A year after Beirut blast, Lebanon sinks deeper into mire of corruption

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The response to the explosion in August 2020 has been marked by chaos and paralysis in what is now a failed state

By Martin Chulov

A protester calls for official accountability in the massive blast in Beirut’s port last year that killed some 211 people , injured 6500 and left 300, 000 homeless after 2,750 Tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate Exploded . They were stored there for nearly 7 years. , reportedly for use by the Syrian regime in its barrel bombs against the civilians in Syria. Caretaker PM Hassan Diab and president Michel Aoun were officially informed about the chemical 2 weeks before the explosion. but neither did anything about it . Aoun said he is not responsible for the port and PM Diab reportedly wanted to go to the port to inspect the material but Hezbollah security chief Wafic Safa reportedly told him not to go . Diab’s government , the presidency and the parliament leadership is controlled by Hezbollah since it is the only militia that was allowed by the Syrian occupiers at the end of the civil war to keep its arms (Hussein Malla / Associated Press)

At ground zero of Lebanon’s apocalypse a stench of dead rats seeps from hulking piles of rotting grain. Broken silos teeter above, their sides ripped apart by the catastrophic blast that also broke the soul of Beirut; the contents that should have fed a nation still lie spilt over the gaping ruins of its main port.

A year ago this week, one of the planet’s gravest industrial accidents caused one of its biggest ever explosions, shattering a city that was already at a tipping point. The mushroom cloud of chemicals that soared above the Lebanese capital on 4 August 2020 and the seismic force of the shock wave that ravaged its homes and businesses were carried around the world in high-definition horror. Even amid the chaos of a country that had allowed this to happen to its people, this was surely a moment of reckoning.

However, on the eve of the disaster’s first anniversary, Lebanon remains paralysed and anguished. The investigation into the blast has flatlined, and its perpetrators are as far away from accountability as ever. Even worse, for most Lebanese, the global aid pledged in the wake of the destruction remains forsaken by the country’s rulers, who prefer the narrow privileges that flowed to them from a crippled system to a global rescue plan that could save the country.

File photo: Major general Abbas Ibrahim has been the general director of the General Directorate of General Security since 18 July 2011. He was the first official to reveal that the port explosion was caused by the Ammonium Nitrate . He was summoned by the judge investigating the explosion but Hezbollah refused to allow his boss the interior minister to release him for questioning

“Who would have thought our begging bowl would be so big and so empty,” said Nidal Osman, a Tripoli building supplier. “The world must be laughing at us. They wanted to give money, and they instead received a palm in their face. While they laugh, we cry.”

In return for up to $11bn in aid dollars, France demanded structural reforms to governance, and transparency at all levels of spending. Billions more from Europe has been conditioned on an audit of the opaque central bank, which has been critical to the movement of Lebanon’s wealth.

In the year since Beirut began picking up the pieces, the Lebanese currency has plunged 15-fold in value. Hyperinflation has put staple foods out of reach of much of its population. Vital medicines can no longer be found – on Friday a four-year-old girl died from a scorpion sting because anti-venom was out of stock. And there is not enough fuel to supply the undergunned electricity sector, or the private generator mafia that plugs the gap, charging exorbitant prices to do so.

A Lebanese activist holds up placards as she marches during a protest near the Parliament speaker house to demand answers and justice for the victims of the August 4 explosion that hit the seaport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and six months later, political and confessional rivalries have undermined the probe into the Beirut port explosion and brought it to a virtual halt, mirroring the same rivalries that have thwarted past attempts to investigate political crimes throughout Lebanon’s history. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Instead of giving birth to an era of redemption, the explosion has come to define the utter dysfunction of a state that has failed for all intents and purposes. Its political class remains unable to form a government, still bickering over the allocation of ministries as prizes to bolster their fiefdoms. State institutions, likewise, are subservient to dug-in factions. This country’s central bank reserves have dipped below mandatory requirements, meaning an imminent end to subsidies in place to safeguard even the middle classes. Lebanese have joined Syrians and other of the region’s forsaken peoples in taking to the Mediterranean on rafts to flee their conditions, no matter the risk. And there is no solution except for a vast international bailout that would mean severing a system that has prevailed for 30 years since the end of the civil war.

