Dozens wounded in clashes as hundreds of protesters flood Beirut
07 June, 2020
Protesters poured in to the streets of the Lebanese capital Saturday to decry the collapse of the economy, as clashes erupted between supporters and opponents of the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.
Hundreds filled the streets around the protest hub of Martyrs Square at the heart of Beirut, with skirmishes also between protesters and security forces, who fired tear gas.
Forty-eight were wounded in the violence, 11 of whom were hospitalized, while the rest were treated at the scene, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
It was the first major anti-government rally attracting demonstrators from in the united states since authorities relaxed a lockdown imposed in mid-March to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
"We came on the streets to demand our rights, demand health care, education, jobs and the essential rights that humans have to stay alive," said 21-year-old student Christina.
Many protesters wore face-masks as part of hygiene measures imposed to fight the pandemic, which includes severely exacerbated an economic crisis, the worst since the debt-burdened country's 1975-1990 civil war.
But Saturday's protest turned violent as supporters of Hezbollah clashed with some demonstrators calling on the group to disarm.
Hezbollah is the only group to have kept its weapons because the end of the Lebanese civil war, deeply dividing Lebanon along political lines.
"Weapons ought to be only in the hands of the army," said Sana, a 57-year-old female protester from Nabatiyeh, a city in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Soldiers formed a human chain separating both sides after supporters and opponents of Hezbollah threw stones at one another, an AFP photographer said.
Supporters of Hezbollah, which can be represented in the federal government and parliament, chanted: "Shiite, Shiite."
On Saturday evening, there is an exchange of gunfire between residents of a Sunni district, a stronghold of the former prime minister Saad Hariri, and a nearby Shiite neighbourhood, a stronghold of the Amal party, a security source said.
Soldiers moved directly into restore order, said the state-run news agency ANI.
There have been clashes too in the northern city of Tripoli, an AFP correspondent there reported.
Security forces fired tear gas near a street leading into the parliament building behind Martyrs Square, after some demonstrators pelted them with stones and ransacked shops.
Some protesters set fire to garbage bins as riot police advanced towards them.
Lebanon has been rocked by some political crises recently, before an economic crunch helped trigger unprecedented cross-sectarian mass protests in October.
The demonstrations forced the federal government to resign and a fresh one headed by Prime Minister Hassan Diab was approved by parliament in February, tasked with launching reforms and combating corruption.
But many Lebanese say the brand new administration has didn't find answers to the country's manifold problems, including a grinding recession and spiralling inflation.
The neighborhood currency has lost more than half of its value on the black market lately, falling from the official rate of just one 1,507 to a lot more than 4,000 pounds to the dollar. Banks have gradually stopped all dollar withdrawals.
An indicator held aloft by protesters on Saturday needed "a government that eliminates corruption, not the one that protects corruption".
More than 35 percent of Lebanese are unemployed, while poverty has soared to engulf a lot more than 45 percent of the populace, according to official estimates.
Lebanon is also among the world's most indebted countries, with a debt equal to a lot more than 170 percent of its GDP. The united states defaulted on its external borrowing for the first time in March.
Diab's government adopted an monetary recovery plan in April and has begun negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, to try to unlock billions of dollars in aid.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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