BEIRUT (AP) – It is an expression of anger, but also of helplessness: anti-government protesters in Lebanon are burning tires to block important roads, releasing dense clouds of smoke that rise over the capital Beirut and other parts of the country.
The tactic has become the hallmark of a new outbreak of demonstrations against an uncompromising political class that seems to do little as its country slips into the political and economic abyss. Lebanon is mired in the worst economic crisis in its modern history, and the situation has been exacerbated by restrictions on the pandemic and an overburdened health sector.
“Fire releases our anger. It calms our hearts, ”said Mounir Hujairi, a 23-year-old protester from Baalbek, in northeastern Lebanon, who reconciles his time between underpaid jobs and protests.
Soot and smoke from tires blacken protesters’ faces with antivirus masks at makeshift road blocks that cut traffic around Beirut and between cities. The persistence of the protesters and the daily burning of tires show how the country’s problems have become intractable.
Anti-government rallies began to dominate Lebanon in late 2019. Since then, the local currency has collapsed, after being pegged to the dollar for nearly 30 years. Wages remained the same, while inflation soared. People lost their jobs and poverty affected almost 50% of the population.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s sectarian-based political system is stalled. Politicians refused to give in to forming a government or making difficult financial decisions for fear of losing their influence or base of support.
Exhausted, frightened and restricted by the coronavirus, the Lebanese saw members of the ruling elite blame themselves for the crisis.
Last week, the currency hit a record low, being traded on the black market at 11,000 pounds per dollar, below 1,500 officers – sparking a new wave of protests.
“The solution will only come through the streets,” said Hujairi, who has participated in the protests since October 2019. “Of course, those whose streets – or the streets of their political parties – are blocked will be irritated.”
Roadblocks are a desperate way to recover the anger felt across the country in 2019, when the government was forced to resign, generating a brief period of euphoria and hope that change is possible.
The national climate is now more fearful. Officials warned of the chaos and some argued that the protests were manipulated by political groups to trigger violence or extract concessions from rivals.
Many fear that social tension has reached levels never seen before the start of the civil war in April 1975. In the next 15 years of conflict, tire burning has become commonplace – an inexpensive way to block roads between warring factions.
Tire fires are difficult to put out and can last for hours, drawing attention and driving rivals away.
The tactic has already been used in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Sudan.
Palestinians burned tires during protests against the Israeli occupation, starting with their first uprising that broke out in 1987. Three decades later, during protests against an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade in Gaza, young people formed “tire teams” who drove motorcycles through the small town coastal strip rickshaws to collect tires for burning. The dark black smoke served to obscure the identity of those who threw stones at Israeli forces.
Open tire fire, used in some countries to fuel ovens, has been banned in most parts of the world because of its high emission of pollutants.
Sahar Mandour, a Lebanese researcher at Amnesty International, said the practice of burning tires as a form of protest acquired in many countries in the 1980s. But it has since become out of fashion because of the environmental impact.
“The world changed. … But Lebanon is not, ”she said. “We have the same parties and the same leaders, so the tools are the same.”
Hujairi says he and his friends burn between 100 and 150 tires a day. He said they collect used and flat tires from piles of rubbish, rejecting complaints from political parties.
“A little bit of black smoke doesn’t hurt,” said Hujairi, in response to criticism. “There is no way to get to the homes of politicians.”