BEIRUT, 28 May 2004 — At least five people were killed and more than a dozen wounded yesterday after soldiers opened fire in a poor Beirut suburb during protests against soaring fuel prices that brought Lebanon to a near standstill.
Riots spread across several parts of the city as people vented their anger at the high cost of living and the government’s economic policies by burning tires and throwing stones at soldiers trying to control the crowds.
Protesters set the Labor Ministry on fire. Witnesses said two floors of the building in Beirut’s southern suburbs were badly burned, but firefighters had the blaze under control and no one was injured.
Politicians and labor unionists intervened to try to end the country’s bloodiest domestic unrest in about a decade, which comes as Beirut gears up to host an OPEC summit next week.
Hospital sources said five people died of bullet wounds to the neck and stomach. Others were in critical condition and more casualties arrived at nearby hospitals.
The army said soldiers opened fire in the Shiite district of Al-Silom as they tried to disperse stone-throwing crowds enraged by rising living costs and the economic policies of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s government.
Protesters charged military vehicles, damaging several and wounding five soldiers, an army statement said.
Lebanon’s Al-Manar Television showed footage of soldiers firing automatic weapons into the air and protesters carrying away wounded civilians. Plumes of black smoke rose in the sky.
Troops fanned out in the area, cutting off the airport road leading south as ambulances rushed to the scene. Protesters set tires and piles of rubbish ablaze in several nearby districts.
In another part of Beirut, hundreds of workers earlier protested amid tight security, waving loaves of bread in what Lebanese newspapers had warned could be the biggest strike in years.
“The budget deficit is in the stomachs of the rich, not the pockets of the poor,” read one banner. Others carried placards depicting the donkeys they would need to replace their cars if fuel prices kept rising.
