Anti-government protests break out in Lebanon

Lebanese government scraps WhatsApp fee as people vent their anger at political elite in second nationwide protests in less than a month.
Second wave of nationwide demonstrations in weeks
Dozens injured as police clash with protesters, fire tear gas
Government forced to cancel Whatsapp levy

BEIRUT - Demonstrators and police clashed in Lebanon on Thursday as thousands of people rallied against the government's handling of an economic crisis, in one of the biggest protests the country has seen in years.

The government backed down from plans, announced hours earlier, to tax voice calls made through the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging software as people vented their anger at the political elite in the second nationwide protests in less than a month.

Protesters blocked roads across Lebanon with burning tyres and security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in central Beirut early on Friday, Lebanese media said. Dozens of people were wounded, the Red Cross said. Lebanon's internal security forces said 60 police were wounded after some protesters threw stones, shoes and water bottles at them.

"I was sitting at home and I saw the people on the move and so I came out," said Cezar Shaaya, an accountant protesting in Beirut. "I am married, I have mortgage payments due every month and I am not working. It's the state's fault."

Throughout Thursday night, crowds gathered in the capital Beirut's Riad al-Solh square, some waving Lebanese flags and singing.

"The people want to topple the regime," they chanted.

Nearby, dozens of young men on motorcycles circled a main crossroad and set tyres on fire, some of them ripping out billboards to toss them into the rising flames.

In some cases the demonstrations evolved into riots, as protesters set fire to buildings and smashed window fronts, taking their anger out on politicians they accuse of corruption and decades of mismanagement.

The National News Agency (NNA) said two foreign workers choked to death early Friday after they were trapped in a building set alight by rioters. Some reports said the two men were Syrians.

A security source said one protester was killed and four wounded after the bodyguards of a former member of parliament fired into the air in the northern city of Tripoli.

Anger piling up

The government, which has declared a state of "economic emergency", is seeking ways to narrow its gaping deficit.

A protester burning tyres in the southern village of Tel Nhas said: "We are asking for jobs, for our rights, electricity, water, we are demanding education".

Lebanon faces high debt, stagnant growth, crumbling infrastructure and reduced capital inflows. The Lebanese pound, pegged against the dollar for two decades, has been under pressure.

Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's government of national unity is seeking to approve a 2020 budget, a step that may help it unlock billions pledged by international donors.

But donors want to see Beirut implement long-delayed reforms to curb waste and corruption.

"We are not here over the WhatsApp, we are here over everything: over fuel, food, bread, over everything," said a protester in Beirut who gave his name as Abdullah.

Yara, a 23-year-old graduate, said she joined up because the protests were not sectarian.

"For once people are saying it doesn't matter the religion, it doesn't matter which political party you are following," she said. "Today what matters is that all of the Lebanese people are protesting together."

In a sign of the scale of the popular anger, demonstrations were reported Thursday in neighbourhoods dominated by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia Muslim movement not used to opposition in its own bastions.

Shia protesters attacked the offices of their deputies from Hezbollah and of the Amal movement in southern Lebanon.

Protesters also burned pictures of Hariri in the northern city of Tripoli, where he is influential, and others protested near Beirut against President Michel Aoun.

Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs think-tank, said the protests were "totally spontaneous" and appeared to be against the entire political class.

"The protests are a result of a piling up of grievances, resulting mainly from government mismanagement," he said.

Plummeting growth

They are the largest demonstrations since a 2015 refuse collection crisis sparked widespread anti-government protests. The government has also come under heavy criticism over its response to forest fires that have recently spread in Lebanon.

The education ministry said schools would close as protesters continue taking to the streets, and public administration employees declared a strike so that workers could join protests on Friday.

The government unveiled a new revenue-raising measure earlier on Thursday, agreeing a charge of 20 cents a day for calls via voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP), used by applications including WhatsApp, Facebook calls and FaceTime.

Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah said ministers also would discuss a proposal to raise value-added tax by 2 percentage points in 2021 and a further 2 percentage points in 2022, until it reached 15%.

But as protests spread across Lebanon, Telecoms Minister Mohamed Choucair told journalists the proposed levy on WhatsApp calls had been revoked.

Hariri had said the measure was expected to net about $200 million in revenue for the state each year.

Lebanon has only two mobile service providers, both state-owned, and some of the most costly mobile rates in the region.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said the draft budget he had submitted to the Cabinet was free of new taxes and he remained committed to passing a budget without new taxes.

Addressing protesters from the presidential palace on Friday, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said the government must work to stop corruption and avoid imposing new taxes.

"Any alternative to the current government would be far worse and might lead the country into catastrophe and strife," said Bassil, dismissing calls for the administration to resign.

Lebanon's prime minister, in his own address to the nation, gave politicians a 72-hour ultimatum to back his reform agenda. Hariri blamed political partners in his national unity government, which includes Hezbollah, for repeatedly blocking his reform efforts.

He called on them to make "clear, decisive and final" decisions regarding his proposed structural reforms to fix the ailing and heavily indebted economy. Hariri appeared to suggest he would resign if that did not happen, but he did not elaborate.

The demonstrations come at a time of deep divisions within the government over a raft of issues, including not only the economic reform package, but also the allocation of public sector positions and rapprochement with the resurgent Syrian government.

Growth in Lebanon has plummeted in the face of repeated political deadlock in recent years, compounded by the impact of eight years of war in neighbouring Syria.

"Most high-frequency indicators point towards a continuation of weak growth in 2019," the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

Lebanon's public debt stands at around $86 billion - more than 150 percent of gross domestic product - according to the finance ministry.

Last month, banks and money exchange houses rationed dollar sales, sparking fears of a devaluation of the Lebanese pound.