By Dr. Gilbert Moujabber
Nothing is more painful than to lose a loved one, if it is not to have, after this loss, to wait for years for a justice which is unknown when it comes, a truth whose delay is not understood and answers always suspended between the meanderings of politics, the power relations and the judicial complexities.
On 4 August, it was not only the port of Beirut that exploded: it was also the confidence of the Lebanese in their state. The world has discovered the tragedy of a country whose inhabitants have been exposed to a catastrophe that responsibility, vigilance and control should have prevented. Lives have been ruined, homes destroyed, families broken. And the questions remain, stronger than any political discourse intended to silence them.
Today, as the investigation returns to the forefront, hearings continue and responsibilities are being examined, there is renewed hope for families who do not claim any privilege. They do not demand that the truth be replaced by compensation, nor do they seek revenge. They demand a basic right in a State that respects its citizens: how their loved ones died, who bears responsibility and why this disaster has not been avoided.
The hearing of retired officers and the examination of other persons in the judicial framework recall that responsibilities cannot be reduced to one function, one rank or one institution. They must be based on facts and evidence, not titles, functions or political calculations. The pain of families has no moral privilege; However, legal immunities and constitutional procedures must be respected and applied.
With regard to Judge Tarek Bitar, today our duty is to defend his right to conduct his mission independently, free from intimidation, interference and politicization. We are not judges and do not have to render decisions instead of justice. Nor are we entitled to impose names or conclusions on him. But, as citizens, we have the right to demand that the investigation be not obstructed and that time not become an instrument to exhaust families until they are diverted from their quest for justice.
Respecting Judge Bitar does not mean committing a man to infallibility. This means protecting the judicial institution, letting the evidence speak, guaranteeing to everyone involved the right to defend themselves, to victims the right to obtain justice and to families the right to access the truth.
To those who think that the years will be enough to close this wound, we recall that there are mothers who have no more of their children than photographs, fathers who died waiting for an answer and children who grew up with the memory of the day when they lost their parents. These families do not have the luxury of forgetting. The State cannot ask them to remain silent or to accommodate the unknown.
The expected indictment decision, when made in accordance with the rules of law, will not be the end of the road. It will open a new stage, leading to a fair trial and evidence-based judgements, without distinction between responsible and ordinary citizens, between influential and simple individuals.
Lebanon does not need new conferences or speeches celebrating sovereignty and justice. It needs a state that proves that human life is not a negligible thing, that official functions do not hold anyone accountable and that the blood of innocent people is not a currency of exchange or a matter that can be relegated to oblivion.
I do not ask for the conviction of anyone until the court pronounces, nor do I accept the acquittal of anyone before she has said her word. I simply ask that the truth go to the end, that the law follow its course and that the families of the victims may feel that their country has not abandoned them.
In Lebanon, justice can delay and stumble under the weight of interests, but it must not die. The port is not only the place of an explosion: it is the wound of a country and a responsibility borne by the state, justice and all Lebanese convinced that the human being is worth more than power and that, in the conscience of the people, the law does not erase over time.
We will not forget the victims. We will not abandon their families. We will not compromise on the truth.
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Dr. Gilbert Moujabber
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