‘SHAME ON YOU’: MARCHERS DEFY LOCAL MILITIAS IN SOUTH LEBANON
Demonstrators returned to the streets one day after clashes yet most were wary of mentioning Hezbollah or Amal politicians by name, writes Sunniva Rose in Beirut
Aday after violent clashes with local militias, protesters in southern Lebanon returned to the streets in a mood of defiance.
“They tried to separate us but, thank God, people were not afraid and came back to the streets,” Sally Basma, 31, an actress, told The National as she took part in a protest in the southern coastal city of Tyre.
Basma said she was among the protesters who were attacked on Saturday morning by armed militia affiliated with the Amal movement, one of the strongest political groups in the region alongside its Shiite ally Hezbollah, because insults had been hurled at their leader, Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s veteran parliamentary speaker.
In a video that went viral on social media, a visibly upset Basma filmed herself after the altercation, calling out: “Nabih Berri, did you see that, do you accept that? They stole my phone and hit us with their weapons. Shame on you.”
The United Nations special co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, said he discussed the situation with Mr Berri yesterday.
“Important to listen to the millions of protesting Lebanese and their legitimate demands for just and radical reforms and change,” he wrote in a tweet.
Mr Kubis also said that Lebanese security forces should protect peaceful demonstrators against “possible political instigators of violence”.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have protested against the government since Thursday in what are being described as the biggest demonstrations the country has endured in more than a decade.
The protests were sparked by a proposed WhatsApp tax that was quickly cancelled, but demonstrators are giving voice to years of accumulated resentment against politicians who they accuse of corruption and incompetence.
“Since the end of the civil war [in 1990], the situation has changed for the worse,” Basma said.
Unusually for Lebanon, the protesters named the politicians they blamed and songs insulting them have spread like wildfire.
However, most protesters in south Lebanon on Sunday were careful not to name members of Amal or Hezbollah, the only militia to keep its weapons legally after the end of the civil war. Both parties enjoy strong support among the local population, who rarely criticise them publicly out of fear of reprisals.
“We just chant now that all politicians are thieves,” said Mohammed Ezzedine, 47, a father of four who was taking part in a protest for the first time in his life, along with his family, in Tyre.
After the tension on Saturday, protesters agreed not to name politicians, he said.
Residents of Nabatieh, an Amal stronghold about 30 kilometres north-east of Tyre, said there were scuffles between the party’s supporters and protesters in the city but the situation had calmed down.
More than 1,000 people took to the streets in Nabatieh on Sunday afternoon, including Mohammed Makki, 24, who was in a wheelchair.
“People are still afraid to attack politicians directly. Strength comes in numbers. We are maximum 2,000 protesters here, while in Beirut
People are still afraid to attack politicians directly. Strength comes in numbers
MOHAMMED MAKKI Protester in Nabatieh
they are more than 10 times that,” Mr Makki said.
Lebanon’s youths have flocked to the demonstrations. Many bemoan the fact that they are compelled to go abroad to find jobs because of the country’s high unemployment.
Hussein, a relative of Mr Makki, told The National he had flown back from Cameroon to take part in the protests.
The 25-year old moved there last year to work in transport with his uncle because he could not find a job in Lebanon.
“I wish I could work in my home country,” he said.
Some protesters are calling for the government’s resignation while others are unsure of what comes next.
However, one thing is certain: all of them want change.
“Life is very hard, we cannot take it any more” said Mr Ezzedine, the protester in Tyre.
“Banks are not lending to us, and people are depositing their money in banks where they get high interest rates of 15 per cent instead of spending it.”
Lebanese who have not joined the protests have been glued to their television sets, following live coverage of the demonstrations where protesters have been chanting that “the people want the fall of the regime” – the slogan of the 2011 Arab uprisings.
On the first-floor terrace of a building in a dark street of Tyre, a little boy chanted: “The people want the fall of the regime!”
His mother chuckled.