Region

BEIRUT — Protesters poured into the streets of the Lebanese capital Saturday to decry the collapse of the economy, as clashes erupted between supporters and opponents of Hizbollah.

Hundreds filled the streets in and around the protest hub of Martyrs Square in the centre of Beirut, blaming a lack of government reforms for the economic crisis.

Debt-burdened Lebanon is grappling with its worst economic turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war, now compounded by a lockdown to stem the novel coronavirus.

"We came on the streets to demand our rights, call for medical care, education, jobs and the basic rights that human beings need to stay alive," said 21-year-old student Christina.

But Saturday's protest turned violent as supporters of Hizbollah clashed with some demonstrators who were demanding that the Iran-backed Shiite group disarm.

Hizbollah is the only group to have kept its weapons since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 and this has deeply divided Lebanon along political lines.

"No to Hizbollah, no to its weapons," said a sign held up by Sana, a female protester from Nabatiyeh, a city in southern Lebanese, a Hizbollah stronghold.

“Weapons should be only in the hands of the army,” said the 57-year-old.

Supporters and opponents of Hibzollah threw stones at each other prompting the army to intervene by forming a human chain to separate them, an AFP photographer said.

Supporters of Hizbollah, which is also represented in the government and parliament, chanted: “Shiite, Shiite.”

Security forces also fired tear gas near a street leading into the parliament building behind Martyrs Square, after some demonstrators pelted them with stones and ransacked shops in the area.

The Lebanese Red Cross said on Twitter 37 people were wounded in Saturday’s violence, most of them treated at the scene.

Lebanon has been rocked by a series of political crises in recent years, before an economic crunch helped trigger unprecedented cross-sectarian mass protests in October.

The protests forced the government to resign and a new one headed by Prime Minister Hassan Diab was approved by parliament in February, tasked with launching reforms and combatting corruption.

But many Lebanese say it has failed to find solutions to the country’s manifold problems.

More than 35 per cent of Lebanese are unemployed, while poverty has soared to engulf more than 45 per cent of the population, according to official estimates.

Lebanon is also one of the world’s most indebted countries with a debt equivalent to more than 170 per cent of its GDP. The country defaulted on its debt for the first time in March.

Diab’s government adopted an economic recovery plan in April and has begun negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, in a bid to unlock billions of dollars in aid.

TULKAREM, Palestinian Territories — Palestinians in the West Bank on Friday rallied to mark 53 years of Israeli occupation and protest against Israeli plans to annex part of the territory.

In Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, dozens of demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against Israeli settlements and the plans, which could move ahead as soon as next month.

An AFP reporter at the scene said that Israeli forces fired stun grenades and tear gas to repel protesters approaching a military checkpoint.

“This march shows our rejection of any plan of settlement or annexation,” said Iyad Jarada, secretary of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s Fateh Party in the city.

“This is our land and we will defend it with all our power and energy.”

Near Tubas, also in the northern West Bank, a protester was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet fired by Israeli forces, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

Further protests were taking place in the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Jericho, and the Jordan Valley, which could be annexed as part of the Israeli plan.

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron hundreds gathered, chanting against Israel’s occupation, as well as anti-American slogans.

Palestinians are vocal in their opposition to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan, which gives Israel the green light to annex strategic territory in the West Bank.

Such annexations would violate international law and likely inflame tensions in the volatile region.

‘Naksa’ anniversary

After more than a year of political deadlock and two inconclusive elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nearest rival Benny Gantz in April joined in a coalition government.

Under their agreement, from July 1 Netanyahu and Gantz can submit the Trump plan to their Cabinet and to parliament, with a view to endorsement.

The plan also envisions the creation of a Palestinian state, but on reduced territory and without meeting the key Palestinian demand of having its capital in East Jerusalem.

Friday’s protests coincided with the anniversary of what Palestinians call the Naksa.

“Fifty-three years of Israeli occupation today, ending it is an international responsibility,” Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), wrote on Twitter.

More than 450,000 Israelis live in settlements deemed illegal by international law in the West Bank, where 2.7 million Palestinians live.

