Lebanese ministers walk out of meeting over rubbish crisis

Cabinet cancels tender offers for rubbish-collection contracts over high costs.

A crane removes part of a concrete barrier in front of the prime minister’s offices in Beirut on August 25, 2015. Hassan Ammar / AP Photo

BEIRUT // The powerful Lebanese Shiite party Hizbollah and its Christian allies walked out of an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday in protest at a proposed solution to a rubbish disposal crisis that has ignited violent protests in Beirut.

The national unity government led by prime minister Tamam Salam also cancelled a tender to select new refuse collection firms, underscoring the difficulties it faces overcoming the crisis that has brought popular calls for it to step down.

Public anger that has come to a head over the rubbish crisis turned violent at the weekend, with scores of protesters and security forces injured. Mr Salam has threatened to resign, expressing frustration at the failings of his cabinet, which groups Lebanon’s rival parties.

The government’s spokesman said ministers including members of Hizbollah and Christian politician Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement walked out of the cabinet meeting over a proposal to temporarily dump rubbish from the capital in Akkar province.

The northern province, one of the country’s poorest regions that is mostly Sunni but also has many Christian areas, would in return get US$100 million (Dh367m) for development projects.

The government said it was the proposed sum that triggered the walkout.

A government statement released later said tenders announced on Monday to award contracts for waste disposal to private companies “included high costs”, and had therefore been rejected.

Media reports and activists had accused the cabinet of awarding the contracts based on regional and political affiliation, reflecting alleged corruption and politicisation of the issue.

The protest campaign, which has mobilised independently of the big sectarian parties that dominate Lebanese politics, blames political feuding and corruption for the failure to resolve the crisis

The group of Beirut-based activists, which calls itself You Stink, held two large rallies over the weekend and a smaller march on Monday, with calls for a solution to the rubbish crisis quickly turning into calls for the cabinet to resign.

They have urged Lebanese at home and abroad to join them in a large rally on Saturday.

Army commander General Jean Kahwaji said late on Monday that security forces would protect any peaceful demonstrations but would not tolerate “security violators or infiltrators” who sought to sow “sedition and chaos”.

The protest organisers have blamed the violence on troublemakers whom they say are connected to rival sectarian parties.

Calm has prevailed since the weekend clashes, however, and workers on Tuesday began removing concrete blast walls erected the day before outside the cabinet headquarters.

* Reuters