A committee tasked with evaluating waste management tenders on Wednesday postponed declaring the winning bids pending further assessment, as anti-trash protesters scuffled with security forces outside the Council for Development and Reconstruction where the meeting was held.

“It is necessary to have more than one evaluation for every region,” said Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq after the meeting.

“The declaration of the winning bids has been postponed to Tuesday for further evaluations,” he said.

Meanwhile, security forces fired water cannons to disperse dozens of protesters from the You Stink campaign after some of them tried to remove the barricades and barbed wire outside the CDR and the Grand Serail.

Protesters shouted slogans against the authorities over the failure to address the garbage crisis as some of them hurled eggs towards the Grand Serail.
Four protesters were arrested during the clashes of whom one was eventually released. Clashes renewed in the evening as security forces used batons to disperse the demonstrators. The You Stink anti-trash campaign said on its Facebook page that the activist Bilal Allaw was critically wounded after he was beaten by security forces. He was rushed to the American University of Beirut Medical Center.
It also said three activists were still detained, identifying them as Lucien Bourjeily, Hassan Shamas and Waref Suleiman.The protesters vowed that they will not end their sit-in at the Riad al-Solh Square before the release of all detainees.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/187749-declaration-of-winning-waste-management-bids-postponed-as-activists-scuffle-with-police