<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><DIV>Don't know how much of this is true... but FYI.</DIV>
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<DIV><STRONG>Some supporters question violent protest</STRONG> <!-- END HEADLINE --></DIV>
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<P><SPAN>By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer</SPAN>Wed Jan 24, 4:03 PM ET </P>
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<P>After a Hezbollah-led protest sparked widespread violence across Lebanon, there were whispers of discontent Wednesday among some supporters that the Shiite militant group's strategy is pushing Lebanon too far toward instability.</P>
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<P>"I never thought they would behave in such a way," said one Shiite woman, Nasra Jaafar, a 29-year-old accountant, referring to Tuesday's protests, which left three people dead, injured more than 170 and wreaked havoc on roads and highways around the country.</P>
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<P>"I was a supporter. Before, (Hezbollah leaders) acted in a more transparent way. But I am very much against what they did yesterday — destroying roads, traffic lights and everything else," said Jaafar.</P>
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<P>Such feelings suggest a disconnect between some Shiites and Hezbollah's leadership, which has warned of more protests to come in their drive to topple the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.</P>
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<P>It is not known how deep the discontent goes — some disillusioned Hezbollah backers in Beirut's southern Shiite suburbs refused to give their names for fear of reprisals.</P>
<P>The group has enjoyed overwhelming support among Shiites, particularly after its summer war with Israel, and much of that sympathy likely remains. Jaafar and others said they still back Hezbollah's goals if not its methods.</P>
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<P>But Tuesday's turmoil clearly shook many Lebanese. It began as a nationwide strike called by Hezbollah and its allies, but turned into clashes with government supporters when protesters set up barricades of burning tires and cars on roads in Beirut and across the country.</P>
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<P>The clashes quickly took on a sectarian tone in some areas, with Shiites and Sunnis fighting — a nightmare scenario in this nation that fought a bloody 15-year civil war that pitted Christians against Muslims. On Wednesday, gunbattles erupted between Sunni Muslims and Alawites — members of a Shiite offshoot sect — in the northern city of Tripoli, where two people were killed in similar clashes Tuesday.</P>
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<P>However, Tuesday's heaviest clashes were between rival Christian parties. In another area, clashes occurred between Shiites and Christians. Sunnis largely back Saniora, while Shiites support Hezbollah and Christians are divided.</P>
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<P>Hezbollah's planning for the confrontation began far earlier at the grassroots level — in mosques run by the movement.</P>
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<P>At one Hezbollah mosque in Beirut's Shiite southern suburbs about 10 days ago, a cleric told selected worshippers they should start collecting tires for burning.</P>
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<P>"They said it's a religious duty to cripple the country," said a 33-year-old resident of the suburb who was at the mosque. He refused to give his name, saying he feared reprisals against his family if identified.</P>
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<P>He said his sympathy for Hezbollah "died yesterday. They take advantage of our religious loyalties ... but turn the streets into military zones."</P>
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<P>Since Tuesday's protests, local Hezbollah officials have told selected groups of participants to prepare themselves for more intensified civil disobedience in the next few days, said the resident, who was among those approached.</P>
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<P>He said the intensified campaign was to come before Monday's Shiite Muslim ceremonies of Ashoura, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the most revered Shiite saints.</P>
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<P>He said local Hezbollah officials — in mosque prayer sermons and local assembly halls, which are not open to the outside media — have been stirring up followers with warnings of what will happen if Saniora's government is not forced out.</P>
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<P>Preachers in mosques in the suburbs caution worshippers that if America — Saniora's ally — is allowed to have total control over Lebanon, Shiites will not be permitted to pray or fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.</P>
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<P>They also warn against the government's plan to allow an international tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Hezbollah officials tell followers the tribunal will be used to punish Hezbollah for its attacks against U.S. targets in the 1980s, including the 1983 suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marines headquarters in Beirut.
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<P>"The tribunal is a sword dangling over our heads," the resident quoted a young cleric as telling his audience two days ago at the Qa'em Mosque, a main Hezbollah mosque in the southern suburb of Hay Abyadh.
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<P>The cleric warned the tribunal would go after Hezbollah's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, telling followers, "The Americans will take their revenge for the Marines' bombing."
<P>Hezbollah and its allies are demanding Saniora's government be replaced by a national unity government in which the opposition would have veto power to block major policies, such as the international tribunal. In public, Hezbollah says it does not reject the tribunal but wants discussions on it before approval.
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<P>The opposition has been holding a constant sit-in outside Saniora's offices in downtown Beirut to pressure him to go, but the prime minister has refused to step aside.
<P>Hezbollah leaders "keep asking people to go into the streets, but it never gets anywhere. They've been staging a sit-in for 50-60 days, putting people in disarray with no end in sight," Jaafar said.
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<P>Several residents of the southern suburbs said some of those participating in the sit-in were paid to do so — up to $45 for 24 hours. One 39-year-old resident said he took part in the downtown vigil for a week until he discovered it had "turned into a business venture." He, like others, refused to be identified fearing reprisals.
<P>Hind Mohammed, a 52-year-old Shiite housewife, said she still supports Hezbollah in principle, but opposed Tuesday's protests.
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<P>"It was wrong what they did — a successful strike doesn't end in loss of life and so much devastation," she said.</P>
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