Key points:
- The Church for Lebanon holds weekly meetings for victims' families to aid their healing processes.
- Families say they are still waiting on answers as to how the port was permitted to store highly flammable chemicals so close to residential areas.
- Australian ambassador to Lebanon, Andrew Barnes, has led a delegation on behalf of 20 countries calling on the Lebanese authorities to move forward with the investigation.
The town of Qartaba still mourns three young firefighters, Charbel and Najib Hitti and their relative Charbel Karam
The men died battling the blaze as part of the Beirut Fire Brigade on that fateful day.
The Hitti brothers' sister, Antonella, says she recalls that day as one that changed her life forever.
“August 4, 2020, was a bad day. It changed our lives 180 degrees,” she says.
Beirut blast victim, Najib Hitti, with his sisters, Antonella and Karlen, the latter who also lost her husband, Charbel Karam. Credit: Antonella Hitti
To add to their devastation, the families say they waited 15 days to find out the fate of their loved ones.
“We waited 15 days until we learned that (the remains) of Charbel and Nagib were found," Ms Hitti says.
Three years on, she says the families are still no closer to any closure and healing.
“I still fall asleep on Nagib's bed and wait for him to wake me up. It is a wound that will never end,” she says.
“They are my soul, my heart and part of me. They are my brothers and I will never give up on them or give in to fear. I will defend their case to (my) last breath.”
Antonella Hitti with her brothers, Najib and Charbel, and their relative, Charbel Karam. Credit: Antonella Hitti
We want to show the whole world that the corrupt system blew us up and continues to hinder us.Antonella Hitti
She adds that the victims' families are turning to the international community to demand an international investigation because “those who should protect us have blown us up".
Joseph Roukoz lost his life in his workplace.
Cecil Roukoz lost her brother, Joseph, while he was working at the port. Thus, she says she considers that what happened was a crime against human rights as it affected people in their homes and businesses.
On the third anniversary, Ms Roukoz says that the investigation is still in place without making any steps forward.
As a lawyer, Ms Roukoz says she follows this case closely. She talks about a clear strategy developed by the judge in charge of this case.
She says, “The investigation is based on several axes, starting from how to ship and transport goods from abroad to Lebanon to who cooperated in storing ammonium nitrate at Beirut port from all security agencies.”
Ms Roukoz says that five security agencies at the port of Beirut had a legal obligation to refuse to store certain materials.
If these people (had not agreed) to leave these materials at the port for the duration of that period, we would not have suffered such a tragedy.Cecil Roukoz
She claims the government was actively hindering any investigation.
Families of the Beirut blast victims have spoken to SBS Arabic24 about their ongoing ordeal to find out the truth.
Melvin Khoury, who survived the Beirut port explosion, says, “We have the right to know who killed us and why the state is absent.”
'My country did this' is written on the remaining walls of the port.Melvin Khoury
Ghassan Hasrouty, a 'wheat guard' at the port, was also killed in the explosion.
His son, Elie Hasrouty, says, “The accountability we seek to achieve in this case cannot be achieved without social, cultural and moral awareness so that each person realises his individual and collective responsibility in this case.”
Crime calls for justice. Justice does not stop at accountability only. It aims to not forget what happened, create guarantees that it will not be repeated and learns lessons from it.Elie Hasrouty
Beirut blast victim, Ghassan Hasrouty (R), with his family at his daughter's wedding. Credit: Elie Hasrouty
Victims' families meet weekly to aid the healing process. Credit: Sr. Tidola Abdo
Only Australian victim was just two years old
Australian child, Isaac Oehlers, was two years old when he was killed at his parents' house in the Ashrafieh area.
His mother, Sarah Copland, says the Lebanese state has failed Beirut port victims with the suspension of the internal investigation in December, 2021.
Lebanon failed the victims of the Beirut explosion and promised to complete the investigation within days of the explosion.Sarah Copland
Ms Copland says many people within the Lebanese Authority, at all levels, knew about the presence of ammonium nitrate at the port, which posed a danger to the city.
“They were well warned and chose to do nothing and now they are doing everything they can to stop the investigation. All we saw was political intervention to stop the investigation,” she says.
Sarah Copland with her son, Isaac, who died in the Beirut blast. Credit: Sarah Copland
Ms Copland is also moving to file a lawsuit in the United States against the company that contracted the ship to bring ammonium nitrate to Lebanon, because her son had American nationality and was born in the US.
“There are corrupt practices in the process of bringing ammonium nitrate to Lebanon,” she says.
I miss him every second, I don't think I'll be able to accept his absence. You can never get over the death of a child taken in such brutality.Sarah Copland
“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.”
Where is the investigation going?
Families claim all those previously arrested in this case have been released and some have left the country, while politicians wanted for investigation have been re-elected.
After the failure of justice in Lebanon, the efforts of the victims' families are focused on the international community, the Human Rights Council and embassies in an effort to achieve justice.
On the eve of the third anniversary of the Beirut port explosion, Australian Ambassador to Lebanon, Andrew Barnes, headed a delegation of ambassadors, the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Abdullah Bou Habib, and presented a petition on behalf of 20 countries calling on the Lebanese state to move forward with investigations.
Former Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, had already responded to the prosecution in the port case by the judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion, Judge Fadi Sawan, in a tweet, “In response to the allegations of the judicial investigator, Judge Fadi Sawan, we have always been under the law and its principles and we trust ourselves and in exercising our responsibility.”
However, Mr Khalil refused to appear before the investigating judge, claiming he had no authority to try deputies and ministers in relation to their work.
