Hundreds of Lebanese including a large number of retired military demonstrated in Beirut on Wednesday against deteriorating living conditions and the vertiginous collapse of the national currency, before being dispersed with tear gas by the forces of the 'order.
The demonstration recalled the protest movement of October 2019, when the Lebanese took to the streets en masse across the country, against a political class accused of corruption and which is still in place.
On Wednesday, demonstrators gathered in central Beirut, at the call of groups of savers and retired military personnel, to protest against the collapse of the Lebanese pound, which has lost more than 98% of its value. since fall 2019.
Waving Lebanese flags, protesters shouted down the government. One of the retired soldiers, in fatigues, held a sign calling on "the international community and the Arab countries to rid us of the corrupt political class".
When they attempted to storm the seat of government, security forces dispersed them with tear gas and some retaliated with stones, before the protest movement ended.
A demonstrator was injured as well as a member of the security forces, noted an AFP journalist.
"I received 4,000 dollars a month before the crisis. Today, my pension is only worth 150 dollars," Khaled Naous, a 70-year-old retired general, told AFP: "We are humiliated and we are to the desperate".
The situation of retired soldiers is even more dramatic: "My pension is 50 dollars and I no longer have enough to feed my five children," said one of them, Marwane Seifeddine, 60.
Since the economic crisis that broke out in the fall of 2019, wages have literally melted away, while savers no longer have access to their savings, blocked by banks.
"We retired in the hope of living comfortably and educating our children (...) but they kept our money in the banks and we have to beg for our own money", regretted Amal Hammoud , an army captain, 53 years old and retired since 2021.
"People are demanding their most basic rights (...), but they are being answered with tear gas," she added.
"My salary was 2,450 dollars before the crisis, today I earn 100 dollars a month," said Hatem, a 73-year-old retired teacher: "when I have nothing left to eat at home house, I will wait for death".
The exchange rate of the dollar against the Lebanese pound, which fluctuates from hour to hour, had reached a peak of 140,000 LBP for the dollar on Wednesday, before falling to around 110,000 LBP on Thursday, while the dollar was worth 1,500 LBP before crisis.
Lebanon is experiencing one of the worst economic crises in the world since 1850 according to the World Bank, marked by an unprecedented impoverishment of the population.
The deep political crisis that the country is going through is aggravating the situation, the deputies failing to agree to elect a new President of the Republic since November.
The country is led by a resigning government with reduced powers. On the sidelines of the demonstration, a delegation of retired soldiers met the Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, to convey their demands to him, reported the National News Agency (Ani, official).
22/03/2023 20:20:43 - Beirut (AFP) © 2023 AFP