In the Gaza Strip, demonstrators waved Palestinians flags and held placards saying “we will recover our land”, at a rally organised by Hamas.

BAGHDAD — Seventeen years after US troops invaded their country and eight months since protests engulfed their cities, Iraqis are sending solidarity, warnings and advice to demonstrators across America.

Whether in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square or on Twitter, Iraqis are closely watching the unprecedented street protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis as a police officer knelt on his neck.

“I think what the Americans are doing is brave and they should be angry, but rioting is not the solution,” said Yassin Alaa, a scrawny 20-year-old camped out in Tahrir.

Only a few dozen Iraqis remain in tents in the capital’s main protest square, which just months ago saw security forces fire tear gas and live bullets at demonstrators, who shot back with rocks or occasionally Molotov cocktails.

Violence left more than 550 people dead, but virtually no one has been held accountable  —  mirroring a lack of accountability over deaths at the hands of security forces in the US, Iraqis say.

Now, they want to share their lessons learned.

“Don’t set anything on fire. Stay away from that, because the police will treat you with force right from the beginning and might react unpredictably,” Alaa told AFP.

And most importantly, he insisted, stick together.

“If blacks and whites were united and they threw racism away, the system can never stop them,” he said.

Common ‘injustice’ 

Across their country, Iraqis spotted parallels between the roots of America’s protests and their own society.

“In the US it’s a race war, while here it’s a war of politics and religion,” said Haider Kareem, 31, who protested often in Tahrir and whose family lives in the US.

“But the one thing we have in common is the injustice we both suffer from,” he told AFP.

Solidarity is spreading online, too, with Iraqis tweaking their own protest chants and slogans to fit the US.

In one video, an elderly Iraqi is seen reciting a “hosa” or rhythmic chant, used to rally people into the streets last year and now adapted to an American context.

“This is a vow, this a vow! Texas won’t be quiet now,” he bellowed, before advising Americans to keep their rallies independent of foreign interference  —  mimicking a US government warning to Iraqis last year.

Others shared the hashtag “America Revolts”.

Another Arabic hashtag going viral in Iraq translates as “We want to breathe, too”, referring to Floyd’s last words.

Not all the comparisons have been uplifting, however.

The governor of Minnesota, the state in which Minneapolis is located, said the US street violence “was reminiscent of Mogadishu or Baghdad”.

And the troops briefly deployed by US President Donald Trump to quell unrest in Washington were from the 82nd Airborne  —  which had just returned from duty in Iraq.

“Trump is using the American army against the American people,” said Democrat presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden.

Iraqis have fought back online, tweeting “Stop associating Baghdad with turmoil”, in response to comparisons with their homeland.

Others have used biting sarcasm.

In response to videos of crowds breaking into shops across US cities, Iraqis have dug up an infamous quote by ex-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

“Lawlessness and looting is a natural consequence of the transition from dictatorship to a free country,” he said in response to a journalist’s question on widespread looting and chaos in Baghdad following the 2003 US-led invasion.

KHARTOUM — Sudanese protesters took to the streets of Khartoum Wednesday, angrily demanding justice for scores of pro-democracy demonstrators killed a year ago in a bloody crackdown.

The popular mass movement had already brought down long-time ruler Omar Al Bashir but was still on the streets demanding further reforms when it was attacked by armed men in military fatigues on June 3, 2019.

"We won't forget and we won't forgive," read one Arabic-language protest sign held up by a mask-clad Sudanese woman as scores of other protesters rallied and the smoke of burning car tyres blackened the sky.

"We came out today in the searing heat, despite fears of the coronavirus spread, to commemorate them and to keep their memory alive in our hearts," said one of the protesters, Mohamed Haydoub.

At least 128 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in the attack outside Khartoum's army headquarters, according to doctors linked to the protest movement. Official figures say at least 87 died.

The attackers perpetrated "murder, torture, rape, sexual violence, enforced disappearance of persons and potentially other inhumane acts", says a March report by the US-based group Physicians for Human Rights.

