Deadly Shia riots in southern Beirut protesting over power and water cuts have occurred because these basic services have become part of the country’s increasingly tense political stand-off, said protesters and analysts.
At least eight people were killed and 22 wounded as gunfire and grenades erupted after an official with Shia opposition group Amal was shot dead during a confrontation between angry demonstrators and the army on 27 January.
Opposition protesters, who said they had received only four hours of electricity and water over the past few days, used blazing tyres to block several main roads around south Beirut, including the highway to the airport, burned several cars, threw grenades and smashed shop windows.
“The government is punishing the Shia because we are the opposition,” 21-year-old protester Ali Abdullah told IRIN at the scene of the riot in Mar Mikhael, where several people were killed in gunfights and explosions. The fighting began between the army and Amal supporters but spread to include gunmen from the neighbouring Christian-majority neighbourhoods and led to the deaths of several Hezbollah supporters.
“Life in this neighbourhood is very hard,” said Abdullah. “We don’t have enough power or water and no money and few job prospects.”
Ahmed Mousali, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, said basic service provision had become part of the political deadlock that has pitched the Western-backed government against a Shia-and-Christian opposition backed by Iran and Syria, and left Lebanon without a president, parliament or fully functioning cabinet.
“Certain areas of Beirut have been punished by the government by having electricity shortages and the threat of rising bread prices,” he said, referring to the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, where several protests have taken place over the past three months against power cuts.
The government denies politicising the electricity supply, arguing that many households in the southern suburbs tap power off the mains system without paying for it, which causes short-circuits and blackouts.
Villages in Shia-majority south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley regularly have their electricity cut after 6pm, but in recent months cut-offs were extended to Beirut. Though nearly all neighbourhoods suffer power cuts, the southern suburbs are worst hit, with few families able to afford to run generators on increasingly expensive diesel. Parts of central Beirut on the other hand enjoy 20 hours of electricity a day.
 The government is punishing the Shia because we are the opposition. |
In its latest National Human Development report the UN Development Programme (UNDP) highlighted growing disparities in Lebanon.
While general literacy has decreased nationwide, in the Bekaa it has increased; in 1995-2005 Beirut received 16 percent of total public investment spending, despite having only 8 percent of households categorised as in need of basic services. By comparison, in the Shia town of Nabatiyeh in south Lebanon, where 11 percent of households struggle, the state spent just 1 percent.
Strikes
The rioting on 27 January followed an earlier strike by the General Confederation of Workers of Lebanon, in which hundreds of taxi drivers blocked roads and refused passengers in protest over rising fuel and food prices.
 Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN  |
| Striking taxi drivers in Jnah, southern Beirut, stop a colleague trying to pick up passengers. Drivers were protesting rising fuel prices |
Abdel Hadi said he recognised global inflation was driving up prices of basic commodities but said the “government is doing nothing to support its citizens”.
Though meant as a nationwide union strike, in areas such as west Beirut’s Hamra, dominated by pro-government parties such as the Sunni-led Future Movement, many taxis were seen working as normal, highlighting the deeply politicised nature of the labour protest.
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