A general view shows the Beirut silos damaged in the August 2020 port blast
Wed, August 3, 2022
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon on Thursday marks the second anniversary of the Beirut port explosion which killed at least 215 people, wounded thousands and damaged swathes of the capital.
Despite the devastation wrought by the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, a judicial investigation has brought no senior official to account.
With the probe frozen for months, many Lebanese see this as an example of the impunity enjoyed by a ruling elite that has long avoided accountability for corruption and bad governance, including policies that led to a financial collapse.
Here is a recap of how the blast happened, and the obstacles that have paralysed the investigation.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The explosion just after 6 p.m. on August 4, 2020, resulted from the detonation of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate which ignited as a blaze tore through the warehouse where they were stored.
Originally bound for Mozambique aboard a Russian-leased ship, the chemicals had been at the port since 2013, when they were unloaded during an unscheduled stop to take on extra cargo.
The ship never left the port, becoming tangled in a legal dispute over unpaid port fees and ship defects.
No one ever came forward to claim the shipment.
The amount of ammonium nitrate that blew up was one fifth of the 2,754 tonnes unloaded in 2013, the FBI concluded, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone missing.
The blast was so powerful it was felt 250 km away in Cyprus and sent a mushroom cloud over Beirut.
WHO KNEW ABOUT THE CHEMICALS?
Senior Lebanese officials, including President Michel Aoun and then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab, were aware of the cargo.
Aoun said shortly after the blast he had told security chiefs to "do what is necessary" after learning of the chemicals. Diab has said his conscience is clear.
Human Rights Watch said in a report last year that high-level security and government officials "foresaw the significant threat to life ... and tacitly accepted the risk of deaths occurring".
WHO HAS INVESTIGATED THE BLAST?
The justice minister appointed Judge Fadi Sawan head investigator shortly after the blast. Sawan charged three ex-ministers and Diab with negligence over the blast in December, 2020, but then hit strong political pushback.
A court removed him from the case in February, 2021 after two of the ex-ministers - Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeitar - complained he had overstepped his powers.
Judge Tarek Bitar was appointed to replace Sawan. He sought to interrogate senior figures including Zeitar and Khalil, both of them members of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's Amal Movement and allies of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
He also sought to question Major-General Abbas Ibrahim, head of the powerful General Security agency.
All have denied wrongdoing.
HOW HAS THE PROBE BEEN STYMIED?
All of the current and former officials Bitar has sought to question as suspects have resisted, arguing they have immunity or that he lacks authority to prosecute them.
This tussle has played out in the courts, in political life and on the streets.
Suspects swamped courts last year with more than two dozen legal cases seeking Bitar's removal over alleged bias and "grave mistakes", leading to several suspensions of the investigation.
The ex-ministers have said any cases against them should be heard by a special court for presidents and ministers. That court has never held a single official accountable, and it would pass control of the probe to ruling parties in parliament.
The probe has been in complete limbo since early 2022 due to the retirement of judges from a court that must rule on several complaints against Bitar before he can continue.
The finance minister - who is backed by Berri - has held off signing a decree appointing new judges, citing concerns with the sectarian balance of the bench.
WHAT DOES HEZBOLLAH THINK?
Bitar has not pursued any members of the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
But Hezbollah campaigned fiercely against him last year as he sought to question its allies. One senior Hezbollah official sent Bitar a message warning that the group would "uproot" him.
An anti-Bitar protest called by Hezbollah and its allies last October escalated into deadly violence.
Hezbollah has accused the United States, which lists the group as a terrorist organisation, of meddling in the probe.
The U.S. ambassador has denied this.
Hezbollah dismissed accusations made at the time of the blast that it had stored arms at the port and says it had nothing to do with the blast. Its adversaries have long accused the group of controlling the port - something it also denies.
(Writing by Timour Azhari and Tom Perry, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Groups ask UN to investigate Beirut's massive 2020 blast
FA rescue team surveys the site of a massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 7, 2020. A group of Lebanese and international organizations on Wednesday, Aug, 3, 2022, called on members of the U.N. Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the Beirut Port blast two years ago. The call came as the domestic investigation has been stalled since December following legal challenges by charged officials against the judge leading the investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 blast that killed nearly 220 and injured over 6,000.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese and international organizations Wednesday called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the Beirut port blast two years ago, as a domestic probe continues to stall.
The call by groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International came as the Lebanese investigation has been stalled since December following legal challenges by charged and accused officials against the judge leading the investigation. The Aug. 4, 2020 blast killed nearly 220 people, injured over 6,000 and caused widespread damage in Beirut.
