The start of the devastation in Beirut, Lebanon, turned out to be an unexpected cargo port entry seven years ago.

According to Reuters and AFP News on the 6th (local time), 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut, which was the cause of the explosion, was loaded by cargo ship Rossus in September 2013 and seized later.

Boris Prokoshev, the captain of Rossus at the time, said in an interview with the correspondents that the arrival of Beirut was unscheduled and was due to the owner's greed.

Prokoshev turned the prow to Lebanon on the way to deliver ammonium nitrate produced by a Georgia fertilizer company to an explosives manufacturer in Mozambique, Africa.

It was because the owner of the debt, Igor Grechuschin, was in debt and ordered the transportation of heavy equipment from Lebanon to Jordan to make additional money.

He tried to put ammonium nitrate under the deck of Rossus and pile up excavators, load rollers, etc., as directed, but the equipment was so heavy that the operation failed.

Prokoshev explained, "The whole ship could be ruined, so we decided that we couldn't carry heavy equipment."

"The ship was old and the deck cover was bent," said Boris Mussin, who was the deck manager at the time. "We couldn't take the risk," he said.

Ship owner Gretschkin left Rossus in the port of Beirut without paying port fees and crew wages.

Due to the port fees, Rossus was caught up in legal disputes and was unable to escape from the port of Beirut.


Captain Porokoshev and three sailors spent as many as 11 months detained in the boat as the lawsuits lengthened.

When the food in the boat was almost exhausted, people at the port felt pity for them and handed out the food.

When captains and sailors were released in 2014 and returned to their home countries, Lebanese authorities unloaded ammonium nitrate from old, unstable Rossus and stored it in a port warehouse.

The ammonium nitrate remained in the warehouse until the last four days, when at least 157 people were killed and 5,000 people were injured.

"The explosion was a huge cargo," said Porokoshev. "The reason we kept it on board when we were there was because of the explosion."

He said there was water in Rossus, but he was able to sail, and the Lebanese authorities had little concern about the dangers of ammonium nitrate at the time.

"I'm sorry for the people (dead or injured)," said Porokoshev. "The Lebanese authorities who didn't care about ammonium nitrate should be punished."

Lebanese investigative authorities investigating the devastation are focusing on revealing whether there was any business error in dealing with the dangerous chemical, ammonium nitrate.

Earlier, the chief of the Port of Beirut and the customs authorities sent a letter to the court several times to remove ammonium nitrate, but said no action was taken.

The Lebanese government has since pledged to pension all civil servants overseeing the storage and safety of cargo in Port of Beirut since 2014.

Military prosecutors say they have summoned 18 of Beirut's mechanics, their managers and customs officials, and arrested 16 of them.

(Photo = Getty Image Korea)