Lebanon Diary: Part V

Saide Chaar and 22 other Liberians and Lebanese-Liberians had been seeking shelter in a one-bedroom apartment in southwestern Beirut for 15 days until they were evicted on Friday. The landlord said there were too many people in the apartment. Chaar, 25, is one of about 50 Liberians trapped in Beirut. Many sought refuge in Lebanon after fleeing civil war in their own country. They have watched thousands of other foreigners being evacuated but find they have fallen through the cracks, as Liberia has no embassy in Lebanon to evacuate them. On Friday night, Chaar and the others were forced to wait in the street for another landlord to allow them into another apartment in another neighbourhood. IRIN spoke to Chaar by phone, and using his own words compiled Part 5 of an ongoing diary of life in besieged Beirut. 29 July 2006 – He showed up late last night after two o’clock and gave us a room to sleep in. It’s not permanent. It’s just temporary – he’s just helping out is all. He told me to pay if I want to stay for a long, long time. We told him thank you for the time being is all. The family is all here - one bathroom, tight kitchen, not good enough running water. Electricity hardly comes. In the kitchen we have gas cooker, pots and that’s about it. It’s a strange neighbourhood. We don’t know anybody here at all. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed right now. We had some bread this morning. We had some sandwiches. That’s all. The old people without medicine they are just sitting holding tight. For the baby, his food is finished so we give him bread and water to eat for now. He’s still being sick. He gets high fever in the night. Last night we sat out up to 2:30 in the morning for this guy to come and (the baby) was in the cold and this morning he got flu. He was coughing. In Beirut, normally on a Friday night you see people in cars, a lot of fun. People stay up till 5 o’clock in the morning. But last night from 8 o’clock you hardly see any cars. The country is so down, the people are so afraid to come out of their houses at late hours. If you listen very keenly you hear the bombing. In the evening mostly you hear the warplanes passing over Beirut. Every time you hear the sound of the plane you get scared because you never know what will be the next target. There are a lot of people getting their things to leave the country to go to Syria. You can see the cars on the road, families going to Syria. But for the Europeans, they are still evacuating them. They are still leaving. People like us are stranded. All the Africans I knew they (found) a way out, most of them. Most probably it is only Liberians now who are stranded that we can see. We are trying to make a few arrangements outside if anyone can send money, I think through Western Union if it is possible. We’re trying to coordinate to get in touch with them. (But) I don’t have any credit in my phone to make an international call. The Liberian consul general in Cyprus called me and he is still trying to help me. He told me to hold on and he is still trying his best. He asked me how I am doing, how the family is doing. So we are still praying to see how things will work out. From this morning I was going to go in the street to go somewhere. We try to get gasoline to put in the car but there is no way now. They closed down the petrol stations. No petrol, no supplies are coming into Beirut. I tried to see one or two embassies, the ones I could walk to. I walked for like three hours. I went to one of them – the Canadian. They said, “Are you a Canadian citizen?” I told them, “No, I’m a Liberian and I need help.” “Don’t you have an embassy? Can’t your country do anything for you?” I told them, “My country is just coming out of war and we have nowhere else to go.” I said, “The least thing you could help me with if you can’t evacuate us is if you could give us some food.” They said, “Sorry, we can’t help you.” cs/ccr