Politicians React as New Clash Involving Aswad Sparks Controversy
Lebanese politicians on Thursday commented on the overnight clash between anti-government protesters and supporters of MP Ziad Aswad and the Free Patriotic Movement, as well as on a video of the violence that has sparked sectarian and regional tensions.
“The hate speech has been raging for a while and the attacks on the FPM have become recurrent and systematic. We always confront campaigns with awareness and responsibility and we have not persevered for years so that we change our beliefs and approach today,” FPM chief Jebran Bassil said in a tweet.
“Violence with all its forms is a crime against the country and no one should use it against anyone. The test is big and we are more keen on having a Lebanon that is reconciled with its diversity and embracing of all its sons,” Bassil added.
Aswad himself reacted on Thursday, accusing some media outlets of distorting the facts.
“Three cars arrived at the place I was present at and one of my bodyguards was injured after being run over,” Aswad tweeted.
He was having dinner at a seaside restaurant in Jounieh when the confrontation erupted.
“They tried to storm the place and one was carrying a visible gun that was handed over to the Ghazir police station after which it turned out that it is semi-real,” Aswad said.
“The issue is not sectarian but rather a pursuit and attack. Who came to whom and who attacked whom? Your media outlets’ incitement is suspicious,” the MP added.
The tensions had further surged overnight after a circulated video showed supporters of Aswad beating up and insulting a young man and telling him he had no business being in Keserwan since he hails from Tripoli.
“After I watched the video of the attack on the citizen in Keserwan at the hands of some thugs, I tell the sons of the heart of Lebanon (Keserwan), the rational and patriotic Lebanese, not to allow the worthless thug who is morally, patriotically and humanitarianly corrupt to steal your voice or to practice thuggery against people in your name,” Tripoli politician ex-MP Mustafa Alloush tweeted, in an apparent jab at Aswad.
Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Malek al-Shaar for his part condemned the attack on the young man and the use of “blasphemous slurs,” warning against “the militia-like practices that threaten civil peace.”
MP Shawqi al-Daccache of the Lebanese Forces-led Strong Republic bloc also condemned the assault, saying Keserwan “opens its heart to all honorable and free Lebanese.”
And as MP Georges Atallah of the FPM defended the behavior of Aswad’s supporters, describing it as self-defense, the incidents and the video were condemned by the MPs Michel Mouawad, Neamat Frem and Chamel Roukoz.
A group of lawyers meanwhile filed a lawsuit against Aswad’s bodyguards and supporters, accusing them of “inciting hatred and sectarian and regional strife” and calling for their arrest and prosecution.
Protesters had overnight ransacked the FPM's office in the Akkar town of Halba in response to the video.
Source: Naharnet
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