Lebanese activists holding documents bearing a portrait of Environment Minister Mohamad al-Machnouk shout slogans during a sit-in at his ministry in Beirut on Tuesday.
Reuters/Beirut
Dozens of protesters occupied the environment ministry in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday calling on minister Mohamad al-Machnouk to resign over a rubbish disposal crisis, the latest in a wave of protests against the paralysed political system.
Hundreds of other protesters gathered outside the building as riot police took up positions in surrounding streets and the "You Stink" anti-government campaign called for a new rally in a nearby square in the afternoon.
Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk said protesters had 30 minutes to leave the building, al-Jadeed and al-Manar television stations said, without saying what would happen if they did not.
Lebanon has been hit by a series of protests against the government ignited by a dispute over uncollected rubbish as well as widely perceived corruption and incompetence in its sectarian political system.
A Reuters witness inside the ministry building earlier on Tuesday said a few soldiers watched protesters who staged a sit-in along a corridor in the top floor.
"Machnouk - out, out, out!" protesters chanted.
Those inside said they had quietly entered in small groups before security personnel blocked the main door.
Protesters said it was not clear whether the environment minister was still in the building as other members of staff locked their office doors and left.
Reuters was not able to reach the minister by telephone for comment.
"They did not fulfil our demands," said Lucien Bourjeily of the "You Stink" movement that organised the protest.
"We were all on the streets, tens of thousands of us saying our demands. Once more they are escaping accountability. We will not take it anymore," he said, speaking in the packed corridor.
Thousands took to the streets of Beirut in a protest on Saturday against corruption in one of the largest rallies ever in Lebanon organised independently of political blocs.
Similar street protests descended into violence last month and Prime Minister Tammam Salam threatened to resign, a move that could tip a state that is struggling with political deadlock and the spillover from Syria's war into deeper turmoil.
The protesters say the rubbish crisis, which has led to piles of refuse being left festering in the summer sun, reflects the failures of a political system run by sectarian politicians.
More than two decades since the end of Lebanon's civil war, the country continues to have daily power cuts, frequent water shortages as has seen an influx of well over 1mn Syrian refugees.
The environment minister withdrew from a committee dealing with the garbage crisis on Monday but that has not mollified protesters.
"We are now in a situation in which garbage has reached all houses," protester Marwan Maalouf said. "We are now at the environment ministry, protesting peacefully till the environment minister resigns because he has to take responsibility for the situation."