tv [untitled] October 14, 2021 12:00pm-12:31pm AST
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are leaving their work, picking up their children from school. there's a lot of panic in the street because this is a country that, that really has been on the edge of for years. and then the issue or the tensions over the investigation into the bay report. the explosion hasn't further polarized this society further. 2 divided as you can see here, parents are picking up their children from school. people are really afraid she'll feed that had fish in the home with hon. he's saying that there's a lot of gunfire near the school, and so there were firing r. p j's. and he is failing, there are a lot of dead and injured again, we cannot confirm this, but what we do know from hospital sources is that one person is bed and 8 people are entered. the source of the gun fire is not known. but as you can imagine, both sides are now blaming each other for, for starting this clash, lebanon. c is a country that has seen confrontations in the past. there has never really been
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peace and stability since the end of the civil war in 1090. but like i said, the issue of the investigation into the bay report, the explosion has really divided this country and polarized this country even further. all right, zayna, let me ask, i'm in a situation like this. of course things are not always immediately, very clear, but it's important for us to try and be a little bit as forensic as possible as we can to try and paint the picture and an understanding of what's going on. so 1st of all, when you said an r p g, that's of course, a rocket propelled grenade. usually an anti tank weapon was fired. do we have any idea who was firing? how are you today? we have been asking the army and the internal security forces here. they are saying they are saying that her. a they don't know the source of the gunfire. they don't
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know who is firing the r p g. but let me ask that question saying that part is the idea that they, somebody was firing at the protesters who've been gathering in beirut today were they, the target is that what it appears is going on were getting conflicting reports. an army official was quoted as saying that there was a sniper that fired into, into a crowd of army soldiers. other reports suggest that they fired towards protesters . as you can imagine, the situation is very fluid right now. people are panicking, they're heading home. we haven't been able to confirm even, you know, where exactly the cipher was there saying that the sniper was in pe you and in fact, many people here are telling us don't go down that road, don't go down the roads. there are a lot of snipers there. there's just a lot of pension here. and this, this issue over the, for the last has,
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has divided this country yesterday. we heard the opposition accuse has below, and the she are political groups that called for the demonstration today of carrying out the cool of, of carrying out to cool against the fates a coup against the judiciary. and to really impose its will on the lebanese people with the threats of arms in fact below. and they have been warning of civil strife if the investigation continues according to its path. so right now it's very hard to see how a compromise can be reached in the past. when we have been in situations like this, some sort of a compromise is reached between the different political. you can still hear the birth of of gunfire. yeah, and that was another louder explosion that most likely wasn't rocket propelled grenade sammy, the r p g that we talked about earlier. so if you can see the army have
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a heavy security deployment in the streets, they are directing traffic, making sure that people do not drive towards the uni area. so, you know, like i mentioned, that is, has long been a front line. in fact, last night we understand that there was tension there. there was pension when supporters of the difference of political parties were in the street. yes, it's dangerous times. this is a dangerous, dangerous escalation in the situation and lebanon. there's not just an escalation on the streets, there's also political escalation. there is a real possibility of political paralysis. just last month, the new government was of was formed after 13 months of deadlock. and now i'm alone . has the law are threatening to quit the cabinet if judge tarrant baton is not
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removed then i think i have to mention why they are in this thing that judge bizarre is dismissed. be said that he has politicized, and that he is going after a specific individual's now judge baton this investigation is a secret he has not answered to those claims, but supporters of better who include i must mentioned the families of the victims of the be reports explosion believe that he is doing the right thing, that he is on the right path and that he is one of the rare judges who is not politically affiliated because in this country, the judiciary is, is accused of not being politically independent. okay, let me, let me jump in and ask you what's going on around, do you there? first of all, just to clarify, are you close to the area where the, the demonstrations were taking place?
