Retired Lebanese army soldiers demonstrate outside one of the entrances to Parliament. (Credit: Wael Taleb/L'Orient Today).
BEIRUT — Retired Lebanese Army soldiers announced on Tuesday that they are going to agitate further, escalating to the point of "civil disobedience" and "mutiny" if the Cabinet does not increase their salaries in an expected meeting on Friday.
Retired soldiers are one group among many within the public sector that have been consistently protesting to demand better salaries amid deteriorating living conditions and debilitating inflation rates.
In a statement, the veterans accused the government of "avoiding the problem of the public sector's salary" and of increasing the salaries of some, but not others.
The soldiers warned Cabinet that if by Thursday it did not have a draft bill ready that increases salaries fairly across the public sector, they would be "forced" to escalate things and take to the streets to "abolish this oppressive authority with all means including mutiny and civil disobedience."
The move comes after several hundred retired soldiers demonstrated outside the Grand Serail and Parliament on Feb. 6, calling on the Cabinet meeting to increase their pension benefits. A second Cabinet meeting was held two days later, but no such decision was taken.
Over the last five years, Lebanon has been plagued by an unprecedented economic crisis where the Lebanese Lira lost more than 90 percent of its value amid massive inflation in a country that relies mostly on imports. As a result, the majority of the country's population lives in poverty and the public sector has seen steadily worsening living conditions.