In the absence of a united Lebanon, the Paris III conference on the country's ailing economy -- opening today in the French capital -- is unlikely to succeed. Lucy Fielder, in Beirut, reports on Tuesday's general strike which descended into violence, recalling Lebanon's darkest days Corniche Al-Mazraa Street in central Beirut relived its old role as a flashpoint on Tuesday. Chanting insults against each other's leaders and hurling stones, die-hard pro-government Sunnis who live on one side faced off against the Shias living on the other. Soldiers, caught in the middle, tried to force them apart by shooting in the air and firing tear gas. Smoke from burning roadblocks swirled up from barricades across the capital, joining a pall that hung in the air and brought to mind last summer's war, when the clear blue sky was blackened with the dust of Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs. That was a no-go area yesterday, barricades of burning tyres and car wrecks forcing back the few cars that ventured out and barring access to the airport. Rubble from houses ruined in the Israeli bombardment was dumped on roads to highlight accusations of post-war government inaction. Wheelie bins, building materials, anything that came to hand, made travel to work near impossible for those who wanted to. In the battle to bring down the government or gain more participation, old rivalry between supporters of popular Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, on one side, and those of Samir Geagea and the right-wing former militia, the Lebanese Forces (LF), on the other, reared its ugly head. On the borders of mainly Christian eastern Beirut and roads leading to the north, Aounists manned makeshift roadblocks from dawn, but LF youths forced some roads open again and clashes broke out. "This is the beginning of the 'divine defeat' of the coup attempt," Communications Minister Marwan Hamade told pro-14th March Christian channel LBC, in an apparent play on the "divine victory" Hizbullah claimed in the summer war with Israel. Geagea, a leader of 14th March, called the protests "terrorism". One LF member was killed in the northern coastal town of Batroun, police said. The cross- sectarian army was widely credited with its neutrality. At least three protesters were killed altogether and 133 people injured across the country by the end of what was meant to be a peaceful, one-day strike. In the northern city of Tripoli, pro and anti-government Sunnis also clashed, and two people were killed, although Reuters reported they were in Christian areas. The fighting showed that ever-divided Lebanon's new split, between pro and anti- government, may be as capable of stirring violence as the old-style, more splintered sectarianism. Sunni-Shia hatred especially reared its ugly head on Tuesday. Many in the Hizbullah and Aoun-led opposition believe the government has stirred up Sunni fears of a Shia take-over to rally support. Hizbullah Leader Hassan Nasrallah warned followers of such attempts at a ceremony to mark the Ashoura day of mourning for the Imam Hussein, Prophet Mohamed's grandson killed in battle. "Some of the governing team strive day and night to push matters towards a civil war in Lebanon," he said. "We will not go to a civil war." At a roadblock on the "Green Line" that once divided Christian East from Muslim West Beirut, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) youth leader Mario Chamoun said Internal Security Forces (ISF) were largely absent, and suggested they supported the violence. "The Hariri group has turned the ISF into a Sunni militia. They recruited ex-militia men from one sect, the Sunnis, and now the force, are taking sides, while the army is still equidistant from everybody." In the Sunni district of Tariq Jdida, posters of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri and his son Saad adorn the buildings and Lebanese flags hang from balconies in a sign of government support. Following calls from the 14th March anti-Syrian leadership, most shops stayed open. "They're from the (mainly Shia) south these protesters. Why don't they strike in their own areas? The opposition doesn't have any Sunnis of worth with them," Bassil Qabbani said, sitting behind the till in the family lighting shop. "If they behave like that and get to power by threats, what would they do with us when they rule?" This was inter-sectarian violence, even if the two camps on the ground were political groupings and cross-sectarian, according to Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, an expert on Hizbullah and visiting Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment's Beirut-based Middle East Centre. "What we've seen is unprecedented in the post-war era, which is that each political force commands the overwhelming support of the majority of its sect. The Christians are the only ones that are divided, and they're only dispersed among Christian groups. There are no cross-cutting affiliations, and that's what makes it so dangerous," she said. At the end of a day that paralysed Lebanon and brought an eerie silence to the largely empty streets of a shuttered capital, the opposition called off the strike, declaring it a success. Throughout Tuesday the tone was one of escalation, so the announcement took many by surprise. A statement promised "more effective" action in future if the government did not cede to its demands of a national unity government giving it the right of veto. "The opposition calls on the authoritarian side to draw the lessons of this great event for which we hold it responsible," the statement said, according to Reuters. Saad-Ghorayeb said she believed Saudi Arabian intervention, rather than recoiling at the violence, was behind the decision. "Everyone assumed it would last for days, it had gained so much momentum. They must have given way to 11th hour diplomacy," she said. The Saudis appear to have leaned on the opposition to give today's Paris III conference a chance in return for pledges of progress on their political demands, she said. A tense Seniora earlier gave a televised address refusing to back down, before reportedly leaving the country by sea to Cyprus on his way to Paris. There, he hoped to garner international assistance to ease Lebanon's crippling debt of $41 billion and help it to rebuild. "We will stay together against intimidation. We will stand together against strife," he said. Some observers say the Paris III conference should have been postponed to prevent Lebanon's paralysis and haemorrhaging economy eating away at any international assistance received. The polarisation on economic as well as political issues, starkly visible on Tuesday, suggests an economic reform plan to be presented at the conference will be impossible to implement without prior success in uniting the country.
