BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese demonstrators stormed government ministries in Beirut and ransacked the offices of the Lebanese Banking Association on Saturday as gunfire erupted in vivid protests over this week’s devastating explosion.
The protesters said their politicians resign and will be punished for negligence, which they said caused Tuesday’s explosion, the largest ever hit in Beirut, which killed 158 other people and injured more than 6,000, worsening months of political and economic crisis.
A police officer killed in the clashes, a spokesman said. A police officer at the scene said the officer was killed when he fell into an elevator shaft in a nearby construction after being chased among protesters.
The Red Cross said it had treated 117 other people for injuries to the site, while 55 others had been taken to hospital. Police officers wounded by stones were treated by paramedics. A chimney broke out in the central square of the martyrs.
Dozens of protesters broke into the Foreign Ministry where they burned a portrait of President Michel Aoun, representing many political categories that have had Lebanon for decades and who say he is guilty of his existing disorder.
“We stayed here. We call on the Lebanese to occupy all the ministries,” one demonstrator said by megaphone.
About 10,000 more people piled up in the Plaza de los Mártires, some throwing stones. Police fired tear fuel when protesters tried to cross the fence that blocks a street leading to parliament, a Reuters reporter said.
Police showed gunfire and rubber bullets. It wasn’t without delay that you knew who fired the shots. Riot police fired dozens of cans of tear fuel at protesters, who responded with firecrackers and stones.
Television photographs showed protesters who also entered the ministries of power and economy.
They chanted “the other people need the fall of the regime,” echoing a popular chant of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. They were carrying signs that said “Go all the killers.”
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said the U.S. government supports the right of protesters to demonstrate peacefully and suggested that all parties involved join the violence.
The embassy also said in a tweet that other Lebanese people “deserve leaders to pay attention to and take the lead to meet popular demands for transparency and accountability.”
Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only way out of early parliamentary elections.
‘GO HOME!’
The protests were the biggest since October, when thousands of people took to the streets to protest corruption, poor 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 cars equipped with firearms patrolled the area. Ambulances came to the scene.
“Is the army really there? Are you here to shoot us? Join us and we can fight the government together,” one shouted.
Tuesday’s explosion was the largest in Beirut’s history. There were reportedly 21 other people missing from the explosion, which devastated entire neighborhoods.
The government has promised to hold the culprits accountable. But few Lebanese are convinced. Some have knotted wooden frames as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders.
“Resign or hang,” a banner at the demonstration.
The Prime Minister and the Presidency stated that 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate used in the manufacture of fertilizers and pumps had been stored in the port warehouse for six years.
ECONOMIC REDUCTION
The explosion affected a city that was still marked by the civil war and was reeling from an economic crisis and an increase in coronavirus infections.
For many, it was a terrible reminder of the 1975-1990 civil war that sided with the country and destroyed strips of Beirut, many of which had since been rebuilt.
Some neighbors, suffering for leaving the destroyed houses blank, which the government has let them down again.
“We don’t have confidence in our government,” university student Céline Dibo said as she cleaned clean blood on the walls of her ruined building. “I need the United Nations to take over Lebanon.”
Many others denounced their leaders, saying none of them recorded the explosion to agree or assess the damage when French President Emmanuel Macron flew from Paris and went straight to the place to pay homage.
Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, promised that aid to rebuild the city will not fall into “corrupt hands.” He will host a donor convention for Lebanon via a video link on Sunday, his workplace said. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will sign up for him.
“We don’t need any government approval,” said unemployed protester Mahmoud Rifai. “Cash will simply go into our leaders’ wallets.”
Aoun said Friday that an investigation would read about whether the explosion was caused by a bomb or other outside interference. He stated that the investigation would also weigh whether it was due to negligence or accident. So far, twenty other people have been arrested, he added.
“We CAN’T START REBUILDING”
Officials said the explosion may have caused $15 losses on bills. It is a bill That Lebanon pays after having already defaulted on a mountain of debt, which exceeds 150% of economic output, and with stalled negotiations on an IMF lifeline.
For ordinary Lebanese, the scale of destruction is overwhelming. Marita Abou Jawda was handing out bread and cheese to those who suffered the explosion.
“Macron showed up for help and our government did nothing. It was,” he says. “After Macron’s visit, I played the French national anthem all day in my car.”
(Additional information through Maher Chmaytelli, Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Ezgi Erkoyun, Ellen Francis and Richard Lough; edited through Frances Kerry and Nick Macfie)
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