tribunal, which will happen soon, very soon," Hariri's son Saad told the crowd.
The government and the UN Security Council have approved plans to establish the court to try Hariri's killers, over objections from the Hezbollah-led opposition and from Lebanon's pro-Syrian president. Parliament's approval is also required.
"We are ready for every courageous decision for the sake of Lebanon and for the sake of a solution in Lebanon, but the international tribunal is the only passage for any solution," Saad al-Hariri declared from behind a bullet-proof screen.
Hariri's allies say the opposition is acting on Syrian orders to oust the government and derail the tribunal.
In fiery speeches, pro-government leaders denounced Syria, which they blame for the Febraury 14, 2005, suicide bombing that killed Hariri and for later attacks on anti-Syrian figures.
Describing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as "a monkey, a snake and a butcher", Druze leader Walid Jumblatt declared: "We will not surrender to terrorism, to explosive charges, to totalitarian parties, Syrian and non-Syrian."
Addressing Assad, he said: "This year, the tribunal will come and with it retribution and the death sentence."
Christian Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said: "We will pursue the criminals across the world and to the end of time," pledging that Lebanon would resist Syrian influence.
Syria denies involvement in Hariri's assassination, which triggered international pressure that forced Damascus to withdraw its troops in 2005 after 29 years in Lebanon.