The bodies of 25-year-old Ziad Qabalan and 12-year-old Ziad
Ghandour were found 40km south of Beirut in a field north of the port
city of Sidon. Ghandour's father and Qabalan are members of the
Progressive Socialist party of pro-government Druze leader Walid
Jumblatt.
The two had been kidnapped Monday, inflaming the
already high sectarian tensions in this small country of four million
people with 18 religions. Tensions have been running particularly high
between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Lebanese media reported that the
two were kidnapped by members of the Shia Shamas clan who had vowed to
avenge the killing of a member in clashes at the Beirut university
campus in January. The clan, however, condemned the kidnapping in a
statement Wednesday, and distanced itself from the abduction.
Lebanese
President Emile Lahoud said the killing was carried out after
"conspirators and outside powers" failed to drive his country into
internal confrontation.
"The recent killing is the same as what
happened in 1975," Lahoud told IPS at the presidential palace in
Beirut. "They want civil war here, but we won't allow it."
The
1975 incident the President referred to occurred Apr. 13 of that year
when unidentified gunmen fired on a church in the Christian east Beirut
suburb Ain el- Rummaneh, killing four people, including two Maronite
Phalangists. The Phalange is a large Christian militia.
Hours later, Phalangists killed 27 Palestinian civilians in a bus in the same suburb.
That
was the trigger for the infamous 15-year Lebanese civil war, which left
an estimated 100,000 dead, as many seriously injured, and nearly a
million displaced from their homes.
When asked who "they" were
who want a Lebanese civil war, Lahoud told IPS, "It's always foreign
interventions trying to create strife in Lebanon, and it's always the
Lebanese who suffer. But I'm proud that the leaders of all groups here
are united in urging calm and condemning the killing."
Lahoud's
office issued a statement urging Lebanese people to be alert to
conspiracies, and to stop anyone trying to play dirty. Past experience
has shown that all confrontations followed provoking incidents, the
statement said.
Lahoud requested that firm security measures be
taken to prevent "any repercussions of this deplorable incident." As a
result, all universities in Beirut were closed Friday, and the Lebanese
army deployed in mixed neighbourhoods. Extra security checkpoints were
set up throughout the city.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora who
described the incident as a terrorist act, also appealed for calm. The
powerful Shia group Hezbollah led by Hassan Nasrallah also condemned
the killings.
Many Lebanese people sounded united in wanting the situation to be defused in order to avoid any escalation.
"With
Nasrallah and Jumblatt calling for calm, this has defused the tension a
good deal," Hamzah Tahan, a taxi driver in Beirut told IPS. "But before
they called for calm, we were all afraid."
Tahan said he believed these were revenge killings, but "carried out by simple thieves."
Many
blame the current U.S.-backed government of Siniora and his allies like
Saad Harriri and Walid Jumblatt for creating a difficult situation.
"Outside
forces helped create the current political tensions which may have led
to these killings," 32-year-old English language teacher Raed el-Amine
told IPS. "The pro-government groups are more responsible for this
because they've focused more on disunity by playing the sectarian game."
Sporadic
violence between the mainly Sunni, Druze and Christian ruling coalition
and the mainly Shia and Christian opposition has killed at least eight
people since the opposition launched a peaceful street campaign last
year to topple the government. Each incident has raised the tensions
higher, as did the events that had led to Lebanon's civil war.
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Writings 
The killings of two pro-government Sunni Muslims has raised tensions across Lebanon. Rival political leaders have called for calm amidst fear that the killings could spark civil strife.
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