Not since the end of the civil war did Lebanon pass through such a tumultuous year. Cilia Nasser looks back Lebanon was subjected to unfavourable international attention in 2004 when parliament bowed to Syrian pressure and amended the country's constitution to allow President Emile Lahoud to stay in power for another three years. The amendment of Article 49 of the constitution, which prevents any renewal of the six-year presidential term, was passed on 3 September amid local and international objections. Hours after the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1559, calling for a free and fair electoral process conducted according to Lebanese rules, 96 MPs voted in favour of the amendment. The resolution said presidential elections should be held without foreign interference, though Syria was not named. "Today is a black day in Lebanon's history," said Zghorta MP Nayla Mouawad, among 29 MPs who voted against the amendment, following the extraordinary parliamentary session. Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, one of the leading postwar political figures, initially opposed the extension of Lahoud's term. But he, and the majority of his 18-member parliamentary bloc, adopted the amendment after meeting with the Syrian security chief in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazaleh. Four ministers, including three from Druze leader Walid Jumblat's Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, resigned in protest. On 1 October Marwan Hamade, who was among those who quit the cabinet, survived a blast that tore apart his car, killing his bodyguard instantly. He escaped with injuries to his head and hands. Fingers were pointed at Syrian and Lebanese security apparatuses, especially after Hamade accused judicial authorities of concealing evidence captured by the security camera of a school near to where the incident occurred. Justice Minister Adnan Addoum denied the accusations, saying that the footage of the suspect who parked the booby-trapped car that detonated near Hamade's vehicle "is neither hidden nor lost but in the hands of the judge investigating the assassination attempt". In a television interview Hamade accused the Lebanese state of being behind the attempt on his life, linking it to the opposition of Druze leader Walid Jumblat's bloc in parliament to the extension of Lahoud's mandate. The justice minister accused Hamade of trying to make political capital out of the incident. The extension of Lahoud's term and the assassination attempt against Hamade caused severe divisions in the country's political scene. The opposition, which was restricted to the Christian Qornet Shehwan Gathering and other Christian groups before the renewal of Lahoud's mandate expanded to include Jumblat and Hariri's supporters. As international pressure mounted Hariri stepped down in October and dissolved his cabinet but continued leading his parliamentary bloc in a manner increasingly hostile to Lahoud. Jumblat, however, took steps to ally with Christian opposition groups. An MP who belongs to his Progressive Socialist Party and parliamentary bloc signed a petition to free the radical Christian leader Samir Geagea from prison. Despite the rapprochement with Christian groups like the Lebanese Forces, Jumblat took care to distance himself from their extreme anti-Syrian sentiments. Following a visit to French President Jacque Chirac, Jumblat clearly stated his reservations over the French-backed UN Resolution 1559, saying a Syrian military presence had to be tolerated to counter the possibility of an Israeli attack but that he did not want Lebanon to be under Syrian political hegemony. "But we are with France and the international community against the interference of the Syrian and Lebanese secret services in private and public political life. This has become unbearable and suffocating," Jumblat said. He also supported Hizbullah as long as Israel continued to occupy the Shebaa Farms on the foothills of Mount Hermon. Resolution 1559 calls for a complete withdrawal of foreign troops in Lebanon and for Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias to be disarmed. Just months before the resolution was adopted a Hizbullah official, Ghaleb Awali, was killed when 500 grammes of explosives in his car were set off by remote control. Hizbullah's retaliation was quick. Its snipers shot dead two Israeli soldiers across the UN-delineated Blue Line near the Lebanese town of Aita Al-Shaab. Gun battles raged along the Lebanese-Israeli border and Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace ensued for a few days before the situation calmed. Hizbullah scored two major victories in 2004, with the group gaining popularity in Lebanon and the Arab world after securing a swap of prisoners in January. Some 436 Arab prisoners, including 21 Lebanese detainees, and the remains of 59 Lebanese resistance fighters, were released by Israel in return for Elhanan Tannenbaum, a colonel in the Israeli army reserves, and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers held by Hizbullah. Senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Abdul-Karim Obeid and Haj Mustafa Dirani, who were seized from their homes in 1989 and 1994 respectively, led the parade of freed detainees. Dirani's release was criticised in Israel because of his connections with the capture of an Israeli military pilot, Ron Arad, whose aircraft fell over Lebanon in 1986 while shelling the southern city of Sidon. Arad's whereabouts remains unknown. Hizbullah's second victory of 2004 concerned the launching of a pilotless reconnaissance plane, Mirsad-1, into Israeli airspace early in November. The Israeli army, taken by surprise, failed to shoot down the drone, which Hizbullah said had been launched in retaliation of Israeli violations of Lebanon's airspace. Domestically, a demonstration that ended in violence claimed the lives of three civilian protesters in the impoverished Shia neighbourhood of Hay Al-Sellom in the southern suburbs of Beirut in May. The demonstration came in response to a call for a nationwide strike by the General Labour Confederation to protest against high gasoline prices.
