Ana Maria Luca: Who were the “infiltrators” at Beirut’s /YouStink protests?/Lebanese Government Cancels Waste Disposal Bids, to Set up Temporary Dump in Akkar despite Hizbullah, FPM Withdrawal

Who were the “infiltrators” at Beirut’s #YouStink protests?
Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/Published: 25/08/201

At least 20 people were injured Sunday in Beirut during a second day of clashes between police and protesters angry about the Lebanese government. When the clashes started on Saturday they were nowhere to be seen. While the teargas grenades fell on the street in Riadh el-Solh Square in front of the Lebanese government and the water cannons sprayed the human wall of the #YouStink movement, the protesters saw only familiar faces around them. This was, after all, Lebanon: everybody knows everyone. “It was just us, the activists. We were very confused, running around,” protestor Yasmina told NOW. Yasmina spent the weekend in downtown Beirut protesting against the trash crisis.

The alleged infiltrators started showing up at around midnight on Saturday, when the protests had calmed down and activists were trying to regroup in Riad el-Solh Square. The protesters of the #YouStink movement had a sit-in similar to the Ukrainian Orange revolution in mind: a tent village in Beirut’s administrative center. “Suddenly they were there. We wanted to bring tents and sleep there,” said Tina, another protestor. “But they had tents of their own — three to six tents, and they were sitting there, having arghileh. Then, at around 2:00 am, while I was walking home, I saw a group of them planning to throw some garbage bags at the police. I don’t know where they had gotten the bags. I didn’t see what happened next, but I think they gave up on the idea.”

These men were at the heart of the clashes with the security forces in central Beirut last Sunday. The #YouStink protest had been drowned in tear gas and rubber bullets on Saturday night. The social movement that organized the demonstration called for a calm and peaceful sit-in, condemning the harsh crackdown by security forces. On Sunday night, however, after Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s speech, masked young men showed up and attempted to remove the barbwire fence between the police and the demonstrators, provoking the security forces into a clash. Journalists at the scene called them “infiltrators.” The National News Agency correspondent on the scene said, “Infiltrators among the demonstrators in Central Beirut are throwing Molotov cocktails at security forces.” Some of the protesters called them “uncivilized thugs” from the Shiyah and Khandaq al-Ghamiq neighborhoods of Beirut, accusing Amal Movement of sending its supporters to discredit the #YouStink movement.

A tale of two crowds
The protests had been peaceful until the infiltrators showed up — a compact and shirtless group that pushed through the crowd to make their way towards the security forces. Many of them wore the sword of Ali around their necks and had “313” [the 313 followers of Imam Mahdi, who in Shia Islam are prophesied to aid him when he rises again] tattooed on their arms and backs. “It was obvious that they were up to something,” Yasmina said. The #YouStink protesters stood aside and let them pass.

Jean Pierre, another #YouStink protester, told NOW that the infiltrators seemed well organized and determined to cause trouble. “They arrived at around 7:30 pm, all young, many were teenagers. Half of them had their faces covered with a T-shirt or colored scarf,” he said. “They pushed away the people who had been there before. They were sticking together as one group; they did not interact with us, the protesters. They were like a monolith, very close to each other. They looked like they were heading to a battlefield.”

“They were taking over,” Yasmina said. “They were different than us; we knew they were not the people who were there with us getting beaten up on Saturday. We stayed away, moved to the other side and left them to do whatever they were doing.” Jean Pierre, however, witnessed something more and it worried him. The new protestors were chanting “down with the system” and cursing profusely. He said one of the boys in the group the shouted, apparently by accident, “God, Nasrallah and all Dahiyeh.” “The rest of the group yelled at him to shut up. This slogan was not supposed to be chanted there.”Agitators and infiltrators, or simply a mixed movement?

Some #YouStink activists said that the young men causing trouble at the protest were angered by slogans against Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri, and actually threatened demonstrators who chanted against him. Their insignia, their tattoos, and the graffiti they left behind, such as “Mahdi is coming 313,” are characteristic of Amal Movement supporters. A protester downtown on Sunday also said they had sprayed slogans like “Independence. Thief. Beirut is ours” and “A thug died. Your turn is coming” on pictures of former Sunni Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Emir Faqih, a #YouStink organizer, told An-Nahar he and his colleagues had watched the infiltrators closely and that they seemed to be Amal Movement supporters.The Amal Movement dismissed “media claims” that “members of the movement tried to spark a riot” as “devoid of truth” and a “blatant attempt to incite to sedition.”

Chasing common ground
Eli, another #YouStink protestor, said that many people were wrong to believe that only the so-called infiltrators had fought with the police, adding that the agitators did not stay in the square for long. “They showed up several times. In the afternoon, at around five or six, they came and chanted something related to football and then left quickly. They came back at 7.30 banging plastic bottles on the asphalt and started the clash with the security forces. But they only stayed for half an hour and then disappeared. The clashes were continued by the #YouStink protesters, just like on Saturday,” he said. He also said that not all the young men who wore the sword of Ali necklaces and had 313 tattoos were part of the agitators or infiltrators. “There were many people from Shiyah and Khandaq al-Ghamiq who were there with us on both days. They are part of the movement; they’re not infiltrators.”