The call also came amid concerns that a large section of the port's giant grain silos, shredded by the massive explosion, might collapse days after a smaller part fell following a weekslong fire of fermented grain ignited by the scorching summer heat. Lebanese authorities closed a main road outside the port and directed traffic into internal streets as a precautionary measure.
The northern block of the silos has been slowly tilting for days since the other part collapsed Sunday.
A group of U.N. experts also called Wednesday for an international investigation saying “this tragedy marked one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in recent memory, yet the world has done nothing to find out why it happened.”
The organizations called on the U.N. rights council to put forward a resolution at the upcoming council session in September that would dispatch “without delay, an independent and impartial fact-finding mission” for the explosion.
They believe the mission would establish the facts surrounding the explosion, including the root causes, without political intervention. This would support the victims’ campaign for an effective investigation, they said. The groups want to establish state and individual responsibility and support justice for the victims.
Many have blamed the Lebanese government’s longtime corruption and mismanagement for the tragedy considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history when hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilizers, detonated at the port.
Official correspondence between political, security and judicial officials reveal that many were aware about the hazardous substances unloaded in the port a decade ago without taking meaningful action to remove it.
After the blast, port, customs and legal documents revealed that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 on a worn out Russian ship and stored improperly at a port warehouse ever since.
Tarek Bitar, the judge leading the Lebanese investigation, charged four former senior government officials with intentional killing and negligence that led to the deaths of dozens of people. He also charged several top security officials in the case.
None of them have been detained and two of those charged were re-elected to parliament in May.
An initial investigation by Human Rights Watch points to the potential involvement of foreign-owned companies, as well as senior political and security officials in Lebanon.
“It is now, more than ever, clear that the domestic investigation cannot deliver justice,” the groups said adding that the establishment of an international fact finding mission mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council is “all the more urgent.”
The group said that previous calls by survivors of the explosion and families of the victims remain unanswered.
“As the Lebanese authorities continue to brazenly obstruct and delay the domestic investigation into the port explosion, an international investigation is the only way forward to ensure that justice is delivered,” said Diana Semaan, acting deputy director at Amnesty International.
On Beirut blast anniversary, Christian patriarch condemns govt
Thu, August 4, 2022
(Reuters) -Lebanon's top Christian cleric on Thursday denounced his country's government for failing to bring to justice those responsible for the Beirut port blast, marking the huge explosion's second anniversary with demands for accountability.
Bechara Boutros al-Rai, in a mass commemorating its victims, said that "God condemns those officials" who were stalling investigations that the government "has no right" to block.
The blast at the port, which killed at least 220 people and was recorded as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, was caused by massive stores of ammonium nitrate kept at the site since 2013.
Two years on, no senior official has been held to account.
A domestic probe into the exact causes of the explosion - and who was responsible for or negligent regarding the ammonium nitrate's presence - has been stalled for more than six months.
There is still no unified official death toll. Two security sources told Reuters that their counts were at least 220 dead, with at least 20 more people unaccounted for, mostly Syrian nationals.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and John Stonestreet)
Truth about Beirut port blast cannot be hidden, pope says
Pope Francis holds weekly general audience at the Vatican
Wed, August 3, 2022
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Wednesday he hoped the people of Lebanon can be comforted by justice over the Beirut port blast that killed at least 215 people two years ago, saying "the truth can never be hidden".
Speaking at his weekly general audience, Francis noted that Thursday would be the second anniversary of the blast, which also wounded thousands of people and damaged large swathes of the capital.
"My thoughts go to the families of the victims of that disastrous event and to the dear Lebanese people. I pray so that each one can be consoled by faith and comforted by justice and by truth, which can never be hidden," he said.
Despite the devastation wrought by the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, a judicial investigation has brought no senior official to account.
With the probe frozen for months, many Lebanese see this as an example of the impunity enjoyed by a ruling elite that has long avoided accountability for corruption and bad governance, including policies that led to financial collapse.
Francis said he hoped that Lebanon, helped by the international community, could see a "renaissance" and be a land of peace and pluralism where members of different religions can live together in fraternity.
The pope was to have visited Lebanon in June but the trip was postponed, partly because of his health and partly because of the political situation in Lebanon.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Nick Macfie)
FA rescue team surveys the site of a massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 7, 2020. A group of Lebanese and international organizations on Wednesday, Aug, 3, 2022, called on members of the U.N. Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the Beirut Port blast two years ago. The call came as the domestic investigation has been stalled since December following legal challenges by charged officials against the judge leading the investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 blast that killed nearly 220 and injured over 6,000.