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yes, let me show you. if we could just walk this way to our right was where the demonstration was taking place. that's the just the palace to our left. just a few 100 meters from here is tell you where we understand the people were shot at by a sniper. again, this hasn't been confirmed according to an army official. we are trying to to confirm exactly what happened. and that is why people are avoiding driving down towards the us because what we understood, we just heard an r p g being fired a short while ago. okay. so then let me then jump in the city and clearly there was a demonstration further down that road to the right. and we've got reports of shootings happening also further down to that road. but on the left and behind you, we could see soldiers stopping people. one assume that this is a security found out operation and soldiers now trying to control this whole area where there's demonstrations and reports of shooting going on.
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yes, but i must mention. the protesters have since left the area approximately an hour, an hour and a half ago after the repeated burst of gunfire. and there you hear another loud explosion. it seems this is not just only automatic rifles that are being used, but rocket propelled grenades as well. people, maybe if somebody, maybe we can ask somebody coming from that direction to give us more information. it is quite difficult now to venture down that road without knowing the lay of the land at this point some time when kennedy himself ms. hudson. and the people people are worried there, they're hearing gun fire. they don't know what is going on. so the off 131 we're going to try to find out sammy,
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what is happening down that road to see whether or not maybe we can approach the ambulance let's. let's go down that road. yes, sammy, just to put him on the tag. say no. the protesters today went, jonathan thought we're an open air. we should be on the right. yes. or we can hear the gunfire going on. yes, sammy, yes, i'm just pausing for a 2nd to let us take in the sounds that we can hear medea i was saying, the protested today they were supporters of has been law and ammo too. recently. she ain't groups which one to see this judge stepped down, right? those were the protesters were on the streets. did we have any rival demonstrators from, from people who want to see the judges stay in this position? not today's family, not today, but over the past year or so, since that report,
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the explosion, the families of the victims, as well as other lebanese, have been taken to the streets, demanding justice, demanding accountability. it has been a troubled investigation since since the start retard. judge baton is the 2nd charge to have been appointed. the 1st judge was also removed by the political class, really the standoff between the establishment and be tar, began in july when he started summoning former and current ministers to be questioned. and he wanted to question them as suspects they are being accused of criminal negligence. he says that there is evidence that they were aware of the ammonium nitrate in warehouse 12 being stored unsafely with flame mobil materials. and they did nothing about it. they did not do. they did not do their jobs. so they were criminally neglect. but those politicians, these former ministers refused to show up for questioning. and every time at the
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beginning they had parliamentary immunity. but 2 weeks ago, parliament was in recess. so there they lost their immunity and guitar. the judge tried to take advantage of the situation to call them in for questioning. so they're refusing to cooperate their establishment. and i'm going to has the law want him to be dismissed for and those are the opposition groups like the christian lebanese forces, which really their strong hold isn't fair unit facing amal. and they have really been accused by some of our supporters of deploying those snipers. support judge guitar and in fact, the leader of the christian lebanese forces party said last night from your charger . he did say that has but law cannot impose its will on us, that eventually if they take to the streets, we too can take to the streets. so there was really a lot of tension in the run up to today's protest and that these put the
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political divide. it has been and has been place for years now. so it just takes an incident for a confrontation or a clash to happen. so as you can see pension in the streets, we are trying to confirm the source who is the who are the source of gunfire. it's still not clear zayna as you're talking. let me point out viewers. we've got pictures on the right side of the screen. you may not be able to see what we had pictures there of what look like army apc's being deployed. do you get a feeling that the army is now in control of the streets? to a certain extent, but still down. that's what i told you the front line. it's still unclear because we're still hearing 1st of automatic gunfire,