Yasmina also said that after the clash started “everybody got very excited” and the two groups merged. “At a certain point, we weren’t sure anymore who was fighting the security forces.”The #YouStink campaign faced a deadlock after the clashes on Sunday. On Monday afternoon, at a press conference, the movement called for new protests on Saturday, 29 August, at 6:00 pm. However, many activists continued to protest in Riad el-Solh on Monday and Tuesday. Some of the #YouStink protesters also accusedtheir fellow demonstrators of sectarianism and of labeling some of the movement members as “uncivilized thugs” because they came from poor neighborhoods.
“I think we should embrace everything and everyone and find a common ground,” said Yasmina. “We’re not going away and they are not going away. We need to sit together and see what everybody’s demands are.

Lebanese Government  Cancels Waste Disposal Bids, to Set up Temporary Dump in Akkar despite Hizbullah, FPM Withdrawal
Naharnet/August 25/15/The cabinet agreed on Tuesday to cancel the waste management bids that were presented on Monday, during an extraordinary session that witnessed the withdrawal of Hizbullah, Free Patriotic Movement and Tashnag ministers over what Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil described as a “farce.” The government agreed to dedicate 100 million dollars to set up a temporary dump in the impoverished northern region of Akkar. The dump will only be established for three years. The funds will also be used for development projects in the area. The waste management bids will be referred once again to the concerned ministerial committee, said Information Minister Ramzi Jreij after the session. A number of politicians had voiced their rejection of the bids due to their “high prices.”

The decision on the elimination of the bids was taken by 16 ministers, but not through a vote, which is the normal course of action that is usually taken, reported LBCI television. Jreij explained that the Hizbullah and FPM ministers withdrew from the session after the agreement on Akkar had been reached. He also revealed that the cabinet’s decision to cancel the tenders was based on a recommendation by Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq, who objected to their high prices. Earlier, Bassil told reporters: “Our withdrawal comes as a result of a farce” on the waste crisis. Hizbullah’s Agriculture Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan also said: “We withdrew from the cabinet session because most parties insist on not listening to our demands of real partnership.”Mashnouq announced on Monday the names of companies that won the bidding to manage trash, describing the process as “transparent” and a “significant achievement.”But the move drew criticism from Speaker Nabih Berri, the FPM and other parties. Berri, whose AMAL movement is represented in the cabinet, demanded the “reevaluation” or a “total annulment” of the bids, saying the prices were high.

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, who is one of the FPM representatives in the government, also told local dailies published on Tuesday that the unsealing of the bids is a “big scandal.”He compared the waste crisis to a chicken that lays a golden egg. “If you want to fight it, then you should fight those benefiting from this gold. This is the battle. Either they or the people would win,” he said. The “You Stink” online group has been holding protests against the trash crisis that erupted when the Naameh landfill south of Beirut was closed on July 17. But the protests, which began as peaceful demonstrations, turned violent this weekend. A small group of young men, allegedly thugs, repeatedly tried to tear down a barbed wire fence separating the crowds from the Grand Serail in downtown Beirut. Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq proposed during the cabinet session to transfer the waste to the northern Akkar district in return for carrying out development projects there.
But Bou Saab said he rejected the proposal.

Salam Adamant to Implement Cabinet Decisions
Naharnet/August 25/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam has stressed that decisions taken by the majority of cabinet members will be implemented despite attempts by some parties to obstruct them. “Even in the presence of a president, the Constitution grants him a time limit to review the decisions. They will be implemented when the deadline expires,” Salam told al-Akhbar daily in an interview published on Tuesday. Salam’s remarks were seen as a direct response to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s insistence that decrees issued by the cabinet after garnering the signatures of 18 ministers are not legal. Aoun, who argues that the decrees infringe on the powers of the Christian president, held on Monday phone conversations with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Amin Gemayel of the Kataeb Party and Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh.

In the interview with al-Akhbar, Salam said that the rival parties should resolve their differences outside the cabinet. “Settle your scores somewhere else and not in this government,” Salam told the parties represented in the cabinet. The PM told al-Akhbar that on several occasions, he gave time for the rivals to reach settlements. “But no one is responding.”When Baabda Palace became vacant “we agreed on unanimity inside the cabinet to avoid the obstruction of productivity … Then we agreed for consensus to be the basis of the government’s work,” said Salam. “But this also drowned us in paralysis,” he stated. “Are we able to remain in this paralysis that is being imposed on us?” Salam asked. “If I will continue to assume my responsibilities, then I should practice them and not observe them,” he said.