Screenshot of a video run by the online media outlet Megaphone, showing an altercation between a policeman and Iraqi students at the Ministry of Education.
BEIRUT — The Internal Security Forces (ISF) issued a statement Friday evening related to an incident at Beirut's Ministry of Education Thursday. Based on a video published by online media platform Megaphone, a police officer aggressively threatened students, some of them Iraqi citizens, who had come to the premises to have paperwork processed.
The ISF said in their statement that the officer in question had had a "nervous and spontaneous" response to the large influx of people on site, stressing that a disciplinary investigation is underway.
Posted online Thursday, the video shows dozens of men clustered in front of a door, carrying files, waiting the attention of ministry clerks. A number of security guards (plainclothes ministry employees as well as the uniformed ISF officer) appear to lose patience with the young men, and start insulting and shoving them, while the ISF officer brandishes a metal bar to intimidate them.
Referring to the large number of people present at the ministry, among them "Lebanese and non-Lebanese students, including Iraqis who had come to certify copies of their diplomas and other procedures," the police said that two people lost consciousness in a corridor.
"The officer on the scene reacted nervously and spontaneously to push aside the clumped people to let people through to assist the two students who had fainted," the text adds. "He grabbed a metal bar to intimidate" the crowd to "ensure order and prevent a stampede, without making any distinction" among those present.
"A judicial investigation has been opened," the ISF added, "as well as a disciplinary investigation."
After the video was posted online, many internet users denounced the security forces' "racism."
Iraqi Education Minister Naim al-Aboudi called for the formation of an Iraqi ministerial committee to be sent to Lebanon to follow-up on the case and to inquire about the treatment of the Iraqi students.
Lebanon's caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi sought to offer reassurance, saying he wished to "preserve the dignity of every person" who comes to the ministry on administrative business, whether Lebanese or foreign, without discrimination.
Halabi blamed the incident on the current labor dispute between the caretaker government and ministry employees, who are demanding fair compensation for their labor to offset the declining spending power of their salaries. The number of people needing processing had swelled because employees are present at the ministry only two days a week.