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by Our Foreign Desk
LEBANESE Prime Minister Tammam Salam said yesterday that police who used force against protesters would be “held accountable” — and hinted he might resign within the week.
Security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon on thousands protesting against corruption and government dysfunction in Riad el Solh Square, Beirut, on Saturday.
Dozens of protesters and police were injured in the confrontations — but that didn’t stop thousands more taking to the streets yesterday calling for “revolution.”
Even Mr Salam’s public statement yesterday that he was “ready for dialogue” with demonstrators was drowned out by crowds chanting: “Leave, leave.”
And he added that if next Thursday’s cabinet meeting was “not productive,” “then there is no need for the council of ministers,” widely interpreted as an offer to resign.
Lebanon does not have a functioning parliament and has lacked a president for over a year.
The Lebanese Communist Party condemned the “barbaric practices” of the police and called on the people to keep protesting in the city “in order to overthrow this corrupt regime in defence of the right to a decent life.”
A politburo statement said the current crisis showed the “bankruptcy” of the sectarian political system, which claims to ensure equal representation between the country’s main religious sects but often causes paralysis.
The present unrest has been sparked by a month-long political impasse on how to dispose of rubbish following the closure of Beirut’s largest landfill.
The pile-up of waste on the city’s streets is the probable inspiration behind one of the groups organising the protest, which dubs itself You Stink!
