Today is marked by the closure of most businesses in Lebanon with the exception of pharmacies, bakeries and other essential establishments.
Also on this occasion, important demonstrations are expected at the end of marches which will begin around 3:30 p.m. from various gathering places to the scene of the tragedy and a tribute is planned there at the time of the tragedy. We also fear even incidents around the parliament since a march is then planned to downtown Beirut.
It will also be marked by the tributes to the victims, in particular to the martyrs of the firefighters of the city of Beirut who died on August 4, 2020 at 6:06 p.m., volunteers who had gone there without knowing that they were going to their death. On this occasion, the ambulances and vehicles of Civil Defense and firefighters will let their sirens sound like a death knell for 30 seconds which will then seem like an eternity.
Tribute ceremonies are also planned abroad, in the main cities of the world which also vibrated in unison on August 4.
A year after the tragedy, nothing has improved. The economic and monetary situation is still precarious and henceforth shortages of essential products affect the population and essential sectors. Medicines, electricity and even water are now quite often lacking on a daily basis.
On this symbolic day, France, with the help of the UN, is organizing an international aid conference for Lebanon. Paris hopes to raise 350 million dollars in favor of the Lebanese population. This aid should thus bypass the local official services because of the endemic corruption in their breasts apart from those of the Lebanese army.
On the political side, local personalities have multiplied the statements in recent hours to pay tribute to the victims but also to try to clear themselves in the face of the accusations of a large part of the population while the question of the lifting of the immunity of parliamentarians, formerly finance ministers like Ali Hassan Khalil, public works like Ghazi Zoaiter or even interior ministers like Nouhad Machnouk, arises openly. The families of the victims fear that they will try to dissolve their responsibilities in this tragedy by resorting to various artifices including that of the high court of justice in charge of judging former and current presidents of the republic, prime ministers or ministers. However, this high court of justice is made up half by deputies, leading to a conflict of interest, and by judges while the judiciary is also called into question.
The question also arises in relation to the current investigation. No indictment has yet taken place while the question of lifting the immunity of political and security officials is now open.
Another critical question, the origin, the causes or the consequences of the explosion which have not been publicly announced despite the investigation and its consequences.
Investigative judge Tarek Bitar thus seems to orient his investigation on the basis of reports by American and French experts according to two main hypotheses, one relating to an explosion induced by criminal negligence or even that of an arson in the hangar. 12 where, in addition to 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, kerosene and even 25 tons of explosives were found without any special surveillance. The thesis, at one point relayed by a missile firing against the same hangar, today seems to be very improbable, if not totally dismissed.
It would also seem that justice seeks to determine the responsibilities of each in the arrival of these goods in Lebanon, between Georgian manufacturer, charterer of a Russian garbage ship, British intermediary company Savaro Ltd. and finally final recipient in Mozambique.
