sectarian situtation in lebanon:
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.
(...) 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."