Lebanese protest turns violent, politicians’ resignations sought

That often leads to incessant bickering and cronyism among the country’s politicians.

The demonstrations, the largest in years, railed against the corruption and dysfunction that has brought about Lebanon’s current political crisis. Parliament has extended its own term twice and has not convened because lawmakers differ on whether they can continue working before voting for a president.

Lebanese policemen pass by a pile of rubbish near the government building a day after a violent protests against the ongoing trash crisis, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon.

Late Sunday evening, the protestors broke through the first barbed wire after intense clashes with security forces.

Lebanese security forces fired water cannon at protesters demonstrating against the government near Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s offices in Beirut on Sunday, live television pictures showed. Dozens of people have been injured over the two days.

Workers were seen sweeping glass and other objects that were set on fire from the streets today.

On Sunday, You Stink and other protest organizers pulled their supporters out of Riad al-Solh Square and moved to the Martyrs’ Square after men they described as political thugs began fighting with police.

By the weekend, instead of just demanding efficient trash removal, some protesters had taken up the slogans “Revolution!” and “The people want the downfall of the government”.

The “You Stink” movement also says it will not back down.

“We arrived in the morning, found everything broken, chairs on the floor, everything is a mess”, said Joseph Khoury, who works at a vehicle rental agency in downtown.

Lebanon’s cabinet ended an acrimonious meeting on Tuesday with no solution to a trash crisis that has sparked protests and calls for the government’s resignation. “But, despite that, it’s worse than in poor countries or those at war”.

Amal Movement Bureau denied on Monday the reports that surfaced last night accusing its members of being the Infiltrators that were behind yesterday’s riots during the peaceful protest of the You Stink group NNA reported.

On Monday, the military began installing 15-foot slabs of concrete at the site of large protests against the government.

The Lebanese army was deployed to the streets of Beirut on Sunday to try to quell the violence.

Separately Monday, heavy clashes resumed in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near the southern port of Sidon. Fatah is the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Lebanon’s political impasse may also prevent the government from selling bonds, affecting its credit rating, Salam said at a news conference in Beirut on 23 August.

That’s exactly what’s happening in the capital city, Beirut, where streets filled with putrid garbage have turned into a battlefield.

Activists, however, quickly dismissed those actions as political maneuvering.

It urged “all Bahraini citizens to leave Lebanon immediately”.

The sources told Al-Arab newspaper that “Hezbollah is using the trash crisis to topple the government of [Prime Minister] Tammam Salam and to create a power vacuum amid the failure to choose a new president who everyone can accept”.