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but we're getting some reports that the army is so saying bad. so yeah, this is the army on how the violence began. protesters were heading to beirut, just this palace where they were shot that. so according to this line, they protest her shot that in the area, you only borrow that front line that i keep on mentioning that that fault line between the christian lebanese. so for this party, and this year i'm a party and the army moved in to court and off the area and to arrest the shooters. and it's, it's a fluid situation. the army has been out in 4th and as we know now, the latest in terms of casualty is one dead, 8 wounded in the bay. ruth rally that has been organized by has beloved. so
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a city on edge, sammy, a city on edge. i could, i'm assuming that there will be behind the scenes contacts between the different political factions because it is in no one's interests for the situation to descend into a chaos. this could be an intimidating tactic on the parts of these different political parties to ensure that their demands are met. it's too early to say we can keep on speculating, but, but right now i can show you a lot of people are saying that we don't even know what's going on because we don't have electricity in our homes to watch television or the economy has all but collapse the, the state doesn't provide power for more than an hour or 2 hours a day, and more than 80 percent of the population is now poor. so they have no money to afford private generators. so the lebanese people are tired of this. they lived years past 2 years, have been very difficult, not only economic turmoil, political turmoil, a lot of people are telling you. we're packing our bags and leaving because of the
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dire economic conditions. and i can tell you after this incident, a lot more we'll, we'll decide to, to leave this country. so what we understand a sniper open fire at the protesters for making their way to the justice palace. we're still waiting for more official statements from the different political factions. but right now, this is what we have, but we are seeing a lot of video on social media of you know, men carrying weapons. it's, it doesn't bode well really for the, for the, for the future of this country which has had a turbulence and dark past every so often. there is bouts of violence that to that makes people have little faith. let me try to ask these motorists, sorry, when can it? when can it a demo, a nanny and columbus here. honey law. how did he say shaquira? okay. he's saying that there's a lot of saudi on persian. there's
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a lot of army presence in the front line. ok, so command of a hobby on from a lot of it was just mean a lot. i'm sabot in the ship it danny and michelle handler. he saw a lot of men armed men in the streets around when i've gotten hit on one of them. so i was very low. they pulled, they pulled back from the front line and in the ship. it hadn't so was. but i'm asking if anyone he saw anyone ensure a door. oh would give it a place to live barton. oh, oh says the gun fire. they were firing into the air. 3 or 4 r pj's were fired. we heard that those loud explosions out of that meant that she'll be pasco more than that, nanny. i'm asking him, how does he feel? is the lab is zayna thomas, who might be interesting to ask him if he was actually doing the shooting? were they rival protesters, or is he referring to army personnel? no, no, not the army personnel. he was talking about armed men. i mean, cannot be hours. the good i'm,
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i was a really good on those clip under my product or being about them. are you saying i don't support anybody? because in this country, almost everybody is politicized. he's saying that there were armed men from the she or i'm a party, they were opening fire, but the minute i think a sure i'm asking him if the other guy, because a new saying on the other side on the right, people were grilling fish, shook entrepreneur, here, it's very hard for me to ask such a question to a, to a lebanese who are mostly everybody belongs to or support a certain political parties. so it's very, we have to be careful because it's hard to say clearly, we don't know what happened. we are waiting for official statements from both sides, but what i can tell you is that that is a frontline, a very known frontline,
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every time there's a political crisis in this country, every time there's about in via parts of violence, it happens there. and that's when the army is always deployed. now, he said the army is deployed, so i think we may be able to approach the area now in full battle theme was a latino head, a head up and to head up there. she ran away. she wants to head home, but she doesn't know which way how she's gonna be able to get home. which road to take. okay. oh yeah, people are. yeah. i think that you can go that way. yeah. victor lyman, honey, so you know, the lebanese are just concerned, they're confused. they, they don't know what is happening. well, dana, in a way they do, they are, let's put another contact on the violence. let's put it into context. then what we've learned so far, because i think the narrative has developed over the last 20 minutes that we've been on there talking about this. so those, those, obviously
