(4 Aug 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut, Lebanon - 4 August 2023
1. Wide of ambulance leading march marking anniversary of Beirut port explosion
2. Relatives of blast victims marching with photos of their loved ones
3. Various of march
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lara Sawba, participant in march:
“It’s been three years and usually when something much less important happens anywhere in the world, you have people who resign, you have people who are judged. Here, they tried to kill us In the middle of our houses, my daughter is holding my cousin’s photo, who was killed in his house, and nobody is accountable. They all are escaping accountability. We are still ruled by the same people who killed us, who destroyed our city and this is unacceptable.”
5. Various of march, participants carrying photos and large Lebanese flag
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Carole (no last name given) participant in march:
“We want justice. Till our last breath, we want justice. It is not acceptable what is happening. Their lives can’t go to waste, those who died. We want justice, it has to happen, and they all need to go to jail.”
7. Various of march, participants carrying photos
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Charbel Nasser, participant in march:
"Today if justice continues like this, if those responsible for the investigations are unable to find ways to find the truth, I believe that we have to go outside for justice. The case of August 4 should be global and not stay just in Lebanon."
9. Various of security personnel watching march
STORYLINE:
Three years after the Beirut port blast that shook Lebanon, hundreds of people marched toward the port to commemorate the lives lost.
The explosion killed at least 218 people injured more than 6,000, as well as devastating large swaths of the city and causing billions of dollars in damages.
But three years on, renewed calls for an international investigation into what happened grow as a domestic investigation has been stalled.
Lebanon’s powerful and corrupt political class has repeatedly intervened in the work of the judiciary.
Top officials allowed hundreds of tons of highly flammable ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilisers, to be improperly stored for years at a warehouse in the port.
“It’s been three years and usually when something much less important happens anywhere in the world, you have people who resign, you have people who are judged. Here … nobody is accountable," says Lara Sawba, whose cousin died in the blast.
Families of the victims led the march from the fire department headquarters to the port holding pictures of their loved ones.
"I believe that we have to go outside for justice. The case of August 4 should be global and not stay just in Lebanon," says Charbel Nasser.
AP Video by Fadi Al Tawil
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