Highlights
- August 4 marks the second anniversary of the Beirut Port explosion and victims' families are awaiting the findings of an investigation, which has been pending since the end of 2021.
- Families are calling for an independent international investigation, while one mother is suing the company that contracted the ship to bring ammonium nitrate to Beirut Port.
- The explosion killed at least 215 people and injured thousands of others.
The families of those killed and injured in what was one of the largest, non-nuclear explosions in recent history say they are still waiting for an apology from the Lebanese government.
The explosion on August 4, 2020, resulted from the detonation of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate which ignited as a fire tore through the warehouse in which they were stored.
Lebanese firefighters work at the scene of explosion at the Beirut Port, Beirut, Lebanon, 4 August 2020. Source: AAP
Two years on, the wounds for the victims' families remain deep.
The town of Qartaba al-Jubailia still mourns two young firefighters, Najib Even and Charbel Karam, who died battling the blaze as part of the Beirut Fire Brigade on that fateful day.
Mr Even's sister, Antonella, remembers the tragedy as, "an ominous day, which changed our lives".
Compounding the family's grief at the time was that they had to wait 15 days for their loved ones' remains to be returned to them for burial, she says.
"I'm still falling asleep on Najib's bed, waiting for him to wake me up, it's a wound that will never heal," she says.
"They are my soul, my heart and part of me, they are my brothers and I will never abandon them or be intimidated. I will defend their cause until my last breath."
She says the families of the victims are turning to the international community to demand an independent investigation.
Beirut blast victim, Najib Hitti, with his sisters Antonella and Karlen who also lost her husband Charbel Karam. Source: Antonella Hitti
According to an , investigations by Lebanese authorities into the disaster have "stalled".
The organisation says that as of June 2022, parliamentary immunity, as well as outstanding complaints and other procedural roadblocks initiated by two members of parliament and former ministers, continued to prevent significant progress in the case.
"Lebanon continues to fail to uphold its human rights obligations in holding perpetrators of the Beirut Port blast, which killed more than 200 people, to account," Amnesty International says.
"Given the months of stalling, inaction and lack of political will, it remains obvious that an international, independent, and impartial investigative mission, such as a UN fact-finding mission, is essential in upholding justice to families of victims and survivors.”
'We have the right to know who killed us'
Cecil Roukouz lost her brother Joseph - a worker at the port - in the horrific blast.
She considers what occurred a "crime against human rights" as it affected thousands of people in their homes and places of business.
A lawyer by profession, Ms Roukouz expresses her frustration at the lack of resolution regarding the investigation.
"The investigation is based on several axes, from how to ship and transport goods from abroad to Lebanon, to those who cooperated in storing ammonium nitrate at the port of Beirut from all security agencies."
She says that five security agencies at the Beirut Port had to have determined their responsibilities regarding the storage of the ammonium nitrate.
If these people hadn't agreed to leave these items on the harbour all this time, we wouldn't have had that tragedy.
Melvin Khoury, who survived the explosion, says: "We have the right to know who killed us and why the state is absent."
Ghassan Hasruti, a wheat keeper at the port, tragically lost his life in the blast.
Antonella Hitti with her brother Najib, Charbel Hitti and Charbel Karam. Source: Antonella Hitti
According to his family, it took 14 days for them to be notified of his death.
His son Eli Hasruti believes justice "will be served" in this regard, as it is the "only way to build a nation".
"Justice will inevitably be done from the heart of destruction and death," he says.
"The accountability we seek to achieve in this case cannot be achieved without social, cultural and moral awareness so that every human being realises his individual and collective responsibilities in this case."
Australian child, the youngest victim
Australian child Isaac Owler was just shy of his third birthday when he fell victim to the explosion at his parents' home in Ashrafieh.
His mother Sarah Copland says she carries the deep scars from that day and believes Lebanon has failed the victims of the port explosion with the suspension of the internal investigation in December 2021.
Lebanon has failed the victims of the Beirut blast (after it) promised to complete the investigation within days of the explosion, and now we are two years later and we have not actually seen a full investigation.
Ms Copland believes the Lebanese authority, at all levels, knew of the presence of ammonium nitrate at the port, which posed a grave threat to the city.
"All we have seen is political intervention to stop the investigation," she says.
Ms Copland and a group of other victims' families look to the UN Human Rights Council for an independent investigation into the explosion and are also working with Human Action Worldwide and Human Rights Watch to press governments to submit a resolution to the Human Rights Council establishing such an investigation.
Sarah Copland with her son Isaac who died in the Beirut blast on August 4,2020. Source: Sarah Copland
They also want the Australian government, although not currently a member of the Human Rights Council, to submit a resolution on behalf of the families affected by the tragedy.
She is also suing the company that contracted the ship that brought ammonium nitrate to Lebanon.
Ms Copland says she is determined to do everything in her power to make sure that the people who were ultimately responsible for the blast would be held accountable.
However, she doubts she will ever heal from losing her son.
"I miss him every second.
"Justice will not bring my son back, but as a mother, this is the last thing I can do and I will fight for it to the end."
