- HRW urged Lebanon's forces to investigate reports of force against protesters
- Many protesters at the U.S. embassy in Lebanon said police reactions were violent
- Videos revealed police officers kicking people laying on the ground
- One journalist was shot with a rubber bullet at a short distance and had to go to the hospital
Human Rights Watch released a report Tuesday urging the Internal Security Forces to investigate reports of unlawful use of force against protesters and journalists during a recent demonstration near the U.S. Embassy.
HRW called on the ISF to immediately open an impartial investigation and to ensure accountability for any excessive or indiscriminate use of force, and to ensure that further violence against demonstrators does not occur.
“Police should be managing the crowds at protests professionally, not jumping into the fray and using force indiscriminately,” Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said. “We are concerned that this pattern of excessive force against protesters will continue until authorities end the current climate of impunity.”
On Dec. 10, a demonstration was held near the U.S. Embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Some of the protesters at the rally threw rocks at security forces. The riot police’s reaction was excessive, with ISF personnel using water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and batons on the demonstrators, the HRW report said.
Videos and photos corroborated these statements. One video showed police officers beating people with batons, and two videos showed police officers, in separate incidents, kicking people as they lay on the ground.
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The ISF said they would “take necessary measures against those of our members who violated the law.” However, they insisted that those using excess force numbered just a few, amongst the hundreds "who have achieved the utmost restraint and respect for security and order procedures that respect the principles of human rights," the ISF said.
The HRW report calls for those police offers who violate the law to be referred to the public prosecutor, regardless of their rank.
In compiling the report, the watchdog organization talked to seven witnesses who said that police had appeared to use force on protesters who were not violent or were in custody, as well as against journalists. One protester quoted in the report said that police kicked him in the back and legs and hit him with batons as he was attempting to help a person who had fallen unconscious.
“I remember officers just stampeding people and just starting to beat people who were already on the floor, they were going after everyone,” one witness said.
Police attempted to prevent the use of cameras, reportedly hitting journalists – one of whom was a correspondent for The Daily Star – and knocking their cameras from their hands.
One journalist was shot with a rubber bullet at a short distance and had to go to the hospital.
“International donors funding the Internal Security Forces should pay careful attention to how their money is being used," Fakih said.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
