Clashes between protesters and law enforcement, among the most violent since the protest movement against the political class began three months ago, injured 160 people on Saturday in Beirut, Lebanon, according to the Red Cross.
The violence began outside one of the main entrances to the Parliament, in the heart of the Lebanese capital, when protesters attacked members of the riot police, stationed behind barricades and barbed wire. Protesters, some with masked faces, launched various projectiles, including stones, sign posts and tree branches. Some tried to cross the barbed wire. Riot police dispersed the crowd using water cannons before resorting to tear gas.
Stones and fireworks
According to the Lebanese Red Cross, 160 people were injured during the clashes. The clashes continued in the early evening. Entrenched in the streets around the Parliament, the demonstrators threw stones and fireworks at the police. Unidentified people set fire to the tents erected by protesters since the movement began near Place des Martyrs, in downtown Beirut.
A demonstration was initially planned for Saturday near the Parliament, which was to converge on several marches leaving from different points in the capital. Popular anger has been exacerbated by the rapid deterioration of the socio-economic situation in recent weeks and the inability of the authorities to form a government, more than two months after the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The situation escalated before the groups of protesters arrived.
Dozens of arrests
In a press release on Twitter, the internal security forces (ISF) deplored "violent" acts calling on "peaceful demonstrators to leave the premises urgently for their own safety". In recent days, protesters have targeted banks, accused of complicity with the government, attacking several branches in the Hamra district of the capital.
Dozens of people were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday and released. Dozens more were injured during the two nights of violence, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. The NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch deplored "arbitrary arrests" and an "unacceptable level of violence" against the demonstrators.
Political negotiations dragging on
The protest calls for since the beginning of the movement a government formed of technocrats and personalities independent of the traditional political seraglio. The negotiations dragged on since the appointment on December 19 of a new Prime Minister, against a background of differences over the sharing of portfolios within the political parties that supported his appointment, which fueled the anger of the street.
Lebanon is collapsing in debt of around 90 billion dollars (81 billion euros), more than 150% of its GDP, and the World Bank warned in November that the poverty rate could reach 50% of the population, against a third at present. In addition, the national currency lost its value on the parallel market -2,500 pounds for one dollar against an official rate of 1.507 pounds / dollar.
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