The new prime minister under Sudan's post-Bashir civilian-military transition authority, Abdalla Hamdok, pledged Wednesday that justice would be done.

"I assure you all that achieving justice and retribution for the martyrs of the sit-in ... is an inevitable and irreversible step," Hamdok said in a televised statement.

Protesters on Wednesday hung up effigies of soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group they blame for the bloodbath — a charge firmly denied by Sudan's military leaders.

One protester held up a large photo of Abdulsalam Kisha, a 25-year-old protester who was killed in the attack last year in the capital’s eastern Riyadh district.

The dead man’s father, Kisha Abdulsalam, told AFP days ago that he still held out hope the killers would be brought to justice by post-revolution authorities.

“We demand an international probe to ensure justice for those killed,” said Kisha, a leading member of a campaign group for the families of protest victims.

A memorial portrait of his slain son has been painted on the Khartoum house of the bereaved father, who has two other sons and a daughter.

He recalled the day he heard the shocking news.

“I rushed to the protest site after receiving multiple random phone calls saying my son had died,” he said, only to find out later that multiple gunshots had indeed claimed his son’s life.

Sudan’s transitional authorities, which came to power in August, with Bashir behind bars, have formed a committee to probe the violence, but it has yet to announce its findings.

In July last year, an initial probe by Sudan’s military officials and prosecutors showed that some members of the RSF and other security forces were involved in the killings.

Military officials insist the operation had been planned to purge an area near the protest camp where people were allegedly selling drugs.

‘Powerful figures’ 

Hamdok in October tasked veteran lawyer Nabil Adib with leading the investigations and to present findings within three months.

Adib told AFP that three months was “not enough, especially given that this is a crime with political overtones and involves a large number of defendants”.

“It may even involve powerful figures,” he said.

He said the investigation had been further hampered by the coronavirus pandemic which has so far infected more than 5,000 people and killed over 300 in Sudan.

International rights groups, which have documented multiple witness accounts, have called for a transparent investigation.

Physicians for Human Rights said the violence “could rise to the level of international crimes for which there should be no immunity, including crimes against humanity”.

Adib said the committee has so far received many testimonies but did not elaborate, saying only that “we gave them assurances that their identities will remain anonymous”.

But families of the victims remain sceptical.

“I don’t believe this committee will bring justice to the martyrs,” said Amna, Abdulsalam’s mother, as she tearfully showed an album of photos of her son.

“We will not forgive those who shed blood and we will not give up on the martyrs’ rights.”

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Mosques in the Gaza Strip reopened on Wednesday after a 70-day closure due to the coronavirus, with one worshipper saying he was "overjoyed" despite fears over the pandemic.

Wearing a black face mask, an imam in Gaza City led the call to prayer as mosques reopened across the Palestinian enclave with health measures in place.

Worshippers were told to wear face masks inside mosques, which would be regularly disinfected as a precautionary measure, Gaza's religious affairs ministry said.

Children and sick people were told not to attend prayers.

In Gaza City, worshipper Khader Mussa said he was "overjoyed" to attend dawn prayers but had also been careful to protect his health.

"I got there just two minutes before the start of prayer to avoid contact with other worshippers and then left at the end, without shaking hands with anyone," the 40-year-old told AFP.

The strip has registered around 60 coronavirus cases and one death, all among Gazans returning to the enclave who have been quarantined on arrival.

After the virus was first detected on March 22, mosques, restaurants and universities were closed.

Some mosques opened their doors 10 days ago for the Eid Al Fitr holiday, which celebrates the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, but Wednesday marked a full reopening.

"We are happy mosques have opened," said Muhammad Hamad, wearing a face mask.

"We thank God, who protected us from the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip," he added.

The United Nations has warned that a COVID-19 outbreak in Gaza could be disastrous, given its high population density, soaring poverty rates and weak health system.

Gaza is ruled by Islamist movement Hamas, a foe of Israel, which has held the strip under a crippling blockade since 2007.

Two million Palestinians are crowded into the narrow strip of land between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.