As the sheer scale of Lebanon’s meltdown continues to be absorbed by its people, some are starting to confront an unpalatable view that the state’s very foundations were flawed at each of its incarnations. From the Ottoman empire to French mandate, Syrian tutelage, the ravages of the civil war and then the rentier system that followed the 1991 Taif accords which ended the conflict, Lebanon has never had an easy run. But the past three decades in particular have laid the groundwork for its demise.

“After Taif, [the warlords] got consolation prizes, instead of being punished for keeping the war going as long as they did,” said Nora Boustany, a lecturer in journalism at the American University of Beirut, who covered the conflict and aftermath. “They went to town. It was a bonanza for them. The Syrians knew it was happening and they wanted a piece of the action as well. To keep the peace, there was an accommodation with justice. This created a culture of impunity, and this became the norm.

“Rafic Hariri steamrolled ahead with reconstruction,” said Boustany of the former prime minister who presided over Lebanon’s postwar rebuild, accumulating a vast fortune along the way. Saudi Arabia and Syria were central to Lebanon’s reconstruction, setting up patronage networks and spheres of influence that took decisive stakes in the country’s affairs, while at the same time giving patrons a free rein to corral fortunes.

“There was a wealth, a largesse and an ostentatious living that was brought to Beirut,” she said. “This rubbed off on his circle. The accommodation was to let this happen to keep the peace. They all kept their snout in the trough. They partitioned off aid and money from the big funds, and they just kept stealing. There was so much money for institution-building and barely any of it went there.”

Last week, Lebanon named the country’s richest man, Nijab Mikati, a two-time prime minister and resident of its poorest city, Tripoli, as its designated leader and tasked him with forming a government. For the previous 12 months, Saad Hariri, another former leader and son of the slain Rafic Hariri, had been unable to do so – his various cabinet lineups rejected by the country’s president, Michel Aoun. Hariri, a product of the system – and a beneficiary of it until his fortunes turned – had been tasked by France with breaking it. His other former patron, Saudi Arabia, had abandoned him in 2017 for ceding political power to Hezbollah, which ever since has cemented its influence with the cover of Aoun.

“What is happening now is the clash between two projects, two ideas,” said Khaldoun Charif, a veteran Tripoli-based analyst on Lebanese affairs. “People need to understand that corruption is the system here. It was enshrined as such during the implementation of Taif in 1991. Everyone got gifts to get under way. It was the era of largesse. Everyone started stealing money and they were encouraged to do so. There was no chance of a normal state as envisaged now, given the system put in place back then.

“Every business – electricity, water, garbage collection, reconstruction – it all cost the Lebanese people far more than it should have because giant cuts were being paid to the political players. And now they recognise corruption? What changed? Hezbollah became the most powerful player in the country.”

Effigies of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and FPM chief Gebran Bassil were attached to mock gallows which have become a key symbol of the demonstrations in Martyr Square in downtown Beirut . The gallows were erected in the same place where several people were hanged more than 100 years ago by the then ruling Ottoman Empire for revolting against Istanbul. The Martyr’s Square statue commemorates those executions. During his tenure as the Minister of Energy and Water, Bassil promised to provide electricity 24-hours a day . After years of failures , Lebanon is running out of time – and money – to keep the lights on .

On some days, before the blazing heat of summer starts to bite, port workers collect the dead rats from the grain silos, tossing them into the bay below. “It’s just that they smell so bad,” said Abu Haitham, a junior officer in one of the security services. The symbolism of the rodents piled at the blast site is not lost on Abu Haitham, nor other Lebanese scarred by the betrayal of a state that has never truly served them and seems unlikely to do so now.

“If now isn’t the moment to change, then when is?” asked Yarr Hadid, 24, a student, who, like her siblings, wants to leave for Belgium. “Are we to accept that this is how it is in Lebanon? If the regional actors and the Europeans agreed to the state being built like this, they either have to really help to dismantle it and build again or be honest about the fact that we’re doomed.”

(The Guardian)

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