A Soldier's Funeral

Though it is still a mystery who killed General Francois Hajj -- perhaps Lebanon's second most important general -- in a car bomb attack on Wednesday, that hasn't stopped those waging ideological war in Lebanon from claiming him as a martyr for their own causes. Michel Aoun, a Chritsian leader of the Syrian supported opposition -- and Hajj's former commander -- implied that Lebanon's own American-backed security services were responsible for the murder. But U.S. President George Bush, speaking from the White House yesterday, hailed Hajj as a tireless foe of Syrian interference in Lebanon, suggesting that the Syrian regime had a hand in Hajj's death.

But the reality is (as usual) more complicated. Hajj was perhaps the most prominent of this country's generals who maintained good relations with both sides the anti-Syrians and the anti-Americans. (Hajj was an out-spoken opponent of Israel.) Most candidates to succeed him -- and to succeed top general Michel Sulieman should he become president -- are more partisan figures. Hajj's death could open the door to a political struggle inside the army. Which is bad news because the army -- though it is staffed by many officers trained by the Syrians in the days when the Baathists next door occupied Lebanon -- is one of the few truly national institutions, made up of all of Lebanon's fractious sects and factions. So perhaps whoever blew up Hajj was hoping to spread Lebanon's ongoing political crises into yet another arena.

The army's top brass was out in force today for a funeral mass in honor of Hajj, held at a basilica overlooking the headquarters of Lebanon's Maronite church and the sea below. Despite the wet weather, mourners lined the highway to salute the hearse and throw rose petals and rice at the motorcade escorting Hajj's coffin south to be buried in his hometown near the border with Israel. No doubt the fact that that unknown assassins could so easily kill one of the country's top military leaders has many of them wondering if anyone is safe.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut