Lebanese protesters storm ministry buildings as anger over Beirut blast grows
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese protesters stormed government ministries in Beirut and trashed the offices of the Association of Lebanese Banks on Saturday as shots rang out in increasingly angry demonstrations over this week’s devastating explosion.
The protesters said their politicians should resign and be punished for negligence they say led to Tuesday’s blast, the biggest ever to hit Beirut, that killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic meltdown.
A policeman was killed during the clashes, a spokesman said. A policeman at the scene said the officer died when he fell into an elevator shaft in a nearby building after being chased by protesters.
The Red Cross said it had treated 117 people for injuries on the scene while another 55 were taken to hospital. Policemen wounded by stones were treated by ambulance workers. A fire broke out in central Martyrs’ Square.
Dozens of protesters broke into the foreign ministry where they burnt a portrait of President Michel Aoun, representative for many of a political class that has ruled Lebanon for decades and that they say is to blame for its current mess.
“We are staying here. We call on the Lebanese people to occupy all the ministries,” a demonstrator said by megaphone.
About 10,000 people gathered in Martyrs’ Square, some throwing stones. Police fired tear gas when some protesters tried to break through the barrier blocking a street leading to parliament, a Reuters journalist said.
Police confirmed shots and rubber bullets had been fired. It was not immediately clear who fired the shots. Riot police shot dozens of teargas canisters at protesters, who hit back with firecrackers and stones.
TV footage showed protesters also breaking into the energy and economy ministries.
They chanted “the people want the fall of the regime”, reprising a popular chant from the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. They held posters saying “Leave, you are all killers”.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said the U.S. government supported the demonstrators’ right to peaceful protest and urged all involved to refrain from violence.
The embassy also said in a tweet that the Lebanese people “deserved leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability”.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only way out was early parliamentary elections.
‘GO HOME!’
The protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets in protest against corruption, bad governance and mismanagement.
“You have no conscience, you have no morality. Go home! Leave! Resign, Enough is enough,” shouted one of the protesters. “What else do you want? You brought us poverty, death and destruction,” said another.
Soldiers in vehicles mounted with machine guns patrolled the area. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
“Really the army is here? Are you here to shoot us? Join us and we can fight the government together,” a woman yelled.
Tuesday’s blast was the biggest in Beirut’s history. Twenty-one people were still reported as missing from the explosion, which gutted entire neighbourhoods.
The government has promised to hold those responsible to account. But few Lebanese are convinced. Some set up nooses on wooden frames as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders.
“Resign or hang,” said one banner at the demonstration.
The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse.
ECONOMIC MELTDOWN
The explosion hit a city still scarred by civil war and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections.
For many, it was a dreadful reminder of the 1975-1990 civil war that tore the nation apart and destroyed swathes of Beirut, much of which had since been rebuilt.
Some residents, struggling to clean up shattered homes, complain the government has let them down again.
“We have no trust in our government,” said university student Celine Dibo as she scrubbed blood off the walls of her shattered apartment building. “I wish the United Nations would take over Lebanon.”
Many people denounced their leaders, saying none of them visited the site of the blast to comfort them or assess the damage while French President Emmanuel Macron flew from Paris and went straight to the scene to pay his tribute.
Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, promised aid to rebuild the city would not fall into “corrupt hands”. He will host a donor conference for Lebanon via video link on Sunday, his office said. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he will join.
“We don’t want any government to help us,” said unemployed protester Mahmoud Rifai. “The money will just go into the pockets of our leaders.”
Aoun said on Friday an investigation would examine whether the blast was caused by a bomb or other external interference. He said the investigation would also weigh if it was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added.
‘WE CAN’T AFFORD TO REBUILD’
Officials have said the blast could have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill that Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt - exceeding 150% of economic output - and with talks stalled on an IMF lifeline.
For ordinary Lebanese, the scale of destruction is overwhelming. Marita Abou Jawda was handing out bread and cheese to victims of the blast.
“Macron offered to help and our government has not done anything. It has always been like that,” she said. “After Macron visited I played the French national anthem all day in my car.”
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Beirut police fire tear gas as protesters regroup and two ministers quit
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese police fired tear gas to try to disperse rock-throwing protesters blocking a road near parliament in Beirut on Sunday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations triggered by last week’s devastating explosion.
Fire broke out at an entrance to Parliament Square as demonstrators tried to break into a cordoned-off area, TV footage showed. Protesters also broke into the housing and transport ministry offices.
Two government ministers resigned amid the political fallout of the blast and months of economic crisis, saying the government had failed to reform.
Tuesday’s explosion of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic collapse and prompting furious calls for the government to quit.
Riot police wearing body armour and carrying batons clashed with demonstrators as thousands converged on Parliament Square and nearby Martyrs’ Square, a Reuters correspondent said.
“We gave these leaders so many chances to help us and they always failed. We want them all out, especially Hezbollah, because it’s a militia and just intimidates people with its weapons,” Walid Jamal, an unemployed demonstrator, said, referring to the country’s most influential Iran-backed armed grouping that has ministers in the government.
The country’s top Christian Maronite cleric, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, said the cabinet should resign as it cannot “change the way it governs”.
“The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough ... the whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover,” he said in his Sunday sermon.
Lebanon’s environment minister resigned on Sunday, saying the government had lost a number of opportunities to reform, a statement said.
Damianos Kattar’s departure follows the resignation of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad earlier on Sunday
in the wake of the explosion.
Anger boiled over into violent scenes in central Beirut on Saturday. Those protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to corruption, bad governance and mismanagement.
About 10,000 people gathered at Martyrs’ Square, which was transformed into a battle zone in the evening between police and protesters who tried to break down a barrier along a road leading to parliament. Some demonstrators stormed government ministries and the Association of Lebanese Banks.
One policeman was killed and the Red Cross said more than 170 people were injured in clashes.
‘CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT’
“The police fired at me. But that won’t stop us from demonstrating until we change the government from top to bottom,” Younis Flayti, 55, a retired army officer, said on Sunday.
Nearby, mechanic Sabir Jamali sat beside a noose attached to a wooden frame in Martyrs’ Square, intended as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders to resign or face hanging.
“Every leader who oppresses us should be hanged,” he said, adding he will protest again.
Lawyer Maya Habli surveyed the demolished port.
“People should sleep in the streets and demonstrate against the government until it falls,” she said.
The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse.
The government has said it will hold those responsible to account.
An emergency donor conference in France raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief, the French presidency said.
For many, the blast was a dreadful reminder of the 1975-1990 civil war that tore the nation apart and destroyed swathes of Beirut, much of which has since been rebuilt.
“I worked in Kuwait for 15 years in sanitation to save money and build a gift shop in Lebanon and it was destroyed by the explosion,” said Maroun Shehadi.
“Nothing will change until our leaders just leave.
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Revolution is in the air.
