BEIRUT (AP) – It is an expression of anger but also of impotence: Lebanon’s anti-government protesters are burning tires to block key roads, releasing dense smoke rising above the capital Beirut and other parts of the country.
Tactics have become the hallmark of a new outbreak of protests against an uncompromising political class that seems to be doing little as its country slides into the political and economic abyss. Lebanon is embroiled in the worst economic crisis in its modern history, and the situation has been exacerbated by pandemic restrictions and an overflowing health sector.
“Fire unleashes our anger. It reassures our hearts, “said Mounir Hujairi, a 23-year-old protester from Baalbek, northeastern Lebanon, who juggles low-paying daily jobs and protests.
The soot and smoke from the tires blacken the faces of protesters with anti-virus masks in traffic neighborhoods that cut off traffic around Beirut and between cities. The persistence of the protesters and the daily burning of tires underscore the difficulty of the country’s problems.
Anti-government rallies began to take over Lebanon in late 2019. Since then, the local currency has collapsed after being pegged to the dollar for nearly 30 years. Wages have remained the same as inflation. People lost their jobs and poverty affected almost 50% of the population.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s sectarian-based political system is stuck. Politicians have refused to commit to forming a government or making difficult financial decisions for fear of losing their influence or base of support.
Exhausted, frightened and restrained by the coronavirus, Lebanese have seen members of the ruling elite blame each other for the crisis.
Last week, the currency hit a record low, trading on the black market at £ 11,000 per dollar, below 1,500 officials, prompting a new wave of protests.
“The solution will only come through the streets,” said Hujairi, who has been involved in the protests since October 2019. “Of course, those who have streets or the streets of their blocked political parties get angry.”
Obstacles are a desperate way to regain the anger felt across the country in 2019, when the government was forced to resign, sparking a brief period of euphoria and hope that change is possible.
The national mood is now more formidable. Officials have warned of the chaos and some have argued that the protests were manipulated by political groups to ignite violence or extract concessions from rivals.
Many fear that social tension has reached levels not seen since the outbreak of the civil war in April 1975. During the next 15 years of conflict, tire burning became commonplace: a cheap way to establish bars between warring factions.
Tire fires are difficult to put out and can continue for hours, drawing attention and driving away rivals.
The tactic has been used in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Sudan.
Palestinians burned tires during protests against the Israeli occupation that began in their first uprising that erupted in 1987. Three decades later, during protests against an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade of Gaza, young people formed. ” tire equipment “that drove the small coastal strip on motorbike rickshaws to collect tires to burn. The dark black smoke served to obscure the identities of those who threw stones at Israeli forces.
Open tire fires, which were used in some countries to power ovens, have been banned in most parts of the world due to their high emissions of pollutants.
Sahar Mandour, a Lebanese researcher with Amnesty International, said the practice of burning tires as a form of protest was picked up in many countries in the 1980s. But since then it has gone out of style due to the environmental impact.
“It simply came to our notice then. … But not Lebanon, ”he said. “We have the same parties and the same leaders, so the tools are the same.”
Hujairi claims that he and his friends burn between 100 and 150 tires a day. He said they were collecting used tires and punctured with piles of rubbish, rejecting claims that political parties handed them out.
“A little black smoke won’t hurt,” Hujairi said in response to the criticism. “There is no way to get to the houses of politicians.”