We demand accountability for the Beirut blast

On August 4, 2020, at 6:07 in the evening, we lost the people we loved the most. Children and parents, husbands and wives, firefighters who ran towards the port while everyone else ran away. The explosion that killed at least 218 people, wounded 7,000, and left more than 150 physically disabled was no accident. It was the foreseeable result of thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate left to rot in the heart of our capital, with the knowledge, in writing, of the highest officials of the state.For six years, we have been told to wait. We waited while the first investigating judge was removed for daring to summon ministers. We waited while his successor, Judge Tarek Bitar, was buried under lawsuits filed by the very men he sought to question, while the investigation stayed suspended for years, while politicians who owed us answers hid behind immunity they had written for themselves. We buried our beloved ones twice: once in the ground, and once under the paperwork of a state determined to protect itself.Then, this March, something happened that we had almost stopped believing was possible. Lebanon’s domestic investigation was completed. The file, naming 70 officials and security offic...