Beirut, 8 March 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Ever since the 14 February assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, members of Christian and Moslem opposition groups have been mixing in Beirut's Martyrs Square to demand Syria pull its forces from Lebanon.

But it was not that many years ago that the same protestors, or their older brothers and fathers, were shooting at each other during Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

Former President Amine Gemayel, a Christian, is one of the opposition figures seeking to do that. He maintains that many of the opposition slogans shouted these days in Beirut's Martyrs Square were originally mottos of the Christian community.

He says that today those mottos belong to all Lebanese seeking to assert their national identity. "Don't forget that in the beginning those slogans you hear actually were our slogans first," Gemayel said. "Since the year 2000, we used to launch those slogans of sovereignty and Syrian withdrawal. And many others have joined the process, (particularly) some Moslem leaders (who have) decided to join this movement toward the independence of the country."

Christian opposition leaders say the joint Christian-Moslem protest against Syrian control has now reached a level that they are no longer afraid Syria can crackdown on the anti-Syrian factions.

As one opposition leader put it, "the Genie is out of the bottle and they cannot put us back in the cage."