The Daily Star - Three separate protests in Downtown Beirut - May 06, 2011

By Annie Slemrod

The Daily Star BEIRUT: With no acting executive branch in power, the area surrounding a statue of the country’s first Independence-era prime minister has become the go-to place to air grievances. As the Parliament’s Joint Committees met down a street blocked by police barricades, three separate protests unfolded Thursday at Downtown’s Riad al-Solh Square. At 10:30 a.m., with horns honking in the background, Hussein Ghandour, head of the Union of Driving Schools, took on what he called “corruption in the parking meter system and traffic violations system.” Standing in front of about a dozen other union members, Ghandour criticized the computerized test that new drivers take, saying it “has no connection to driving vehicles, or public safety in terms of form and content.” Ghandour said money from parking meters and traffic fines is going to private interests rather than toward improving public safety. He said the country’s roads lacked a sufficient number of traffic signs and street lights, adding that “driving has become very dangerous and deadly, and no authority has asked about the causes or how to treat this problem.” Soon after he finished speaking into multiple microphones, a group of pro-civil-marriage activists who have been living at the square for over a month began a more festive demonstration. A new personal-status law that would allow civil marriage was on the Joint Committees’ agenda, and as he handed candy to curious motorists, a spokesman said the celebration was in order because “this is the first time since the establishment of our country that the Lebanese personal-status law is being discussed by the Parliament. This is a historic event.” Mazen, who did not give his last name, also distributed pink “letters of congratulations” that included the optimistic words “the power of love will sweep all the barriers that are erected in front of it.” The committees did not discuss the law, which was ninth on their agenda. After MPs managed to debate legislation on awarding official medals, and implementing a cultural deal with China, they endorsed two draft laws on regulating financial markets and banning the use of asymmetric information in financial transactions. Following this, a quorum was lost and the session ended. As the civil-marriage protest faded and only a few stalwarts remained near the two tents where they rest in shifts, family members of inmates at Roumieh Prison began to arrive at Riad al-Solh. The group failed Wednesday night to get permission to erect a tent near the civil-marriage protesters. Thursday, they were more determined. “Yesterday we announced an open sit-in. Today they forbade us from setting up tents. Today we are coming … to set up tents by force.” Khodr Daher, the head of a committee representing prisoners’ families, told The Daily Star. “We have come here to demand our rights,” said Daher. “We have 14 demands which we have handed over to the interior minister and Judge Said Mirza and the Justice Minister, Ibrahim Najjar, and to the Parliament.” Some 50 people gathered behind the statue of Riad al-Solh, but not beyond the notice of a near-equal number of police. They set up two tents, and then began several hours of negotiations with Yasser Daher, Downtown Beirut’s police chief. All parties agreed that the protesters had municipality permission to gather, but not to erect tents. As negotiations continued and temperatures rose, the protesters, including a number of children, sat alongside police officers in the shade. At 2 p.m., several women and children absconded with the larger of the tents. They ran to the front of the square. With Daher in smiling pursuit, the runners hopped inside the tent and refused to move. Chanting “we want a pardon for our children,” protesters stuffed the tent. One of them, Allam, who did not give a last name, told The Daily Star that she has four sons in Roumieh, and only one of them has been convicted of a crime. “I’m here … for improving prison conditions,” she said. “[I am] against torturing prisoners, against putting prisoners in solitary confinement, and we want a general pardon for all prisoners.” A few hours later, four empty tents stood in front of the statue of Solh.