Lebanon: Anatomy of a nation’s travails

Ahead of the third anniversary on August 4th of the Beirut port blast, Dutch Ambassador Hans Peter Van der Woude, German Ambassador Andreas Kindl, and Australian Ambassador Andrew Barnes accredited to Lebanon made an emotional appeal in “L’Orient Today.” They urged the country’s authorities to explain to victims’ families why the explosion occurred.

Two hundred and thirty-five people were killed, 7,000 wounded, and 300,000 rendered homeless by the detonation, the largest non-nuclear explosion since World War II — and, perhaps, ever. The blast, which was felt in distant Cyprus, levelled adjacent neighbourhoods and damaged buildings, and blew out windows in districts of Beirut far from the port.

The envoys called for blame to be apportioned for abandoning 2,750 tonnes of volatile ammonium nitrate which had been stored along with paint and fireworks for six years in a deteriorating, insecure warehouse in the port. President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Hassan Diab and several ministers and officials were warned about the danger the cargo posed. The material had been confiscated from an unseaworthy vessel, MV Rhosus, by port officials. The explosion was triggered by a fire at the warehouse, reportedly, set after Syrian workers welded shut a metal door on the orders of public prosecutor Ghassan Ouiedat.

The ambassadors complained that the investigation has been stalled since December 2021 and said “with the prevention of due process, there are no answers in sight.” Instead of conducting an open inquiry into the blast, Lebanon’s politicians and officials have done their utmost to block chosen investigators. The judge who initiated a probe, Fadi Sawwan, was dismissed when he charged with neglect two ministers belonging to Amal, the party of powerful parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri.

In February 2021, the head of Beirut’s criminal court Tarek Bitar was given the job and has stuck with the risky task like a limpet. An independent, incorruptible judge from north Lebanon, Bitar has refused to stand down. He has suffered pressure, a travel ban, and prosecution by Oueidat who has been charged over the port blast. The ambassadors argued, “This lack of transparency and accountability does not serve Lebanon well. It means lessons are not learned, and those responsible go unpunished.”

The ambassadors did not mention that the authors of two civil wars since Lebanon’s Independence in 1943 and of the current economic meltdown have not paid any price for their actions.

The first three-month civil conflict erupted in 1958 when US-backed Camille Chamoun, elected president in 1952, sought a second term although Lebanon’s constitution limits presidents to one term. His bid was opposed by Druze and Sunni leaders and their armed followers which had the support of the United Arab Republic, the brief union of Syria and Egypt. The US – which wrongly accused the opposition of being communists – landed troops to support Chamoun, UN mediators intervened, Chamoun resigned and was replaced by General Fuad Chehab, who became Lebanon’s best president. US forces withdrew, looking foolish. On the pro-Chamoun side 1,000 were killed or wounded, on the opposition side 5,000 died or were injured. None of the politicians involved were held responsible. Lebanon reemerged from the crisis, prospered, and celebrated its “Golden Era” during the 1960s.

The second civil war was a far more serious and complex conflict which began in 1975 and ended in 1990. Tension had been building between right-wing Maronite factions who feared the erosion of their sectarian power and Sunni and Druze parties. Chamoun provided the spark for this war by establishing a trawler firm to monopolise fishing off the southern coast. Populist Sidon parliamentary deputy Maarouf Saad led a demonstration against Chamoun’s company and was shot and wounded, reportedly, by an army sniper. His death on March 6th launched the war which wound down in 1989 although fighting continued between troops loyal to army General Michel Aoun and his rival Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea. In 1990, the Syrian army, which had entered Lebanon in 1976 as a peace force, put an end to Aoun’s rebellion. He fled to France, the traditional refuge of Lebanese politicians in trouble. The death toll during this war was 120,000 and one million Lebanese left the country which has not recovered from conflict largely because of massive mismanagement and ballooning corruption. Chamoun died at 87 in August 1987.

Although there was a parliamentary amnesty for war crimes in 1991, Geagea was arrested in 1994 in connection with a church bombing and imprisoned for 11 years. After his release, he was elected to the assembly and was pardoned in 2005. He continues to head the Lebanese Forces. Since the 2022 legislative election it has been the largest Maronite Christian party in parliament and he has been a major obstacle to the appointment of a new president since Aoun — who returned to Beirut in 2005 and was elected president in 2016 – left the job at the end of October last year.

Since Lebanon’s economic crisis which surfaced in the summer of 2019, the country’s currency has fallen in value by 90 per cent and 80 per cent of the population has sunk into poverty while the politicians have done nothing. Lebanon has a caretaker government which cannot take existential decisions, no president, and a deeply divided parliament. Former central bank governor Riad Salameh - who has been accused of embezzling $330 million — remains free although his passport has been seized and he cannot escape to Europe where warrants have been issued for his arrest in France and Germany. His assets have been seized, and an arrest warrant has been circulated by Interpol.

Lebanon, of course, is not the only country to avoid holding leaders accountable for war and other major crimes. The US has never considered charging ex-President George W. Bush for his 2003 war on Iraq, which counted as unprovoked aggression under international law. Multiple Israeli prime ministers are equally guilty of aggression against Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon as well as imposing apartheid, designated as illegal by the UN, on the occupied Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The powers-that-be adopt a hypocritical policy of double standards when calling for accountability. This has infected the International Criminal Court which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine but has ignored Bush and his accomplice ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair as well as other Western and pro-Western aggressors.