Angry residents of Beirut take to the ruined streets
BEIRUT — Public fury over last week’s explosion in Beirut took a new turn Saturday night as demonstrators stormed government institutions and clashed for hours with security forces, who responded with heavy volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets.
One police officer was killed and dozens of people were hurt in the confrontations, which played out in streets that were wrecked from Tuesday’s blast at the port that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people. Dozens were still missing and nearly 6,000 people were injured.
Earlier in the day, relatives of the dead spoke to the protest crowds. “Have you seen my son?” the mother of 23-year-old Joe Akiki, an electrician at the port who died in the blast, screamed into a microphone in front of the crowd. “He has beautiful hazel eyes. Where are you, my son? You buried our sons.”
The disaster has taken popular anger to a new level in a country already reeling from an economic and financial crisis and near bankruptcy.
Activists who called for the protest set up symbolic
nooses at Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for the explosion.
The blast was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the port for more than six years. Apparently set off by a fire, the explosion was by far the biggest in Lebanon’s troubled history and caused an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion in damage, according to Beirut’s governor.
It also damaged 6,200 buildings and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Friday that an investigation would examine whether the explosion was caused by a bomb. “The cause has not been determined yet. There is a possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act,” Aoun said.
ANGER BEGETS RIOTING
“Resignation or hang,” read a banner held by protesters, who also planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. Some nooses were also set up along the bridges outside the port.
Khodr Ghadir, 23, said the noose was for everyone who has been in power for the past 30 years. “What happened was a spark for people to return to the streets.”
A placard listed the names of the dead, printed over a photo of the blast’s enormous pink mushroom cloud. “We are here for you,” it read.
“People refuse to live under their rule anymore,” said Hussein El Achi of the Min Tishreen activist group, one of the protest’s organizers.
Demonstrators strung up effigies of the country’s leading politicians, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah warned Friday not to hold the Shiite militia responsible for the blast, saying it could “start a battle” that Hezbollah would win.
The militant group rejected rumors that it had stashed weapons at the port.
“We want all of them to resign, from Hezbollah to the rest, from the lowest to the highest,” said a 25-year-old protester who works for an aid agency. She didn’t want to be named, citing fear of retribution from the authorities.
Dozens of rioters stormed the buildings of government ministries and the headquarters of the banking association, turning their rage to state and financial institutions.
Earlier Saturday, the demonstrators entered the empty buildings of the Foreign Ministry, declaring it a headquarters of their movement. Others then fanned out to enter the economy and energy ministries, some walking away with documents claiming they will reveal the extent of corruption that permeates the government. Some also entered the Environment Ministry.
Many protesters said they now had only their homes and even those are no longer safe. They blamed the government’s inefficiency and political division for the country’s ills, including the recent disaster that hit almost every home.
EARLY ELECTIONS OFFERED
As the battles raged, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab delivered an address to the nation that left little doubt that the political establishment intends to dig in. He offered early elections and said he needed two more months to secure an agreement among the country’s political factions.
The offer is unlikely to soothe the escalating fury in the streets.
In central Beirut, some rioters threw stones at security forces, who then released tear gas. Near parliament, rioters tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the legislature. They later set afire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament.
At least 238 people were hurt in the clashes, and 63 of them needed to be taken to the hospital, according to the Red Cross. Several demonstrators were carried away with blood running down their faces. At one point, gunfire could be heard, but its source was not immediately clear.
The country’s ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesday’s explosion.
“The current leaders’ bloodline needs to end. We want the death of the old Lebanon and the birth of a new one,” said Tarek, a 23-yearold university student who had prepared a mix of water and paint in a bottle to throw at the police. No peaceful protest would bring about change, he said.
Sandy Chlela, a 35-year old from Kousba in the north, disagreed with Tarek. She said she had no illusion that the protests would bring change, but said they were a necessary expression of anger and put some pressure on the politicians.
“I know it will not change much, but we can’t act as if nothing happened,” the computer programmer said.
The state has been conspicuously absent from the ravaged streets of the city, with almost no involvement in the cleanup. Instead, teams of volunteers with brooms have fanned out to sweep up glass and reopen roads.
U.S. WEIGHS IN
The U.S Embassy in Beirut tweeted that “the Lebanese people have suffered too much and deserve to have leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability.”
Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that officials had been warned for years that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Officials have been blaming one another, and 19 people have been detained, including the port’s chief, the head of Lebanon’s customs department and his predecessor.
The protests came as senior officials from the Middle East and Europe visited in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that is still in shock.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkey’s vice president and the country’s foreign minister met Aoun and said Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beirut’s port and evacuate some of the wounded to Turkey for treatment.
At the site of the blast, workers continued searching for dozens of missing people. The city continued to bury its dead Saturday and the death toll climbed.
The Dutch government announced that Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, the wife of the country’s ambassador, had died. She had been standing next to Ambassador Jens Waltmans in their living room when the explosion hit.
The dead have included children, port workers and firefighters, with rescuers still picking through the rubble. Of those killed, 25 remain unidentified, according to the Ministry of Health.
Adding to the grief and frustration are myriad unanswered questions over what caused the blast. It is unclear what caused an initial explosion and fire before another blast that produced the massive mushroom cloud above the city, or why so much ammonium nitrate was sitting at the port at all.
AID CONFERENCE TODAY
The confrontation came on the eve of a virtual conference today to be attended by world leaders, including President Donald Trump, intended to raise donations to help families stricken by the blast.
The conference will be co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the United Nations. During a visit to Beirut on Thursday, Macron said he would make sure that any aid goes directly to the Lebanese people and not into “corrupt hands.”
Several allies of Lebanon have already offered support.
Gulf states, European nations and the U.S. have sent mobile clinics, food and medicine to the country. European Council President Charles Michel was in Beirut on Saturday and promised aid.
The chief of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, pledged to mobilize regional efforts to provide support, while Turkey offered medical assistance and food aid as well as construction services.
Lebanon, which is almost entirely reliant on imports of fuel, food and material, may use Turkey’s Port of Mersin, on the Mediterranean, until the Port of Beirut is rebuilt.
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb and Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press; by Loveday Morris, Liz Sly, Sarah Dadouch, Nader Durgham and Suzan Haidamous of The Washington Post; and by Helene Fouquet and Salma El Wardany of Bloomberg News.