Beirut – Thousands of protesters took part in rallies in the Lebanese capital today, Thursday, to mark the two-year anniversary of the catastrophic explosion in the port of Beirut, chanting slogans denouncing the government’s failure to reveal the truth behind the explosion.
In an incident reminiscent of the disaster, several granaries that had been badly damaged by the explosion collapsed on Thursday afternoon, just a few hundred meters from where the crowds gathered on the city’s coast.
Concrete silos cracked and collapsed, sending a cloud of smoke and dust into the sky. The demonstrators watched the scene in amazement, their hands over their mouths, not believing what they saw.
“Seeing smoke rising is a very bad memory, especially since I was here during the explosion. The same smoke was rising from the silos,” said protester Samer al-Khoury, 31.
Wearing blood-colored T-shirts with handprints, the demonstrators marched from the Ministry of Justice to the city’s waterfront and then to Parliament in downtown Beirut.
The blast flattened parts of the city on August 4, 2020, killing at least 220 people. The explosion occurred due to the presence of a huge stock of ammonium nitrate at the site in the port since 2013, and was recorded as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
“It is important for me to be here today, because it is very important that we demand justice and accountability for what happened,” said Stephanie Moukheiber, a 27-year-old Lebanese woman who has lived in Canada for ten years and decided to spend the summer in Lebanon. It was a massacre. Destroy an entire city.”
Several senior officials were accused of responsibility, but so far none of them has been held accountable, which some say is evidence of a ruling elite under which Lebanon has slipped into a severe political and economic crisis.
The current Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, said days after the explosion that he had received a warning about the chemical stocks in the port and asked the security leaders to do the necessary.
The Prime Minister also said at the time that he had been informed of the matter, but that no one had warned residents about the dangers of these substances. The investigation into the blast has been stalled for more than six months.
The families of the victims also called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to conduct an international investigation and staged a protest Thursday in front of the French embassy in Beirut, calling on Paris to support an external investigation.
Aya Majzoub, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, speaking alongside the protesters, said France has obstructed efforts to conduct an external investigation for political reasons. The French embassy did not immediately comment on the allegations.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Thursday marks the anniversary of “two years without justice,” and called in a tweet on Twitter for a “impartial, comprehensive and transparent investigation”, a call also made by the European Union delegation in Beirut.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis said he hoped the Lebanese people could rest in “the achievement of justice and the truth that can never be hidden.”
The remains of the huge silos, which were badly damaged by the explosion, began to collapse this week. A number of them collapsed on Sunday, and blocks of cement fell from them on Thursday.
Officials said a fire had broken out inside for weeks, with rotting grain caused by the high summer temperatures. They added that other silos could collapse at any time. “Our wounds haven’t healed…especially since we haven’t seen justice done yet,” said Omar Jaheer, owner of a heavily damaged cafe in Beirut.