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a demons going on. there was a procession of it trying to reach the presidential palace. and then we've had reports of somebody, some armed guys shooting brides, and the result of this is one person killed. 8 people have been wounded and the demonstration has been dispersed. the demonstration has been dismissed that dispersed the approximately 2 hours ago and they were outside the justice palace, protesting against the lead judge investigating the bay report, the explosion, demanding about he be dismissed. now, the lebanese army has just issued a statement saying that they will shoot at any armed person on the street shooting from any place. and that they have asked the people to leave the streets and to leave near the sight of the clashes. now that's exactly where we are near the sight of the clashes we are approaching slowly. because clearly we do not know what is up ahead. we are going to stay on our side in case that they continue firing rocket
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propelled grenades, which at least 3 have been fired over the past past hours. so the army now issuing this terse statement saying that they will fire back. the army is in a very, very difficult position. i think it's very important to talk about the role of the army and lebanon. this is the only institution which is seen to a certain extent as neutral, standing really on the side lines every time. there is a political, a political conflict because the army is made up of, of the different sects in this country. and if the army does side with one political party against another, then their risk is it will split, which happened really during the civil war in the 1980s when the army split. so this is where the danger is right now. it is the lebanese army, which is the only one keeping this country shook and i've been here before, alan and her with me and me her name again. oh,
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okay. so she's here for a demo on it. okay. yeah. so, so basically they're advising us not to venture any further because there are a lot of snipers on rooftops. they're saying also that the lebanese army has a heavy presence in the area in a doing a sam, those guys in the car will warning you no, no, no, no, i mean close to you can certainly say, well, that's not to, not to venture. sorry. when can i enter the usual weather? i love you. bye. on us for the butcher. i still haven't contain the situation. yeah. is saying that the army is in the middle and there's still a sniper fire soft and she f is the neighborhood, the stronghold of i'm a and i know many as a stronghold of the christian lebanese forces part the info, huffy writer,
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a journalist. are you shocked that this is happening today or you expected this? he said, since he was born, it's the same scene he's seen over and over again. and this is what we've been trying to say. this country has not seen stability and security. that the war, the civil war ended what 30 years ago now, but this is continuous, the different political parties, the different leaders today were former warlords. and the struggle for power really continues on the lebanese people are trapped in the middle. thank you. thank you. and we will try to see those. ok, there are me. maybe we can ask them whether or not we can to and i'll view as we're now hearing from hospital also to people who you don't think so. why? ok, the army does not speak to journalists. chombo is also intelligent. they will not speak to us, they're not allowed to speak to reporters. so as you heard that journal, this is
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a theme that the lebanese people have seen over and over again. streets are empty. everyone is back home, worried about what happens next in a country where the economy has all but collapse in a country where the currency has collapse, losing 90 percent of its value over the past 2 years. the governments should be meeting the government should be it's a bit open space here. we should walk ahead for the walls. come. so the currency has lost its value. people's minimum wage. now worthless people's deposits are also trapped in banks because banks are unable to of banks are unable to or are refusing to give their depositors back their money. so this country has many, many problems. and now the government is paralyzed. they were supposed to begin negotiation with the international monetary funds for
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a bailout package that has not begun. so until this issue, this issue over over of the investigation into an over the investigation. let's just walk here so that we're next to the wall. i'm zane elise, those come back if we can talk what's going on now and that sir journalist you are talking to what we could gather from that conversation. there seems to be an indication of exchange of fire between 2 different neighborhoods going on or buildings in 2 different neighborhoods or she are, which is the predominantly shy muslim neighbourhood, a 9 or a manor. i know mother which is predominantly of lebanese christian forces, neighborhood, right? i mean, if that's the picture, how worrying and disturbing is that, because does that not bring our memories back to the lebanese civil war exchanges of fire in 1975 to
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this was the front line in 1975, when the civil war broke out. and i times i, and this is not the 1st time that there has been violence along the fault line since the end of the war in 1990. these are 2 political parties, but long time enemies, the leaders of both of these political parties were former war lords, during the war, and clearly though dividers deep, their sectarian tensions in this country. oh, you, you heard the man? we've seen this time and time again. he says he's not shocked. possibly we'll wake up tomorrow morning as if this nothing happened. the leaders will sit together on the table call each other behind the scenes and reach some sort of a solution to the latest crisis and life goes on. instead of solving the core problem in this country, which is the lack of national unity and the lack of national reconciliation between
