Less than a month before the first anniversary of the Beirut Port explosion, families of the victims are protesting in the streets and demanding accountability.
The blast took place on August 4 in the Lebanese capital. Although an investigation has been underway since then, no senior officials have been held accountable or faced charges.
The blast killed more than 200 people, injured at least 7,000 and caused billions of dollars’ worth of property damage. It was caused by hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which had been improperly stored in the port for six years.
Protesters took to the streets last Friday after caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi rejected a request by the judge probing the explosion to question Maj.-Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, head of the General Security Agency.
They were also demanding that immunity be lifted from three key legislators, including Ibrahim, after the judge investigating the explosion had requested the measure to enable that justice be served.
One of the protests took place near the residence of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, where the Justice Committee was meeting about the immunity request. Troops blocked the protesters from getting too close to the building.
Families also blamed the ruling elites for negligence because officials had known about the explosive substance being stored unsafely in the port.
“You blew up Beirut and put people in coffins,” read a banner carried by one of the protesters.
“This is not our battle, but this is the battle of the entire Lebanese people to achieve justice,” Mireille Khoury, who lost her 15-year-old son Elias in the blast, said in a statement to Sky News Arabia on Twitter.
“Families of the #BeirutBlast victims are touring Beirut in their cars while honking the horns and shouting to demand justice, all this in the midst of a fuel crisis,” Lebanese journalist Luna Safwan tweeted on Saturday. “These families have been abandoned not only by our corrupt government but also by us, the people. #Lebanon.
Families of the #BeirutBlast victims are touring Beirut in their cars while honking the horns and shouting to demand justice, all this in the mist of a fuel crisis. These families have been abandoned bot only by our corrupt government but also by us, the people. #Lebanon https://t.co/kblkAEwl7l
— Luna Safwan - لونا صفوان (@LunaSafwan) July 10, 2021
The hashtag “#لاسقاط_كل_الحصانات,” translated as “drop all immunities” was trending in the country on Saturday in solidarity with the protesters.
A delegation of the victims’ families met with Fahmi at his house on Saturday to discuss their demands, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation reported.
“We conveyed our anger to the minister and asked him to change his opinion and position,” the private television station quoted the families as saying in a statement. “He asked us to meet again, but we refused if we would [only] hear the same words.”
The protests come amid Lebanon’s worsening economic situation, which is characterized by shortages of fuel, electricity and food. The World Bank has characterized it as one of the world’s worst financial crises since the 1850s.