Calm has returned in a Lebanon very polarized over the investigation into the explosion of the port of Beirut
By issuing an arrest warrant against a former minister of the Amal party, allied with Hezbollah, Judge Tarek Bitar unleashed the wrath of the two Shiite parties who decided to demonstrate Thursday to claim his head, triggering real scenes of war in full Beirut.
REUTERS - MOHAMED AZAKIR
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Tension remains high in Lebanon in the aftermath of fighting which left six dead and thirty wounded during a demonstration organized by Hezbollah and the Shiite movement Amal to denounce the action of judge Tarek Bitar, in charge of the investigation into the double explosion of the port of Beirut in August 2020. The army deployed in force to prevent a resumption of clashes.
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Tareq Bitar
, 47, has forged a reputation as an upright and incorruptible magistrate.
When he resumed the investigation last February into the explosion in the port of Beirut, he told the French
-
language newspaper
L'Orient-Le Jour that he
wanted to go all the way.
“
Nothing will stop me, we have a duty to the victims to come to the truth.
"
A rare occurrence in the Lebanese judiciary, he is not known to have any political affiliation.
He embodies the symbol of independent justice in the eyes of the victims of the port explosion, but not only.
A whole part of the population supports him on social networks, disgusted by the Lebanese political class.
But Tarek Bitar also made enemies by indicting several political leaders, his investigation was even suspended for a time.
By issuing an arrest warrant on Tuesday against a former minister of the Amal party, allied with Hezbollah,
he sparked the wrath of the two Shiite parties
who decided to demonstrate Thursday to claim his head.
Government crippled
The bloody events of Thursday open in any case a period of unrest and uncertainty in Lebanon, analyzes
our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
.
On the political level, the Lebanese government is now paralyzed because its Shiite component refuses to participate in the Council of Ministers as long as Judge Tarek Bitar, accused of being "
politicized
" and "
selective
", is not replaced.
► To read also: Lebanon: after the fatal clashes, the inhabitants of the district of Tayouneh desperate
On the ground, state authority is further weakened, especially if the instigators and participants in Thursday's fighting are not arrested and brought to justice.
The polarization is evident in the press.
The daily
L'Orient-Le Jour
headlines: "
Hezbollah's action awakens the demons of war
", by making the Shiite party assume responsibility for the murderous incidents.
The specter of civil war
L'Orient-Le Jour
underlines the isolation of Hezbollah whose "
behavior, which plunged the Lebanese back into the nightmarish atmosphere of the 1975 civil war
", was "
bluntly disowned
" by "
its Christian ally, the president. Michel Aoun, and the party he founded
”.
Conversely,
Al Akhbar
bluntly accuses the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, of wanting to drag Lebanon into a civil war.
The tone of the newspaper is threatening.
The columnist and editor-in-chief assures us that Hezbollah has "
lost patience and demands that the shooters be arrested
", otherwise it "
will do what is necessary itself
".
France, the United States, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations called for calm Thursday in this country hit for nearly two years by an unprecedented economic and financial crisis.
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