DEVASTATION. DESPAIR. DEFIANCE. IN BEIRUT, SHOCK TURNS TO ANGER
Lebanese authorities suggest that fatal blast was result of negligence
The initial shock caused by two huge blasts in Beirut’s port on Tuesday evening turned to anger yesterday as the Lebanese people came to grips with the scale of the disaster that killed more than 135 people.
As bodies were still being pulled from the rubble, groups of volunteers took water and food to one of the hardest-hit neighbourhoods, Gemmayze, which is less than a kilometre away from the explosion site.
“This is the last straw,” said Michel, one of the activists distributing food in front of the country’s national electricity company, Electricite du Liban, which has been able to provide only a few hours of power a day for the past weeks.
Most shops were closed as people cleared rubble from the streets, blocked by smashed cars, cement slabs and fallen trees. Traffic clogged the city’s main arteries as cars struggled because of the broken glass on roads and footpaths.
“We will give a few days to the government to bury the dead and clear this out, but then we are picking up our weapons and fighting to get rid of this government and Hezbollah,” he said, visibly upset.
Michel said he was from Jal El Dib, a suburb north of Beirut that was one of the centres of anti-government protests last October as the country started sliding into the worst economic crisis in its history.
Protesters demanded an end to decades of corruption and nepotism which, they said, caused the collapse of the country’s economy.
Although Michel said he was not affiliated to any political party, Jal El Dib is an area dominated by the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party fiercely opposed to Hezbollah. Several other parties joined Hezbollah to back the latest government, formed in January.
Initial investigations into the blast point to inaction and negligence over the storage of highly explosive material, Reuters reported.
Anger was not only simmering in Gemmayze. A few hundred metres away, downtown Beirut was also reeling from the damage caused by the explosions.
When former prime minister Saad Hariri, who resigned last October during the protests, visited downtown Beirut to inspect the damage, a dozen people chanted “revolution, revolution” at him, saying he should “not dream” of a return to power, Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour reported.
After the incident, supporters of Mr Hariri attacked protesters with stones and sticks, injuring several of them. The phrase “hang up the nooses” was trending on Lebanese Twitter yesterday as fury at the country’s political class grew.
A little farther from the blast site, in Sassine, locals were still in shock.
“I saw on the news that my IT shop in Mar Mkhael was completely destroyed,” said one man. “I don’t want to go see it myself. What can I do?”
His friend, a hairdresser with injuries to his face and arms, said he was happy to be alive. His salon’s glass facade had collapsed while he was inside.