Three
days ahead of April 10, when UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan’s plan is due to go into
effect, violence has reached unprecedented levels since the start of the uprising
13 months ago. International news agencies quoted the Syrian observatory for
Human Rights as saying that the death toll today exceeded 100 including more
than 70 civilians, 17 pro-regime forces and 20 defectors.
The
death toll is not the only increasing number. In fact, the number of Syrian refugees
fleeing to Turkey has hit a record given that more than 700 refugees have crossed
into Turkey raising the total number to 25,000 refugees.
On
the domestic scene, the country will be on holiday until April 17 when the parliament
is expected to kick off legislative sessions. However, the sole activity
carried out today was manifested in the judiciary meeting held in the Baabda
palace where President Michel Sleiman was briefed by the minister of Justice and
Prosecutor General Judge Said Mirza on the course of the investigation into the
case of the attempted assassination of Samir Geagea.
Before
going into details, let’s first dwell on an issue that we thought it concerns
us only but turned out that it drew the attention of all the Lebanese.
The name of the PAC Company was repeated dozens of times in the
last few weeks : We have read articles and analysis and watched reports
and scenarios about the end of partnership between PAC and LBCI. What is the
real nature of the relationship between LBCI, owned by Lebanese shareholders
topped by Sheikh Pierre Daher, and PAC, owned by Prince Walid Bin Talal?
Here is
the full story