Fresh Protests as Rival Parties Hold Fruitless National Dialogue Session
Lebanese protesters angry over a lack of basic services and festering garbage returned to the streets of Beirut on Wednesday and threw eggs at the convoys of officials arriving in parliament to attend a national dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri chaired.
The protesters shouted "thieves!" and threw the eggs as the convoys of politicians drove by. Sparked by waste piling up in the capital and Mount Lebanon, a collection of protest movements demonstrated ahead of and during the dialogue and staged a mass rally at Martyrs Square in the afternoon.
Berri adjourned the session after around four hours, with TV networks describing the meeting as fruitless.
"They did not even bother to meet tomorrow or the day after, they postponed it for a week and came out without any decision," said Assaad Thebian, an organizer with the main group behind the protests, which calls itself "You Stink."
"They showed that they are indifferent and should not be in leadership positions," he told The Associated Press.
A terse official statement recited by the parliament's secretary-general said “the conferees explained their viewpoints on the current issues while focusing on the agenda's first item, which is the presidential vote and the steps needed to achieve it.”
“The next session has been set for Wednesday, September 16,” it added.
Meanwhile, MTV said the last 30 minutes of the session witnessed a heated debate that prompted Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun to “raise his voice in anger.”
According to LBCI television, Aoun clashed with head of al-Mustaqbal bloc ex-PM Fouad Saniora over the issue of “electing a strong president.” Telecom Minister Butros Harb joined the exchange of tirades later, LBCI said.
Future TV meanwhile said that “Aoun raised the issue of amending the Constitution to elect a president by a popular vote, drawing responses from Berri, Saniora and Harb.”
LBCI said the waste management file was also discussed during the session and that all parties were asked to facilitate the work of the cabinet during the emergency meeting that Prime Minister Tammam Salam scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
During the session, Salam hoped that the dialogue would lead to a better future for the country and urged all parties to contribute to its success. He also told reporters at the parliament that he had called for an emergency cabinet session on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the waste crisis.
Berri had called for the dialogue conference among the main parties to discuss the stalemate that has frozen government institutions for months.
The conferees are supposed to discuss ways to end the vacuum at Baabda Palace, the resumption of the work of parliament and the cabinet, a new electoral draft-law, legislation allowing Lebanese expats to obtain the nationality, administrative decentralization and ways to support the army and the Internal Security Forces.
Berri said talks on the presidential deadlock are a priority.
“The mere occurrence of this dialogue reflects success, as we are all confirming our commitment to dialogue as the only way to overcome our crises, and our adherence to our country's unity and the coexistence formula,” Berri told the conferees at the beginning of the meeting.
“This meeting was necessary in order to rescue our country from the current state of paralysis, so that we don't later find our country in the dustbins of history,” added Berri.
He also warned that “the negativity emanating from the partisan and personal interests has started to pose a threat to Lebanon's existence.”
Authorities had beefed up security measures in downtown Beirut, erecting large metal barricades preventing access to the parliament where political figures held their meeting.
In the evening, thousands of protesters rallied at Martyrs Square in a central demonstration called for by all the main activist campaigns.
"Their dialogue is a conspiracy against us. They convened because they are afraid of us," said an official statement recited at the demo.
"We are not here to say 'No'. We came here to say 'Yes' to the State and 'No' to their state of corruption and distribution of shares," the campaigns added in their statement.
Recalling recent perceived achievements, the activists reminded: "We are the ones who forced the closure of the Naameh landfill, the annulment of the (waste management) tenders and the fall of the 'wall of shame.'"
"We gathered to stress our unity … Their dialogue is focused on the distribution of shares," the activists added.
"Enough with humiliation, corruption and sectarianism. We tell the corrupt political class that we have risen to restore our independence and build a democratic state that addresses people's concerns," they said.
The campaigns vowed to "demand accountability for all wrongdoers, because public right is not a farm."
Reiterating their demands, the activists added: "We call for finding an immediate, eco-friendly solution for the removal of garbage and releasing the funds of municipalities. We reject landfills, incinerators or dumping at sea and we support sorting at the source."
They called anew for the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq and demanded the prosecution of Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq over recent police brutality against protesters. The activists also called for "the release of all detainees" held in connection with the recent protests.
"We call for parliamentary elections as soon as possible and we will continue the journey with every citizen who has hope in Lebanon," they added, calling on "all students and syndicates to unite and hammer nails into the coffin of the sectarian regime."
The protest movement of civil society groups began in mid-July as piles of garbage built up in Beirut and Mount Lebanon after the closure of Lebanon's largest landfill in Naameh.
But it has since grown to represent broader frustrations that cut across sectarian and partisan lines, including electricity and water shortages, and endemic corruption among the political elite.
Demonstrations in the capital grew from several dozen protesters to thousands, peaking when tens of thousands descended on Martyrs' Square on August 29.
Groups like "You Stink" and "We Want Accountability" are among a handful of civil society campaigns born out of the movement that have called for additional protests.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet, Associated Press
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