Citizens4Lebanon, created a banner on February 15^th, 2005 in demand of governmental action to uncover the “hidden hands” behind the heinous assassination of Rafik Hariri and in sympathy of the slain victims of the crime. We were the first to utilize the phrase “Truth and Justice” as one of our demands in seeking an international investigation to achieve this end. We then formalized our message into an online petition as well as hand-signed signatures we collected during a vigil we kept by the banner for over two weeks. We met with the Hariri family and the U.N. on March 4^th and 9^th respectively, and presented both parties with the initial copies of the petition. At the time of our meetings with these individuals, the signature counts were just over 26,000. We have exceeded double that number as of today and continue to circulate the petition online.

Although the first call was for citizens to participate in the democratic process of demanding justice from the responsible officials to uncover the Truth by signing the petition, we feel strongly that pressure needs to continue even though serious discussions to this end of conducting an international investigation are ensuing. It is the role of a civil society to insure that people actively participate in demanding from their elected officials the movement towards building a better future for their country. Such is our sincerest hope for Lebanon and its’ citizens and to move beyond their political and confessional positions to take a stand insuring justice for all.