Beirut Braces for Massive Protest

The rally caps a week of demonstrations organized by the You Stink grassroots campaign that twice drew thousands to the city’s core and regularly descended into skirmishes between security forces and protesters.

Lebanese citizens are deeply frustrated with their politicians for mismanaging the economy and failing to provision basic services such as electricity, water and trash collection. But they are divided over the way forward.

You Stink campaign leaders said at a news conference Friday that they were demanding parliamentary elections, which have not been held since 2009, but they did not specify a law to govern the polls. There is a concern that elections would reproduce the same Parliament if held under the current electoral law, which enshrines sectarian quotas and arcane voter precinct rules, the Daily Star reported early Saturday.

“We want to liberate ourselves from the political class, through parliamentary elections. We prefer a just election law, rather than the one in place now,” a leading organizer of the campaign Assad Thebian said, speaking with reporters and citizens after the news conference.

The ambiguity leaves the campaign open to interference. Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said a presidential election should lead a program of reform.

“We call for the direct election of a president by the people, that is if you want a presidential election before the approval of a [new] election law,” Aoun said at a news conference.

“Otherwise, (let us) approve an electoral law based on a proportional system that ensures fair representation for the Lebanese people, hold transparent parliamentary elections, elect a president by the newly elected Parliament and form a government that will introduce reforms,” he said.

The campaign is also demanding that officials and security personnel are held to account for using excessive force against protesters. Security forces shot live ammunition into the air last Saturday in response to a peaceful but vigorous rally and deployed water cannons, tear gas, and sound grenades, and shot at protesters with rubber bullets. A riot broke out Sunday, damaging property Downtown.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it treated nearly 500 people at the demonstrations last weekend alone, and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Friday three demonstrators and two officers remained in the hospital.

Machnouk admitted that security personnel used “excessive force” Saturday but stood by their subsequent conduct.

A judicial investigation and an internal one have been launched into police conduct, Machnouk said, with initial findings expected Monday or Tuesday. “Everyone responsible for the use of excessive force Saturday will be held accountable,” he vowed.

The You Stink campaign said it wanted Machnouk held accountable as well.

Machnouk stressed that some demonstrators were violent as well.

“After seven days of protests, we now have 146 injuries among Internal Security Forces (personnel) and 61 among protesters,” he said. “The numbers indicate that the harshness and violence was not from one side only. It is unacceptable to depict policemen as the only offenders.”

He said seven protesters remained in prison, including two accused of throwing Molotov cocktails.

Both Machnouk and Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi promised to protect demonstrators at Saturday’s rally.

“Freedom of expression is a right guaranteed by the Lebanese Constitution,” Kahwagi said. “The Army will stop those who will disrupt civil peace.”

Machnouk said he would order security forces to exercise “as much restraint as possible” Saturday, while also protecting public and private property.

Sunday’s riot prompted soul searching among You Stink organizers and the Lebanese community at large. The campaign initially distanced itself from the rioters, labeling them “infiltrators.” It cut its demonstration short and called on security forces to stamp out the violence.

Over the coming days, a more sympathetic profile of the rioters emerged. Citizens debated whether the culprits were simply disaffected young men and women who joined the demonstrations from the Beirut slums, and who have borne the brunt of the country’s political and economic injustices and suffered arbitrary treatment at the hands of security forces.

Joey Ayoub, a You Stink organizer, explained the campaign’s perspective. “If there are young men who are violent, we’re going to try to talk to them. From what I’ve seen, that’s the most effective solution – try to persuade them (to calm down) or form human shields in front of them. These things usually calm them down. It doesn’t always work, but usually it did, so far.”

“They are very angry at the system. It’s not very hard to understand. They just express it in a different way,” he said, adding that the campaign would have up to 500 volunteers in the crowd.

You Stink is also demanding the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk for mismanaging a scandalous trash crisis that has stretched on for six weeks now. It is pressing the State Financial Prosecutor to pursue a corruption investigation of the country’s waste management sector, as well.

Finally, the campaign demanded Friday that authorities apply a Thursday Cabinet decision to devolve waste management authority to municipalities and transfer state money owed to them. Thebian said You Stink is producing results.

“Our successes so far: The tenders have been discarded to the street. We have affirmed that they cannot forbid us from peaceful protest. And yesterday we returned the Independent Municipality Fund to municipal control.” He added: “We’re marching on.”

On the number 4 bus, passengers were split about whether they would attend the demonstration Saturday.

But they all said they supported the cause.

Saturday’s rally begins at 6 pm, in Martyrs’ Square in Downtown Beirut. – Additional reporting by Nizar Hasan