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the people which allows these politicians and a leader to political parties to exploit those grievances in order to remain in power. we have to remember 2 years ago there whether protest movement, nonsectarian, mass protest, movement nationwide. ok. i'm just asking them she, she han, i laugh at them sway. huh. i thought you and you. okay, we're going to keep walking sammy, sorry, but we just have to ask. sure, sure. lemme there was a huge gallery, you mention on the fly for us like this. yes, so there was the protest movement which has largely filled out now demanding a change in leadership, demanding a new faces because they blamed the political class, which has been governed in this country for 3 decades now for, for really running the economy into the ground. are blaming them for corruption
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mismanagement, the state is nearly bankrupt. i think it's important. i think it's important to say that this does faith have no longer has has any room foreign currency reserves to keep on importing fuel. you've seen the scenes from beirut over we sent weeks over of the, of the fuel crisis, the long queues at gas stations. so the people of this country are dealing with daily struggles to put food on the table to secure electricity. even hospice, i have but i, it's asian. people can no longer afford to pay for hospitalization fees because they're now so poor and their currency has lost value themes. they're still evacuating some wounded. we're gonna go to the other side of the street because i think we should be on the other side because yeah, oh, yes, army. oh,
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so we are approaching the front line now you can see more, maybe it's the same an hour and nothing in that direction for a little bit. where exactly are you going? are you heading towards the area between shia and i know romano, where hardly there were reports of exchange of fire. yes. you can still hear the birth of automatic gunfire. okay. that was a sniper. that's a site where we have to come back here. sorry, thought dawn la la la la la la la. i'm just ask her about my visit, my dish dot net. after will cut out a little hard. yeah. i per so we have to move back a bit. let's stay behind this wall guys. so you can see come here. ok, just stay here, but what, what you're telling me is that ok ok. but so they know your now
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literally very close to the area where we can actually not any believe where we can hear gunfire still being exchanged right now. correct? sniper fire. yes, it's my 1st fire, according to the love and he's army. that is what they told us now, that's why they told us, because it's not clear where it is coming from. are there are high buildings up ahead down the road of the front line, or we can call that fall line. it's just a few 100 meters in front of us. the army, like i mentioned earlier, issued a statement saying that they're going to shoot at anybody who is armed. this will take a while to contain. this is happens in the past. it's not easy. for the army to move in and and, you know, the army has to be very careful not to be seen as taking sides. we talked about the lebanese army a while ago, before we spoke, i believe, to the journalist or to the army personnel. they're in
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a very difficult position because if they take any action against one political party instead of another, it really risks the army is the army unity which has happened in the past. we know that i know this is very clear. i never meant it was a very unclear and fluid situation, but the journalist didn't you still have to ask the question, even though i understand it's going to be difficult to sort it out. do we have any idea who the snipers shooting out? if the demonstrators have been dispersed, it's hard to say it's hard to say, but if you ask the oh, so the, the demonstrated the protesters who belong to the she political groups amazon has below what they were telling us at the site of the demonstration earlier outside the justice palace, they were pointing the finger at the lebanese forces, the christian lebanese forces. of course, we cannot independently confirmed this. the army is saying that it was, you know,
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the shooting was carried out by snipers. this is according to the, to the, to the army, like we mentioned earlier, and at least now we're getting reports that 2 people have been killed not to one and at least 20 injured. now, we also know that all roads leading to, i know, are many, are now closed, the army, what the army trades trying to do now before. ok before moving in is trying to isolate these 2 neighborhoods from each other to actually push the armed men on both sides of the divide. further back this before they will be able to move in. so you can see people leaving the area. people of course, will be, are afraid they're afraid of whether or not to morrow morning. everything will go back to normal. or if indeed this, this will, this will worsen whether or not this will be contained in the past. situations like this have been, have been contained. ah,
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