For the second consecutive day, riot forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas in Beirut on Sunday January 19 to disperse anti-government demonstrators who threw stones at them. At least 145 people were injured, adding to the weekend's toll of more than 520 injured, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
For the second consecutive evening, hundreds of protesters gathered in the city center at the entrance to an avenue leading to the Houses of Parliament. With the cries of "Revolution, Revolution", they threw stones and firecrackers at the police blocking the avenue. The latter responded with rubber bullets, a water cannon and tear gas. Two journalists were injured, one of them in the hand by a rubber bullet, and forty-five people were hospitalized.
At the end of the evening and facing the tear gas cloud and torrential rains, the demonstrators withdrew from the main assembly point and the clashes stopped, according to journalists from Agence France-Presse on site. Only a handful of protesters remained in the neighboring streets.
"We are fed up with politicians"
In three months of protest, anger has only grown among the protesters who castigate the inertia of the leaders. The clashes on Saturday, which injured 377 people, have been unprecedentedly violent since the start, on October 17, of protests against a political class deemed corrupt and unable to lift Lebanon out of the economic slump.
“We are fed up with politicians. After three months of revolution, they show us that they do not change, that they do not listen, that they bring nothing ", protested Mazen, 34. Security forces on Twitter urged protesters not to "Attack" the police.
"There was no justification for the brutal use of force by the riot police"Human Rights Watch said, accusing the police of having "Shot rubber bullets in the eyes". Faced with this escalation, President Michel Aoun convened a security meeting on Monday in the presence of the defense and interior ministers, according to the official ANI agency.
"Excessive violence"
According to a committee of lawyers for the defense of demonstrators, around 40 demonstrators were arrested on Saturday before being released and " the majority " were victims of "Excessive violence", some showing injuries "On the head, face, or genitals". Lawyers have seen injuries in hospitals caused by rubber bullets to the face or head, he added.
Protesters demand a government of technocrats and independents of the current ruling class almost unchanged for decades, an improvement of public services and the end of unemployment and corruption in a country classified among the most corrupt in the world, according to Transparency International. After the resignation at the end of October of the Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, under pressure from the street, his successor, Hassan Diab, was appointed on December 19 but he still has not formed his government, the various parties seeking to guarantee their representation within the future team. "There is a way to calm the popular storm", tweeted Mr. Hariri. “Form a government and open the door to political and economic solutions. "
