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Protestors attack UN headquarters in Beirut
Lebanon News.Net
Sunday 30th July, 2006
Thousands of Lebanese have stormed the United Nations headquarters in Beirut in protest over the continuing Israeli bombing of their country, and the UN's failure to stop it.
"We are angry at the whole world for their silence on the massacres happening in Lebanon," as one demonstrator put it.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Sawsan Ali, who hails from the South but who was forced to become a "refugee in my own country," said that she heard and saw on television the "newest Israeli massacre against my people."
"They have hit Qana. They killed 55 people, half of whom were children."
Though she didn't take part in attacking UN House, Ali said she wishes the UN would "disappear because its presence is as useless as its non-presence."
Ali said: "The UN never helped us. It always favors Israel with all its atrocities, and bows down in front of the US and Israeli will. It is a UN for the strong nations, not the small and peaceful countries like ours."
Shortly after the angry mobs stormed UN House, and before they were deterred by hundreds of army and Internal Security Forces personnel, Speaker Nabih Berri called upon the demonstrators to leave the premises of the UN headquarters, said The Daily Star report. He said: "In the name of Amal and Hizbullah and all national forces, I call upon you to stop all attacks against ESCWA. I know the blood of the martyrs boils in your blood and I know your intentions are well-placed but this is not in our best interest."
Many of the protesters, mainly displaced Lebanese
from the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, held flags representing Berri's Amal Movement and Hizbullah. They shouted anti-US and anti-British slogans and against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
A Hizbullah official told The Daily Star that the party didn't organize the rally, "as it was spontaneous after the massacre that happened earlier today."
Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed gratitude to the Government of Lebanon for its assistance with the response to the attack on its headquarters. "The UN House is the hub of our humanitarian activities in Lebanon," said Annan, pledging: "These will continue throughout the country."
At the same time, he expressed fear that similar reactions could occur elsewhere in the region or in the wider Islamic world. "I appeal to the authorities and people in all countries to respect and ensure the safety of UN personnel. I appeal to everyone to understand that we are doing our best to help - through diplomacy, through humanitarian action and by the efforts of UNIFIL, which as you know itself suffered tragic losses only a few days ago," he added. Four UN Military Observers lost their lives at Patrol Base Khiyam, in Southern Lebanon, on 25 July during an Israeli bombardment.
"The tragic events in Qana remind us that, ten years ago over 100 people who had taken refuge in this same village suffered a similar fate. We must deliver the region from this seemingly endless cycle of violence," the Secretary-General told the Security Council, noting that in the last 18 days, several hundred Lebanese citizens have been killed - the vast majority of them civilians, and at least a third of them children. During the same period, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have had to flee their homes, many of them under heavy shelling.
Earlier, in commenting on the Qana attack Annan said, the tragedy "has, rightly, provoked moral outrage throughout the world."
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