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Calls for Revolution in Lebanon as French President is Mobbed by Crowds During Beirut Tour

posted by martyb on Friday August 07 2020, @12:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-people-are-revolting dept.

takyon writes:

Chants of 'revolution' in Beirut as France's Macron is mobbed by angry crowds

Large crowds mobbed French President Emmanuel Macron in Beirut as he toured a neighborhood of the Lebanese capital devastated by Tuesday's massive explosion.

"Revolution, revolution!" people chanted, as shock at the devastation in the city gave way to anger on Thursday. New information reveals that Beirut officials had ignored repeated warnings about a stockpile of dangerous chemicals linked to the blast that has killed 137 people and injured 5,000.

Macron told a crowd of reporters and angry people that he would propose a "new political pact" to Lebanon's embattled political class during his visit to a predominantly Christian quarter of the city.

"The people want the fall of the regime," the protesters shouted, echoing calls for the downfall of Lebanon's long-time political elite that were popularized during a nationwide uprising late last year. "Michel Aoun is a terrorist! Help us," one man pleaded, referring to the Lebanese president. One woman screamed inaudible words inches away from Macron's face. "They are terrorists," came the repeated cries.

Most people were masked, including the French president, who removed his face covering to speak to the press. There was no social distancing.

Previously: Beirut Explosion Kills Over 100, Linked to 2,700 Tons of Ammonium Nitrate in Port Warehouse

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 07 2020, @09:38PM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday August 07 2020, @09:38PM (#1033177) Journal

    Beirut explosion: former port worker says fireworks stored in hangar [theguardian.com]


    Dozens of bags of fireworks were stored in the same hangar as thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate at Beirut’s port and may have been a decisive factor in igniting the explosive chemical compound that fuelled Tuesday’s huge explosion, a former port worker and other sources have told the Guardian.

    [...] A former port worker, Yusuf Shehadi, told the Guardian he had been instructed by the Lebanese military to house the chemicals in warehouse 12 at the port despite repeated protests by other government departments.

    “We complained a lot about this over the years,” said Shehadi, who worked at the port until emigrating to Canada in March this year. “Every week, the customs people came and complained and so did the state security officers. The army kept telling them they had no other place to put this. Everyone wanted to be the boss, and no one wanted to make a real decision.”

    In addition, the hangar housed a quantity of fireworks, Shehadi said, which customs had confiscated in about 2009-10 and which he said he had personally seen delivered on a forklift. “There were 30 to 40 nylon bags of fireworks inside warehouse 12,” he said.

    “They were on the left-hand side when you entered the door. I used to complain about this. It wasn’t safe. There was also humidity there. This was a disaster waiting to happen. The port workers did not put the chemicals there in the first place. That outrage rests with the government.”

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @10:32PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @10:32PM (#1033219)

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53683082 [bbc.com]

    Mr Prokoshev [, ship's captain,] told the BBC on Friday that the Rhosus only stopped off in Beirut because its owner had money trouble. The captain said he was told the ship needed to collect an additional cargo of heavy machinery, to fund passage through the Suez Canal.
    ...
    Documents circulated online appeared to show that customs officials sent letters to a Judge of Urgent Matters in Beirut seeking guidance on how to sell or dispose of it at least six times from 2014 to 2017.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-security-blast-ship/beiruts-accidental-cargo-how-an-unscheduled-port-visit-led-to-disaster-idUSKCN25225M [reuters.com] (us-lebanon-security-blast-ship? error? slip? aliens? cia?)

    The crew were asked to load some heavy road equipment and take it to Jordan’s Port of Aqaba before resuming their journey onto Africa, where the ammonium nitrate was to be delivered to an explosives manufacturer.
    ...
    He [, new operator of nitrate factory, ] called the decision to store the material in Beirut port a “gross violation of safe storage measures, considering that ammonium nitrate loses its useful properties in six months.”

    Wow, seven years and it went kaboom anyway.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @03:51AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @03:51AM (#1033315)

      "loses its useful properties in six months"

      What I think he means is that it begins decomposing. IOW, it becomes unstable, and more likely to go boom over time. So yeah, national scale darwin award. But hey, no nation is immune. Beurocracies breed stupidity. Three mile island, Chyrnoble.. Donald Trump. What comes around goes around. Government is like playing hot potato with a flaming bag of shit. Eventually the bag is going to break.

      Does France really want to usher in an era of neo-colonialism? If they start that trend, they aren't going to be the last one to come up with the idea that fratricide-by-proxy, is a good way to deal with the unemployed. Which is really what we are talking about here. Starting a war to redirect angst into jingoism and nationalistic violence.

  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday August 08 2020, @09:34AM

    by driverless (4770) on Saturday August 08 2020, @09:34AM (#1033394)

    That doesn't necessarily mean much. Port facilities eventually end up storing one of everything on earth somewhere in warehouses or piles of shipping containers, and with badly-managed ones you don't know where or what half of it is. So post facto you can combine any of this random clutter in any way you want to retcon in any story you feel like.