View of the destroyed silos of the Port of Beirut. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT – MPs of the Kataeb party proposed Friday an urgent bill to the Lebanese Parliament aimed at ensuring the protection of the grain silos at the Port of Beirut “in order to keep an eternal memory of the victims of Aug. 4.”
Here’s what we know:
• The government of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati had in April instructed the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) to destroy the silos, which were badly damaged by the Aug. 4, 2020, explosion at the Port of Beirut, which claimed more than 200 lives, injured at least 6,500 people and ravaged entire neighborhoods of the capital.
• In a bill dated June 16, 2022, four Kataeb MPs called for “preventing any demolition of the silos, whether total or partial.”
• “We, as a bloc of representatives of the Kataeb, submitted a proposal for an urgent law to the Parliament, to protect and not demolish the wheat granaries building in the #port_of_Beirut, and to classify it as a national cultural monument to commemorate the victims of the August 4 explosion,” tweeted Sami Gemayel, head of the Kataeb party on Friday, along with a copy of the proposal.
• In the beginning of May, Mikati had promised the families of the victims that the silos of the port of Beirut would not be destroyed as long as he was in office, and that he would do his best to speed up the appointments necessary for the continuation of the investigation into this tragedy, which is stalled due to numerous appeals and political interference.