INTERVIEW
"They have to get out." A few hours after the two explosions caused by ammonium nitrate which destroyed part of the city of Beirut, photojournalist Maher Attar testifies at the microphone of Europe 1 of the extent of the human and material damage. He especially expresses his anger against the political class of the country which he holds responsible for the situation in which Lebanon finds itself today.
"A black day in the history" of Lebanon
He says he felt "like an earthquake. I screamed, I panicked. I, who have known war, have never experienced that". "What we see today is hellish: shredded bodies, destroyed buildings, burnt car wrecks, thousands of injured, it's unheard of."
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"Today is a dark day in our history and I am angry. A muffled anger against this political class, corrupt, rotten, incompetent who has been in power for generations," explains Maher Attar. The photographer, particularly moved, blames political leaders for the catastrophe that has just struck Lebanon. But these explosions are only the latest tragedy, according to him, "all that was missing, unfortunately".
"People are dying"
And if those responsible are, for him, obvious, Maher Attar is very pessimistic about a way out of the crisis from above. "I hope they will let go of their seat, but I can't believe it, these are people who have no feeling. We tried by all means to make them understand that we do not want to They have already stolen my adolescence, they forced me into exile and they are still there: the same families, the same dynasties. The 57-year-old photographer explains, for example, that after the explosions a worker who came to repair his windows was forced to leave his site to repair the windows of a general's son.
According to him, as long as this political class is in power, "we can still expect catastrophes in Lebanon. People are dying. There will be more problems with gasoline, electricity. is catastrophic ". He recalls that even before the disaster, the Lebanese capital was subject to very frequent power cuts. For Maher Attar, very moved, "Beirut is sad, Beirut is unhappy, Beirut is destroyed".