Lebanese ministry of Labor is burnt; Lahoud calls for investigations
Lebanon, Local, 5/28/2004

Lebanese demonstrators protesting over fuel price increase set fire in the building of the Ministry of Labor which is situated in al-Shayah area in the southern suburb of Beirut.

Witnesses said that the fire damaged the first five floors in the building and the firemen hurried to the site of the incident and large army reinforcement headed to the area.

Meantime, news reports in Lebanon reported that the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud asked for opening an investigation over what happened yesterday during the demonstrations of protest over price increase of living conditions and the inflected results including the killing of three demonstrators.

The Lebanese Hizbullah party held the government of the prime minister Rafic Hariri responsible for the incidents. It said in a statement that " the Lebanese were surprised by the grave security incident which resulted in killing several victims as a result of the security forces opening of fire at the demonstrators who were expressing during the demonstration and sit in their rejection of the government's policies in the economic and social fields. Demonstrations which have been leading to poverty and unemployment and placing millions of Lebanese under poverty line."

In a statement to the Qatari al-Jazeera TV yesterday, the Lebanese minister of Information Ghazi al-Ateidi said that there is " a great unrest among the Lebanese citizens and today ( yesterday ) demonstration is a natural thing." But what is not natural is the confrontations between the people and the army." he considered that the Lebanese government is in a real crisis when it can not give the citizen answers to questions relating to social and economic crisis like the crises of electricity, telephone and the increase of fuel price.

He added that all those who took part in ( yesterday) demonstration represent all Lebanese sects and they were linked to " the common problems of the country " and that the demonstration targets the government as a whole and not the person of the prime minister, noting that certain demonstrators affiliate to authority officials.

Three Lebanese civilians were killed and other 13 injured in the Lebanese capital Beirut during an angry demonstration during which clashes took place with the Lebanese security forces, and five members of the Lebanese army were injured after demonstrators threw a bomb at an army unit on the way to the airport.

A Lebanese security source said that the army detained several persons of the sit in suspected to be the throwers of the bomb. The demonstrators gathered in al-Silm ( peace) quarters in one of the areas of southern Beirut to protest over the increase of car fuels and against the taxation policy of the Lebanese government within a general strike observed in Lebanon yesterday ( Thursday).

Last week the Lebanese government approved to fix fuel prices at 23,000 Lebanese Lira for 20 liters but prices at oil stations have nor changed.

Previous Stories:
  A mass grave found in a southern Lebanese town   (3/13/2004)
  Beirut's Arab Parliamentary Symposium concluded   (3/11/2004)
  One Yemeni sentenced for 20 years imprisonment over attacking American restaurants in Lebanon   (3/9/2004)

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