“The state is completely failing and no responsibility has been established”, protested Sibylle Rizk, Wednesday August 3 on franceinfo, two years after the explosion on the port of Beirut in Lebanon. The public policy director of the NGO Kulluna Irada explains that “many people have not yet been able to return home because they have not been able to afford to repair their homes on their own”.
franceinfo: Is this explosion still a trauma?
Sibyl Rizk: Yes. I was lucky not to be a victim personally, but that night was terrible. I was on the phone with my son who was close to exploding and the world literally came crashing down on our heads.
At first we thought it was an earthquake but we quickly understood the extent of the disaster. In the organized panic, because the Lebanese have reflexes, they have experienced attacks, wars, we immediately understood the extent of the damage. There was blood, shards of glass, the hospitals were packed. So of course it remains a traumatic day even for me who was not personally victimized.
Are there any visible traces left in the city?
Yes, there are still physical scars, but most of the houses have been repaired, in any case from the outside, the facades. The city has healed its most visible wounds, but the trauma is above all psychological. Justice has still not been done. Many people have not yet been able to return home because they could not afford to repair their homes on their own. The state is completely failing.
A few days ago grain silos collapsed in the port of Beirut when they were to be destroyed. Does this show that we have not succeeded in fixing everything?
Yes, these silos are a symbol of inefficiency and of the population’s total lack of confidence in public authorities. They are unable to manage the crisis but also to give reparations to the victims and to do justice. No responsibility has been established in this disaster of global proportions. This is the third non-nuclear disaster in human history and we still don’t know what happened.
The investigation has been suspended. You are calling for an international investigation. Do you still believe it?
Justice must be done, that Lebanese justice can resume its course because it is the only way to restore the essential functions of a State. The help of international justice is necessary given the blockages, it is a means of external pressure. Unfortunately this does not happen for reasons that we do not know. The bulk of the problem comes from Lebanon.
It’s been seven months that the judge in charge of the investigation is hindered. There is a procedural maneuver that was attempted by the ministers and deputies charged. It leads to an appeal for recusal of the judge which must be examined by the court of cassation, but this court cannot meet because a decree of appointment is blocked by the government.
How are the Lebanese today?
Very badly because we live in a regime of impunity which has prevailed since the end of the civil war. The public authorities have managed the Lebanese State just to distribute loans and this has resulted in an unparalleled financial catastrophe. We have a multiplicity of traumas and people to account for.