Beirut protest turns violent for second day as PM threatens to quit

A second day of mass anti-government demonstrations in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, turned violent on Sunday, with riot police spraying thousands of protesters with a water cannon and pelting them with stones.

Riot police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters and to prevent them from marching towards the country’s Parliament House, according to Xinhua.

Joey Ayoub, one of the organisers of “You Stink” and was present during the protests on Saturday and Sunday, said protesters were met with police brutality, tear gas canisters and water cannons.

The death comes as scores of people were injured in clashes between anti-government protesters and Lebanese police officers.

Lebanese Red Cross spokesman George Kattaneh told the AP news agency that at least 15 protesters were wounded, and one of them was in a critical condition.

The massive crowds accusing the regime of corruption and dysfunction call to mind images of the Egyptian revolution of February 2011, which resulted in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and a series of political upheavals, which eventually resulted in the rule of Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Television footage showed injured demonstrators on stretchers outside the seat of government where the protest took place.

Residents in this proud Mediterranean city have resorted to burning trash on the streets and dumping garbage into valleys, rivers and near the sea, leading to warnings of a health catastrophe.

The protest was organized by an online group calling itself “You Stink!” and other civil society groups.

Red Cross officials said 43 protesters were hospitalised, while 30 members of the security forces were also injured.

Salam’s government has suffered nearly complete paralysis since it took office a year ago as wider crises in the Middle East, including the war in neighbouring Syria, have exacerbated Lebanon’s own political and sectarian divisions.

Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, in a statement released late on Saturday, pledged that the garbage crisis would be tackled during next week’s cabinet session.

It was not clear whether the snowballing protest movement would turn into something bigger.

Joey Ayoub, who sits on You Stink’s organising committee, said the movement’s most pressing demand now was for security forces to be held accountable.

Security forces unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators during Saturday’s protest, prompting Prime Minister Tammam Salam to appeal to the public. “Let all officials and political forces bear their responsibilities”, Salam said in a televised address Sunday.

For many years, Beirut’s trash and that much of central Lebanon was sent to a landfill near Naimeh, a town south of the capital.

“The trash is the straw that broke the camel’s back”, he added.