Beirut marks three years of massive blast

UN group urges quick completion of catastrophe probe amid standstill

BEIRUT — Lebanon on Friday marked three years since one of history's biggest nonnuclear explosions rocked Beirut. But the probe is virtually at a standstill, leaving survivors still yearning for answers.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse, where a vast stockpile of industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.

On Aug 4, 2020, the massive blast at Beirut's port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

The blast struck amid an economic collapse that the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of mismanagement, Agence France-Presse commented.

Since its early days, the probe into the explosion has faced a slew of political and legal challenges.

On Thursday, the International Support Group for Lebanon urged the Lebanese authorities to accelerate investigations into the blast.

The group was created in 2013 by the United Nations and Lebanon to help mobilize support and assistance for Lebanon's stability, sovereignty and state institutions. China, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States, along with the European Union and the Arab League, have participated in the operation.

Lamenting the lack of significant progress in judicial proceedings, the group urged the authorities to "lift all obstacles hindering the pursuit of justice and facilitate the completion of an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation", Xinhua News Agency reported.

The main activist group representing families of those killed has called for a protest march on Friday afternoon, converging on the port.

"The truth does not die so long as there is someone to demand it," Rima al-Zahed, whose brother died in the blast, said. "We believe that we will get the truth."

Grinding on

For three years now, 10 portraits on the outer wall of a Beirut fire station have honored its firefighters killed in the explosion at the city's port.

Their surviving colleagues, grinding on as Lebanon's economic meltdown guts their salaries and budgets for repairs and equipment while a threat of wildfires looms large, said Aug 4, 2020, remains burned in their memories.

"As a fire brigade, we extract corpses, we see ugly things other people can't bear ... but the port blast was something else," brigade chief Captain Ali Najem told Reuters.

Four years of financial collapse left firefighters countrywide without enough spare parts for trucks, fireproof clothing and other equipment. Some ended up switching jobs as the value of their salaries collapsed with the local currency.

Ahead of the anniversary, Najem invited local officials and relatives of the dead firefighters to a memorial ceremony.

With few members of the public in the audience, Najem said the financial crisis seemed to have eclipsed the spirit of remembrance.

"The Lebanese people tend to forget," he said. The first year's commemoration was packed, he recalled, and last year's was quieter.

Now, Najem said: "People are busy, more concerned with whether they can secure food and water."

Agencies - Xinhua