Retired Military Protest Possible Pay Cuts as Govt. Braces for Budget Session

Retired military and security personnel on Tuesday staged sit-ins around different regions in Lebanon protesting government's possible cut to their end-of-service benefits, as the government braces for a meeting to discuss “austere” budget measures to cut the state deficit.

The protesters blocked the entrance to several main facilities around Beirut.

Some of the protesters gathered in Raid al-Solh Square in Beirut and marched to the Beirut Port where they blocked the entrance to the facility.

Another group blocked the entrance to the Central Bank of Lebanon in Hamra area.

Retired Brig. Gen. George Nader spoke on behalf of the campaigners and accused the political authority of failing to manage the public finances, strictly refusing infringements on their rights.

He said “the state can stop the waste of public funds in the illegal coastal public properties.”

MP Shamel Roukoz, a member of the Free Patriotic Movement’s Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc, himself a military, said: “The state deficit can be reduced through the implementation of a clear economic plan. I refuse the whole draft of the state budget.”