Tens of thousands of Lebanese gathered in downtown Beirut to pay tribute to assassinated Christian leader Pierre Gemayel today.
Raucous crowds carrying Lebanese flags and those of Christian factions, including Gemayel 's Phalange Party, swarmed around Beirut's St George Cathedral, where top Marionite cleric Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir conducted the rites.
Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian leaders, standing together behind bullet-proof glass, called for solidarity in the struggle against the influence of Syria and its allies in Lebanon.
"National unity is stronger than their weapons, their crimes and their terrorism," said Saad al-Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri who was assassinated in 2005.
The leaders had accused Syria of killing the industry minister, the 34-year-old scion of one of Lebanon's most prominent Maronite clans. Damascus condemned the assassination.
"We will not rest until all the criminals are brought to justice," Gemayel 's 64-year-old father, Amin, told mourners.
Gemayel was shot dead on Tuesday in the sixth killing of an anti-Syrian figure in less than two years in Lebanon.
Hundreds of Shia Muslim demonstrators cut off Beirut's airport main road tonight in protest at what they said were insults against Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah at the funeral of an assassinated anti-Syrian minister earlier in the day.
The government says its Syrian-backed opponents, led by Shia party Hezbollah, want to weaken it and to scupper an international tribunal under UN auspices that is being set up to try suspects in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri.
Mourners turned out in force at today's funeral but were not in the vast numbers of March 14 last year after Hariri's killing, when an outpouring of anti-Syrian anger coupled with international pressure forced Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after 29 years.
After the funeral, Gemayel 's coffin was driven back to his home town of Bekfaya in the mountains above Beirut, where it was laid to rest in the family vault.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, whose country has been a strong opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, was the most prominent foreign dignitary to attend the funeral along with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal faction is allied to Hezbollah, was the most senior pro-Syrian figure there.
Maronite Christian leader Michel Aoun, who is aligned with Hezbollah, stayed away but said he shared the mourners' grief. Hezbollah leaders, who have said Gemayel 's assassins sought to stir civil strife in Lebanon, were also absent.