3 Years After the Beirut Port Explosion: Still No Justice
Washington Watch
August 7, 2023
Dr. James J. Zogby ©
President
Arab American Institute
On August 4, 2020, I was bracing for my 53rd wedding anniversary—the first following the death of my wife, Eileen—when news broke of a massive explosion in the Port of Beirut. Thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, stored in the port’s grain silos, detonated causing the largest non-nuclear blast in modern times. The death toll was 240, with more than 7,000 injured and 300,000 left homeless.
I was distracted from my personal grief by the horrifying scenes of the explosion and heart-wrenching agony of Lebanese, still in shock, searching for loved ones amidst the rubble that had once been their homes and neighborhoods. And I was moved by the heroism of those young Lebanese responding to the humanitarian disaster. Less than a year earlier they had filled the streets of Beirut calling for an end to the corrupt, sectarian system that had turned governance in Lebanon into a bad joke. Now they were assisting relief efforts and offering support and shelter to their compatriots.
When, four days after the blast, French President Emmanuel Macron—and not their own president or prime minister—visited the devastated port neighborhood, the shock and grief gave way to anger. Leaders of their “government,” such as it was, were conspicuous by their absence and their pathetic and transparent efforts to deny responsibility for the circumstances leading up to the explosion. In protest against the government’s failure to respond to the crisis, some members of Parliament resigned. Recognizing the public’s loss of confidence, the prime minister eventually resigned as well.
It was noteworthy that Macron also pledged to lead an international effort to secure relief assistance for Lebanon on the condition that the Lebanese put their house in order by making reforms that would ensure greater transparency in governance and an end to corruption. A few days after Macron’s demand, when Lebanese saw the same cast of characters who had so miserably failed the country convening to respond to Macron’s call for reforms, they didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or be outraged. They knew nothing would change. And nothing did.
While rescue and relief efforts were still underway, some independent-minded members of Parliament and civil society leaders petitioned the United Nations to open an investigation into the explosion—a call that had widespread public support. In fact, a poll we conducted two years after the blast showed more than nine in 10 Lebanese supporting an independent investigation to determine how and why the explosion occurred and to hold accountable those who may have been responsible.
Now, three years after the Port explosion, there is still no accountability or justice. There has been no action by the international community to respond to the appeal from Lebanese civil society. An investigation by the somewhat independent Lebanese judiciary has been hamstrung by political interference and stonewalling. Ministers and other officials have refused to give testimony, judges who persisted in the inquiry have been removed, and individuals held on suspicion of responsibility have been ordered released, with some leaving the country.
It was left to Human Rights Watch to conduct an exhaustive study based on interviews and a review of documents obtained from several ministries. Its investigation concluded from available evidence that several senior Lebanese officials had knowledge and failed to act when warned of the dangers posed by storing the ammonium nitrate in the Port. HRW’s report also reveals a pattern of neglect both before and after the blast as the president, prime minister, and other officials sought to delay action, shift blame to subordinates, and, as the HRW report’s principal author concludes, “choose a path of evasion and impunity over truth and justice.”
The HRW report concludes with the demand that “the UN Human Rights Council should immediately authorize an investigation, and other countries should impose targeted sanctions on those implicated in ongoing abuses and efforts to impede justice.” That report and its demand for an investigation was issued two years ago. Still there is no action.
Three years after the blast and Macron’s demand for reform, Lebanon is in a worse state than it was before. The Parliament won’t meet because its members can’t agree on a president. The banking and financial systems are in a state of collapse, with individuals staging armed holdups to demand the right to withdraw their own money to pay for medical bills. Water, electricity, and medicines are in short supply. Three-quarters of the population are living below the poverty line, while the same corrupt sectarian elites who have paralyzed the country continue to play their deadly games. And the families of victims and survivors of the explosion still cry out in grief for answers and justice.
By any measure, Lebanon is a failed state—it is missing a government that can protect its people and provide them with order and essential services. In response to this collapse of the Lebanese state, seven months ago, Ralph Nader and I urged Lebanese civil society to begin a nationwide drive to petition the United Nations to declare Lebanon a Chapter 7 failed state and to impose a government of skilled Lebanese, including qualified expatriates who could revamp the electoral system to provide for “one man, one vote” nonsectarian governance.
On the third anniversary of the Port blast, with all of the disasters that have followed, that proposal remains urgent. If Lebanon is to be saved, the answer will come, not from the same old Lebanese politicians who have brought Lebanon to its knees, but from the mobilized Lebanese people with the support of the international community.