LBN33109

At 2300hrs, a group of citizens have blocked El Jiyeh highway from Barja area in both directions to support the protestors in Downtown Beirut.

Residents of the Chouf area of Iqlim al-Kharroub southeast of Beirut blocked the vital Beirut-South highway early Sunday in protest at the environment ministry's decision to transfer the garbage that has been accumulating over the last week to their province, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The residents gathered on the coastal highway in the town of Jiyeh at the junction of Barja and blocked the road in both directions.

Some youths also blocked the road leading to the Siblin Cement Factory fearing that dump trucks might take the garbage to that destination, NNA added.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation later said that the residents erected tents in the middle of the Jiyeh highway.

The protesters also prevented 4 dump trucks from passing.

NNA later said that they emptied stone-loaded trucks in the middle of the highway. They stressed that they will not open the road until the environment ministry backs down from its decision.

However, the adjacent seaside road was "partially" reopened in both directions in the afternoon, according to the Traffic Management Center.

TMC said the area was witnessing traffic congestion.

Beirut and the Mount Lebanon area were plunged into a waste disposal crisis following last week's closure of the Naameh landfill without finding an alternative.

Garbage has been piling on the streets of the capital and Mount Lebanon after dumpsters overflowed with tons of trash.

Some people have resorted to burning the waste to tackle the problem amid the government's ongoing failure to find a solution to the crisis, although health experts have warned of the hazards resulting from such a move.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/185683-iqlim-al-kharroub-residents-bl...

June 24, 1999: Israeli aircraft targeted civilian infrastructure in 10 raids, namely power stations in Jamhour, Bsalim, Baalbeck, and Bint Jbeil, and a mobile telephone station in Jiyeh, north of Saida. It also destroyed the Awali River bridge close to Saida. Civilian casualties are listed below: - In Jamhour, five firefighters dead and 12 people wounded. - In Damour, on the coastal highway, two dead. - In Baalbeck, around 30 people wounded. - At the Awali bridge, five civilians and two Lebanese soldiers wounded. During this period, Lebanese civilians, including children and elderly, continued to be forcibly expelled from the Israeli-occupied territory by the SLA. Several hundred people were victims of this practice, which began in 1985.

December 31, 1984: In Jiyeh, on the southern coastal road between Beirut and Saida, a civilian boat that was mooring at the port was bombed, killing 2 people and wounding 20.

April 26–May 4, 1985: Christians were killed most notably in Jiyeh (90), Alman (21), and in
at least 13 other villages. The total number of civilian victims was around 217.
Children, the elderly, and women were killed with axes and knives, bodies were mutilated, and more than 100 people were wounded, in addition to an undetermined number of people disappeared.

The militias went into Damour and Jiyeh and proceeded to kill entire families, including children, women, and elderly people. Rapes, burning, looting, and destruction also occurred. Civilians who had sought refuge in the church were killed or summarily executed. Graves were desecrated. A priest who survived the attack reported that whole families were killed in their homes, many women were gang-raped, and few of them were left alive afterward. Between 150 and 500 civilians were killed that day, out of an estimated population of 35,000. The groups that took part in the attack were mainly formed of NM and PLO militias, DFLP, Fatah, as well as as-Sa`iqa, LCP, OCAL, and Murabitun. There was a decision to “empty the city,” and the operation was conducted under the command of Fatah and as-Sa`iqa.