Tent City To Celebrate First Anniversary
The Hizbullah-led opposition on Saturday marks the first anniversary of its central Beirut sit-in that has sent 2,700 people unemployed and forced closure of 75 restaurants and coffee shops.
Nevertheless, the protestors vowed to maintain their Tent City for years if need be to force the resignation of Premier Fouad Saniora”s majority government.
“The sit-in began because there is a government that we consider illegitimate, and as long as our goal has not been achieved we will stay there indefinitely,” Hizbullah spokesman Hussein Rahal told Agence France Presse.
The continued protest comes as the country grapples with a dangerous political vacuum that has left the presidency vacant because of a standoff between pro- and anti-Syrian factions.
The year-long sit-in has transformed a large swathe of Beirut”s usually bustling downtown into a ghost town and led to the shutdown of some 200 businesses and thousands of job losses.
And although the sprawling tent city pitched by the protestors on streets leading to Saniora”s offices is now
empty for the most part, it is a sore reminder for passersby of the crisis pitting the government against the Shiite militant group and its ally, opposition leader Michel Aoun.
Groups of young men mill outside the tents at night, some smoking water pipes and others chit-chatting about politics, reading a newspaper or watching television.
Several of the militants interviewed by AFP said they work in shifts manning the tents — which they said number 600 — with some going to work during the day and returning to the camp at night.
“When we started we thought the government would fall quickly but the days have gone by and now I think it will take a while,” Emile Hashem, a spokesman for the militants loyal to Aoun, told AFP.
“Still, we are ready to stay until Saniora leaves and if that takes 10 years so be it,” he added.
“We are here 24 hours a day and we are staying,” chimed in a Hizbullah militant who did not wish to give his name.
Hashem and a Hizbullah official said a rally was planned Saturday to commemorate the year-long sit-in.
The prime minister for his part has ignored the protestors camped under his windows and refrained from removing them by force to avoid an escalation.
“Mr. Saniora respects their right to demonstrate but what they are doing is infringing on people”s freedom and it is translating into millions of dollars in losses for businesses,” his spokesman Aref El-Abed told AFP.
Ralph Eid, who owns a shoe store in the downtown area and is a member of the merchants” association, said the Hizbullah-led standoff with the government had spelled the death knell for many businesses.
“They have taken us hostage by their action,” he said. “If they want to make a political statement, they can do so for a day, two or 10 days, but it”s been a full year and they are killing everybody”s business,” he said.
Tarek Barakat, a member of the local restaurant association, said of the 105 restaurants, snack bars and coffee shops that operated in the downtown area, only 30 were still in business and some 2,700 employees had lost their jobs.
“It”s been more than a disaster because a disaster has an end,” Barakat said. “And here there is no end.”