2020 by the Young Diplomats Society

D EFFECTS OF THE BEIRUT EXPLOSION
In Beirut, Lebanon thousands of people are rebuilding from the
devastation left by the explosion on 4 August this year. Some
300,000 people were left homeless – that's 5% of the whole
population – 200 are dead and 5,000 were injured. The culprit?
Sheer neglect by the Lebanese government.
In 2013 customs officials confiscated some 2,750 tonnes of
ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used for mining,
quarrying and other industrial uses, from a Russian-owned ship.
There was talk of exporting it or giving it to the army, but the
government approval that was needed never came. Officials at
the port warned that the ammonium nitrate was the equivalent
of leaving a bomb on the doorstep of the city, yet they were
ignored.
The Lebanese government for more than a decade could not
agree on a budget. This government also left the same person
in charge of the central bank for almost 30 years while it ran
what is essentially a state-sanctioned pyramid scheme,
involving paying back debts by maintaining the Lebanese pound
fixed exchange rate through pegging it to the US dollar. This has
created an unsustainable economic model which is evident, for
example, in the government’s lack of investment in the service
sector. Lebanon cannot maintain 24-hour electricity and rubbish
is littered on the streets of Beirut. The explosion is a
catastrophic situation that served to amplify the negligence of
the government.
The country has been slipping into an economic crisis since
October 2019, with the Lebanese pound losing most of its
value and resulting in runaway inflation. In a country that
imports almost everything from food to fuel, inflation is sitting
at around 80% and for food around 200%. Fuel shortages
continually cause black outs, some lasting 20 hours or more.
This has led to widespread poverty: official figures show that at
least half the country is below the poverty line and that this
could rise to 75% by the end of the year.
A new technocratic government was installed in January to
tackle the current looming crisis and negotiate a rescue
agreement with the IMF, yet it has made almost no progress.
Negotiation with the IMF cannot happen while officials are still
negotiating a plan among themselves.
In September, Lebanon’s Prime Minister resigned amid a
political impasse over the formation of Cabinet and
increasing calls for the government to step down. The
government is now in caretaker mode, meaning that the
current administration will remain until a new one is
formed and a new leader is chosen, which is up to the
parliament to decide. However, this is likely to be mired in
the same corrupt bureaucratic process which many people
have been protesting against for the past months.
Over one hundred days after the explosion, a 350-page
report was released by Lebanon’s elite Information Branch
intelligence agency. The report found that a host of state
officials and security agencies were responsible for the
explosion. Al Jazeera was told by a senior judicial source
familiar with the agency’s report that the Beirut Port
Authority and Lebanese Customs are to blame for leaving
the ammonium nitrate at Hangar 12 for nearly seven years
in unsafe conditions. The current and former customs
chiefs Badri Daher and Shafik Merhi were noted as
admitting that they could have acted on their own to
remove the explosives and prevent the blast.
Many survivors, human rights advocates and lawyers are
still calling for an international investigation into the
explosion, as there are reservations about the recent
report. According to Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), “an
independent and impartial fact-finding mission is now
required to establish the facts of the explosion but equally
the root causes, which include a vacuum of rule of law and
lack of effective governance”. An international probe must
be conducted to ensure accountability given the politically
exposed nature of the Lebanese courts. Victims and their
families “should not be a ‘test’ case for the justice system
to show that it has changed and that ‘truth’ will prevail –
history has shown that this is not possible”.
The Beirut explosion is a symbol of neglect and of suffering
which could have been avoided. The focus must now be on
meaningful change, conducting an internationally-led
inquiry to secure accountability and justice, and
restructuring the Lebanese government to ensure that
such grave neglect of citizens never happens again.
GEN MARCOCCI