Lebanese demonstrators carry portraits of the victims of the catastrophic port explosion in 2020 during a march to call for accountability for the blast in Beirut. Photo / Getty Images
Sarah Copland recalls the day vividly. She and her 2-year-old son Isaac were in the living room of their Beirut apartment, eating dinner, when they heard a loud bang. “I didn’t know what it was,” she said.
Minutes later, a second, more powerful explosion went off, engulfing Beirut in a mushroom cloud.
The force of the blast sent glass flying, hitting Isaac in the chest. Sarah and her husband, Craig, rushed out to find help and then hitchhiked with their son to the nearest functioning hospital, where Isaac died of internal bleeding and cardiac arrest.
He was the youngest victim of the massive port explosion on August 4, 2020, which killed more than 200, left thousands injured, and destroyed wide swathes of the city.
The disaster was caused by a fire at a Beirut port warehouse that ignited 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate.
Yesterday NZT, hundreds took to the streets of Beirut to mark the fifth anniversary of the blast and to demand accountability.
An investigation led by Judge Tarek Bitar was finally reopened earlier this year after almost four years of delay because of political interference.
“It’s just disgusting really that there’s been no accountability, no justice, and five years on and it’s just not even to the point where we’ve got proper answers,” said Copland, an Australian who at the time of the blast had been working for the United Nations in Beirut.
“Isaac was just a child, and we got caught up in this web of negligence, corruption, and crimes.”
The longtime head of the Hezbollah militant group, Hasan Nasrallah, had derailed attempts to investigate the explosion after Bitar had called several officials close to the group in for questioning.
“The country will head to ruin if this judge continues on this path,” Nasrallah said in a 2021 speech before sending supporters to the Beirut courthouse to intimidate Bitar, triggering an armed clash.
Hezbollah’s critics alleged that an investigation could reveal the extent of the group’s illicit activities in the port.
What followed was a prolonged push by Hezbollah and its allies to have the judge recuse himself after suspects filed complaints accusing Bitar of bias, further delaying the investigation.
Copland had then taken matters into her own hands, lobbying the Australian Government to take the lead on a statement at the UN Human Rights Council urging Lebanon to complete the investigation and safeguard its independence.
This year’s anniversary of the port blast comes after the war that erupted last year between Hezbollah and Israel, and as the group faces a new political reality after the killing of senior leaders, including Nasrallah. The group’s new leadership has taken a less combative approach.
“The port investigation right now is not Hezbollah’s biggest priority,” said David Wood, a senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group.
He added that the group is in a weaker position and has been forced to adopt a less confrontational stance after the war.
Earlier this year, the group acquiesced to the election of Joseph Aoun as President and Nawaf Salam as Prime Minister, paving the way for the probe to resume.
Lebanon’s new Justice Minister, Adel Nassar, said the Government is committed to ensuring that the judiciary conducts its work independently.
“A state that is not capable of giving answers and accountability after a tragic event or crime this horrific will be a state missing a major element of its proper existence,” he said.
The reopening of the probe may eventually provide closure to survivors who have watched justice evade them for years.
“Nothing is okay until the indictment is released. This is what the Lebanese victims’ families demand. The pain, the grief and the anger of injustice are even more than before,” said Mireille Khoury, whose 15-year-old son Elias died of injuries sustained in the blast.
The commemoration included a minute of silence in front of the partially destroyed port grain silos that stand as a stark reminder of the disaster. Many families hope to see the site turned into a memorial for the victims.
Lebanon’s new Transport Minister, Fayez Rasamny, said in an interview that no final decision has been made regarding the demolition or preservation of the silos.
“We at the ministry and across the Lebanese government are approaching this matter with the utmost sensitivity and respect for the victims of the August 4 tragedy,” Rasamny said. Culture Minister Ghassan Salamé has added the silos to a list of historic buildings, meaning they cannot be torn down easily.
In the absence of an official memorial, artist Nada Sehnaoui has sought to keep the memory of the victims alive through a mural she made near the blast site that features their photos covered in glass. Sehnaoui took the initiative, she said, because Lebanese governments have proved reluctant to remember tragedies in the past, such as the country’s long civil war.
“It’s public amnesia. To this day, we do not have a memorial for the civil war,” she said. “This memorial is for the present and the future.”
After consulting with Isaac’s parents, the Australian Embassy in Beirut erected a swing in his memory at a Beirut museum, where the boy once loved to run around in the courtyard, Copland said. “I do think that these memorials make a difference,” she said.
Copland added that she will not have closure for her loss, but hopes justice prevails.
“I think we have to work as hard as we can to seek accountability, because that’s what Isaac and all of the other victims deserve,” she said.