More than 50 Lebanese and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) this Tuesday demanded a UN investigation into the explosion in the port of Beirut, which took place on August 4, 2020 and provoked more than 200 dead. In a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, 53 NGOs call for “an investigation or a mission to establish the facts” with the aim of determining “whether state behavior caused or contributed” to the explosion,” a tragedy of historic proportions”.”The 10 months that have passed since the explosion were marked by obstructions, elections and delays by the authorities”, denounce the NGOs in the document.The NGOs criticized the failure of the Lebanese investigation, which, almost a year after the incident, it did not come up with concrete conclusions. Last August, the Lebanese authorities refused any international investigation, requested by the victims’ relatives, but also by international organizations and Western countries. The gigantic explosion, which also left 6,500 injured and devastated half of the Lebanese capital was caused by a fire in a warehouse that stored tons of ammonium nitrate “without precautionary measures”. The country will mark a year of tragedy in August, but the Lebanese investigation has not yet made its investigations public. In February, a first investigating judge in charge of the investigation was challenged and dropped the case. This magistrate had already accused the resigning Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers, causing protests in political circles. New investigating judge Tarek Bitar is expected to begin interrogations in the context of this investigation soon. technical report prepared by French investigators sent to Beirut immediately after the tragedy. The Lebanese investigation aims to determine the causes of the explosion, but also to understand why the ammonium nitrate cargo was unloaded in the port of Beirut to be forgotten in the place for several years. (RM-NM)Source:Radio Moçambique Online
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