Karem Mounzer, a young journalist assaulted in Jiyeh with one of his friends. (Credit: DR)
On Saturday, April 27, Karem Mounzer, a journalist with Beirut Today, and a photographer friend headed to one of the beaches of Jiyeh (Chouf), to take some photographs. "My friend wanted to photograph the surfers, and I wanted to take photos and images of the sea, which would be used to illustrate my reports," Karem Mounzer told L'Orient-Le Jour.
The two young men thought they were spending a quiet afternoon on a public beach, and had parked their car in a vacant lot adjacent to a farm field. They were surprised to be approached by a young man they had not seen when they arrived, standing by their car. "You have to pay to be here," he said.
"There was no price displayed or anything, so we tried to figure out what he was talking about," continued Mounzer. The young man then told them that they had to pay a certain Jaafar, pointing to a container that apparently served as a rest area for the man in question. The latter, probably alerted by the voices, emerged from his shelter "visibly annoyed," according to the journalist.
From that point on, it was one thing after another. "First, the Jaafar in question slapped my friend, then, when I protested, he slapped me," said Mounzer. When the young man returned the favor, a brawl broke out, and he found himself surrounded by several men who beat him up. Worse still, the Jaafar took a Kalashnikov from the container and fired the entire magazine at the two friends as they ran back to their car, fortunately without hitting them.
Mounzer assured L'Orient-Le Jour that they did not have time to identify themselves as journalists and photographers and that the men in question did not even try to find out who they were dealing with or what they were doing there. They only had time to warn them "not to set foot in Jiyeh again."
'I refuse to carry weapons'
Without their phones – which they lost during the incident – and bloodied, Mounzer and his friend, who refused to be named, headed for the nearest army roadblock, which referred them to the Damour base which, in turn, directed them to the Saadiyate base.
"I had the man's name and could tell them where he was," recalled the journalist. Finally, an agent on the spot made his contacts. "A man called Ali came to bring our phones back, asking me: It's going to be okay like this, isn't it," Mounzer said, as if to close the subject. When he tried to find out more about the causes of the attack, the man whose first name is Ali said he knew nothing about it, as he was not present. "I got the distinct impression that these people are politically protected," stated the journalist.
When questioned by L'Orient-Le Jour, a law enforcement source assured that "the investigation is continuing in order to shed light on this case," adding that "the man named Jaafar remains unaccounted for for the time being."
Mounzer explained that he had taken precautions by visiting a forensic pathologist, whose report noted contusions and minor injuries, as well as traces of blows to the neck and head. "I don't know whether I'll file a complaint with the courts," he says, visibly disillusioned, "I don't think there's any point and I don't really trust the system anymore."
For Mounzer, this assault raises a number of questions that the young man does not hesitate to ask himself. "All I had on me was my camera, and I refuse to carry weapons. But in the end, men armed to the teeth beat us up on a public beach and shot at us, with the intention of preventing us from ever setting foot in a whole region again. Where are they taking us? A new reign of self-security? Borders between regions?"
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.