AP Photo/Thibault Camus
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese and international organizations Wednesday called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the Beirut port blast two years ago, as a domestic probe continues to stall.
The call by groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International came as the Lebanese investigation has been stalled since December following legal challenges by charged and accused officials against the judge leading the investigation. The Aug. 4, 2020 blast killed nearly 220 people, injured over 6,000 and caused widespread damage in Beirut.
The call also came amid concerns that a large section of the port's giant grain silos, shredded by the massive explosion, might collapse days after a smaller part fell following a weekslong fire of fermented grain ignited by the scorching summer heat. Lebanese authorities closed a main road outside the port and directed traffic into internal streets as a precautionary measure.
The northern block of the silos has been slowly tilting for days since the other part collapsed Sunday.
A group of U.N. experts also called Wednesday for an international investigation saying “this tragedy marked one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in recent memory, yet the world has done nothing to find out why it happened.”
The organizations called on the U.N. rights council to put forward a resolution at the upcoming council session in September that would dispatch “without delay, an independent and impartial fact-finding mission” for the explosion.
They believe the mission would establish the facts surrounding the explosion, including the root causes, without political intervention. This would support the victims’ campaign for an effective investigation, they said. The groups want to establish state and individual responsibility and support justice for the victims.
Many have blamed the Lebanese government’s longtime corruption and mismanagement for the tragedy considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history when hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilizers, detonated at the port.
Official correspondence between political, security and judicial officials reveal that many were aware about the hazardous substances unloaded in the port a decade ago without taking meaningful action to remove it.
After the blast, port, customs and legal documents revealed that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 on a worn out Russian ship and stored improperly at a port warehouse ever since.
Tarek Bitar, the judge leading the Lebanese investigation, charged four former senior government officials with intentional killing and negligence that led to the deaths of dozens of people. He also charged several top security officials in the case.
None of them have been detained and two of those charged were re-elected to parliament in May.
An initial investigation by Human Rights Watch points to the potential involvement of foreign-owned companies, as well as senior political and security officials in Lebanon.
“It is now, more than ever, clear that the domestic investigation cannot deliver justice,” the groups said adding that the establishment of an international fact finding mission mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council is “all the more urgent.”
The group said that previous calls by survivors of the explosion and families of the victims remain unanswered.
“As the Lebanese authorities continue to brazenly obstruct and delay the domestic investigation into the port explosion, an international investigation is the only way forward to ensure that justice is delivered,” said Diana Semaan, acting deputy director at Amnesty International.
On Beirut blast anniversary, Christian patriarch condemns govt
Thu, August 4, 2022
(Reuters) -Lebanon's top Christian cleric on Thursday denounced his country's government for failing to bring to justice those responsible for the Beirut port blast, marking the huge explosion's second anniversary with demands for accountability.
Bechara Boutros al-Rai, in a mass commemorating its victims, said that "God condemns those officials" who were stalling investigations that the government "has no right" to block.
The blast at the port, which killed at least 220 people and was recorded as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, was caused by massive stores of ammonium nitrate kept at the site since 2013.
Two years on, no senior official has been held to account.
A domestic probe into the exact causes of the explosion - and who was responsible for or negligent regarding the ammonium nitrate's presence - has been stalled for more than six months.
There is still no unified official death toll. Two security sources told Reuters that their counts were at least 220 dead, with at least 20 more people unaccounted for, mostly Syrian nationals.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and John Stonestreet)
Truth about Beirut port blast cannot be hidden, pope says
Pope Francis holds weekly general audience at the Vatican
Wed, August 3, 2022
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Wednesday he hoped the people of Lebanon can be comforted by justice over the Beirut port blast that killed at least 215 people two years ago, saying "the truth can never be hidden".
Speaking at his weekly general audience, Francis noted that Thursday would be the second anniversary of the blast, which also wounded thousands of people and damaged large swathes of the capital.
"My thoughts go to the families of the victims of that disastrous event and to the dear Lebanese people. I pray so that each one can be consoled by faith and comforted by justice and by truth, which can never be hidden," he said.
Despite the devastation wrought by the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, a judicial investigation has brought no senior official to account.
With the probe frozen for months, many Lebanese see this as an example of the impunity enjoyed by a ruling elite that has long avoided accountability for corruption and bad governance, including policies that led to financial collapse.
Francis said he hoped that Lebanon, helped by the international community, could see a "renaissance" and be a land of peace and pluralism where members of different religions can live together in fraternity.
The pope was to have visited Lebanon in June but the trip was postponed, partly because of his health and partly because of the political situation in Lebanon.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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