Lebanese high-ranking officials in the government, including the president and the prime minister, as well as several governmental security institutions had been informed of the danger posed by the ammonium nitrate cargo stored in improper conditions in the Beirut port, but failed to act in any way to protect the public, a comprehensive report released on Tuesday by Human Rights Watch stressed.
The human rights organization said its researchers collected over 100 documents and official correspondence detailing the origin and destination of the cargo ship Rhosus that brought the fertilizer to Beirut in 2013, they interviewed Lebanese officials, lawyers of people indicted in the ongoing local investigation, and requested data from several Lebanese governmental institutions in order to compile the 100-page report.
“The evidence currently available also indicates that multiple Lebanese authorities were, at a minimum, criminally negligent under Lebanese law in their handling of the Rhosus’s cargo,” the report stresses.
“The actions and omissions of Lebanese authorities created an unreasonable risk to life. Under international human rights law, a state’s failure to act to prevent foreseeable risks to life is a violation of the right to life.”
A year after the August 4 explosion that killed more than 200 people and leveled entire neighbourhoods of the city, no official has been brought to justice.
“The actions and omissions of Lebanese authorities created an unreasonable risk to life. Under international human rights law, a state’s failure to act to prevent foreseeable risks to life is a violation of the right to life.”
The blast, considered one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history, was caused by hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a dockside warehouse.
The ongoing investigation into the blast is yet to establish, a year after, how the fertilizer got there, why it was so poorly stored for years, and what started the fire that blew it up are questions that the Lebanese probe has yet to answer.
The HRW report says that evidence indicates that many of Lebanon’s senior leaders, including President Michel Aoun, then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab, the Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba, former Lebanese Army Commander, General Jean Kahwaji, former Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, former Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ghazi Zeaitar, and former Minister of Public Works and Transport, Youssef Fenianos, among others, were informed of risks posed by the ammonium nitrate and failed to take the necessary actions to protect the public.
Despite court rulings and repeated warnings from their own staff of the danger posed by the explosive material and the lack of appropriate conditions to store it, no Lebanese agency took any measures to secure and remove the ammonium nitrate from the Beirut port over 6 years.
HRW said that evidence suggests that some government officials foresaw the death that the ammonium nitrate’s presence in the port could result in and tacitly accepted the risk of the deaths occurring.
In June 2020 the Lebanese General Directorate of State Security, the executive agency of the Higher Defense Council chaired by the president, completed an investigation into the ammonium nitrate at the port, warning of the disaster that the recklessly stored cargo could cause.
“Both the then-Minister of Interior and the Director General of General Security have acknowledged that they knew about the ammonium nitrate aboard the Rhosus, but have said that they did not take action after learning about it because it was not within their jurisdiction to do so.
Once they were informed by State Security, other senior officials on Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council, including the president and the prime minister, also failed to act in a timely way to remove the threat.”
The 3-page State Security report was concluded in June 2020, but it only reached the PM’s office on July 20, 2020 and the information in the copy sent to the cabinet was incomplete, HRW said.
“Both the then-Minister of Interior and the Director General of General Security have acknowledged that they knew about the ammonium nitrate aboard the Rhosus, but have said that they did not take action after learning about it because it was not within their jurisdiction to do so. Once they were informed by State Security, other senior officials on Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council, including the president and the prime minister, also failed to act in a timely way to remove the threat.”
Moreover, after the first port explosion, rescue teams were sent to the location to extinguish the fire without being told what Hangar 12 contained.
“Under domestic law, this could amount to the crime of homicide with probable intent, and/or unintentional homicide. It also amounts to a violation of the right to life under international human rights law,” the report pointed out.
“I then forgot about it”
The Lebanese army, even after learning that the shipment’s nitrogen grade classified it under local law as material used to manufacture explosives, “took no apparent steps to secure the material”, the report said.
Instead, it brushed off responsibility, saying it was not in need of the chemicals, even though under Lebanese law, army approval is required to import or inspect material used to manufacture explosives.
Lebanon’s State Security Agency, which completed an investigation into the ammonium nitrate at the port before the explosion, was slow to report the threat to senior government officials and provided incomplete information about the dangers the chemical posed, HRW said.
Then-prime minister Hassan Diab first started receiving reports of the ammonium nitrate shipment in June.
“I then forgot about it, and nobody followed up. There are disasters every day,” he told HRW.
A flawed probe
The investigation into the port blast was also flawed, politically obstructed and a closer look reveals many violations of due process, HRW says in the report.
“We documented Lebanese officials obstructing the investigation,” HRW Lebanon and Bahrain researcher Aya Mazjoub said.
The UN Human Rights Council in September will discuss in September a request to establish a fact-finding mission to Lebanon, according to Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
“If Lebanon fails as it has so far then the international community has a duty to step in.”
If the Human Rights Council votes in favor of the fact-finding mission, it would not result in a criminal trial or prosecution but it could lay the foundations for further legal actions and it could establish the accurate facts,“ Roth said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“If Lebanon fails as it has so far then the international community has a duty to step in,” he said.
Foreign nationals who have been injured or affected by the blast in Beirut also may have recourse in their national courts. Currently two investigations have been opened in France and Germany, and several cases are on the way to be filed.
But Roth said that national prosecutors have limited capacity to investigate incidents involving their countries’ citizens that happen in places where they don’t have jurisdiction and their probes will have to rely on the flawed investigation conducted in Beirut.
Several human rights organizations, including HRW and Amnesty International, have slammed the opacity of the Lebanese government in dealing with the probe and also highlighted violations in due process.
“Lebanese authorities have spent the past year shamelessly obstructing victims’ quest for truth and justice.”
In an open letter sent to the UN Human Rights Council, local and international human rights NGOs requested a one-year international fact-finding mission into the port blast.
Amnesty International on Monday also accused the Lebanese authorities of “shamelessly” obstructing the investigation into last year’s monster Beirut port blast, as victims’ families set a deadline for action.
“Lebanese authorities have spent the past year shamelessly obstructing victims’ quest for truth and justice,” the organization said in a statement.
Victims of the blast issued an ultimatum on Monday urging the Lebanese Parliament and governmental institutions to lift the immunities of several former ministers and security officials. They threatened to renew protests if the request was denied.
