Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The “You Stink” group is poised to escalate its protests against the government after it has failed to meet any of their four demands during the 72-hour ultimatum it set last Saturday, activists said Monday.

The group, which has been spearheading street protests over government corruption and the failure to resolve the garbage crisis, on Monday dismissed the environment minister’s decision to quit a ministerial committee tasked with tackling the crisis and insisted on his resignation.

Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk’s withdrawal from the ministerial committee charged with tackling the trash crisis doesn’t concern us, Lucien Bourjeily, a “You Stink” movement organizer, told The Daily Star.

“His decision doesn’t impact the deadline we gave to the Cabinet,” said Bourjeily, a Lebanese writer and director. “We still want his resignation,” he added.

Another activist with the group told The Daily Star: “Our primary demand was and still is Machnouk’s resignation over mismanaging the garbage crisis.”

The group’s response came shortly after Machnouk said earlier in the day that he suspended his participation in the ministerial committee tasked with finding a solution to the current waste management crisis.

“I have informed [Prime Minister Tammam] Salam of my decision to withdraw from the committee and its secretariat,” Machnouk said in a statement issued by his press office.

The minister cited the dispute over resolving the garbage crisis, the failure to reach a breakthrough with regard to the deteriorating environmental situation after the closure of the Naameh landfill, the failure to approve the required waste management tenders, in addition to political authorities’ failure to locate alternative landfills, as the main reasons for quitting the committee.“I am always ready to carry out my duties when needed” said Machnouk, who is close to Salam. He hoped that Lebanon would reach a swift solution to end the “worsening” trash crisis.

Machnouk’s stance comes after tens of thousands of Lebanese from across the country joined the You Stink campaign’s rally in Martyrs’ Square in Downtown Beirut Saturday, waving Lebanese flags and holding banners denouncing corruption and the government’s failure to resolve a mounting garbage crisis which has stretched on for seven weeks now.

The demonstrators called on Machnouk to resign for mishandling the trash crisis. However, the minister stressed shortly after the demonstration ended that he would not give up his duties during the delicate period through which the country is passing.

You Stink gave the government a 72-hour ultimatum to achieve the following four demands: Machnouk’s resignation over his failure to address the trash crisis, holding accountable those who opened fire at You Stink protesters on Aug. 22 at Riad al-Solh Square, holding parliamentary elections and a sustainable solution to the garbage crisis along with releasing the results of an investigation carried out by the state financial prosecutor into the country’s waste management sector.

The group threatened to escalate protests if these demands were not met by Tuesday evening. “So far, there has been no favorable response to our demands. Therefore, we are heading for escalation tomorrow,” Tarek al-Mallah, a You Stink activist, told the Central News Agency. He said the group’s activists will meet Tuesday to discuss the “appropriate steps” against the government.

Commenting on Machnouk’s withdrawal from the ministerial committee, Mallah said: “It would have been better had he resigned as a minister because he has shown incompetence.”

While ruling out civil disobedience, Mallah said blocking the Beirut airport road or roads in Lebanese areas could be one of the group’s escalatory measures.

Seeking to defuse the trash crisis, Salam Monday tasked Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb with forming a new committee of experts to develop swift solutions to the garbage problem. “Chehayeb was tasked with chairing a committee comprised of experts that is in charge of overseeing the file and propose instant solutions for the [waste management] crisis,” according to a statement issued by Salam’s media office.

The committee is different from the ministerial committee which Machnouk has quit.

Meanwhile, Christian spiritual leaders backed peaceful protests by citizens to press their demands, but warned of the consequences of street demonstrations when tension is running high in the country.

“While stressing freedom of popular expression within the rules in force, the participants see that taking to the streets is dangerous amid the soaring tension and the fires raging around Lebanon, threatening it and negatively affecting its stability,” said a statement issued at the end of an inter-Christian spiritual meeting chaired by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Bkirki.

It called on protesters to announce the movement’s main goals, considering their demands “rightful.” The religious leaders, however, rejected any violence. “Although pressure on the government is legitimate by democratic and civilized means, they [spiritual leaders] refuse that this is done with the use of violence and the disruption of public life,” the statement said.

The inter-Christian meeting had replaced a previously scheduled Muslim-Christian spiritual summit in Bkirki after Muslim spiritual leaders decided not to attend, a source told The Daily Star.

MP Walid Jumblatt warned of attempts by political parties to undermine the “rightful demands” of the You Stink movement.

“The movement raised the [Lebanese] people’s demands before political parties and some [parties] refuse to carry out necessary auto-criticism mechanisms. Instead, they condemn this movement and falsely blame its founders, overlooking the people’s demands,” Jumblatt said in his weekly article published in the Progressive Socialist Party’s weekly online newspaper Al-Anbaa.

The Kataeb Party, while welcoming the anti-corruption movement, called on the protesters to maintain the “credibility and independence of their movement and not to allow it to be politicized.”

“This white civilian revolution restores hope to the Lebanese youth who are ready either for permanent emigration or permanent revolution,” said a statement issued after the party’s weekly meeting chaired by its leader MP Sami Gemayel.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea expressed his “astonishment and resentment over the government’s negligence to find a solution to the garbage crisis.”

“It is very shameful indeed,” he tweeted.

Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah said it is unlikely for the popular street protests to succeed in changing the country’s sectarian-based political system.

“It is difficult for a popular revolution in Lebanon to succeed in changing the system because of the [country’s] sectarian composition,” he told a Hezbollah ceremony in the southern border town of Ramieh. “When parliamentary elections are held in the future, we will see those who are demonstrating and protesting today will themselves elect their leaders who are affiliated with their confessions and sects.”

MP Nabil Nicholas, from MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc, accused the groups leading the street protests in Downtown Beirut of being “mercenaries” working for foreign embassies.

“Slogans should not be left to people who want to sell their cause to foreign embassies,” he said in a radio interview. He called on all the Lebanese to join a demonstration planned by the Free Patriotic Movement Friday. – The Daily Star