There can be no immunity for an incompetent and illegitimate authority

The fourth of August will not be an annual historical event that we remember with sadness, rather it is the perpetuation of a crime that has affected and still inflicts daily suffering and tragedy on the victim’s families in their struggle to obtain justice and defend the dignity of their sons, daughters, and partners. The daily suffering of the families shows us all that this governing authority doesn’t value human beings, this authority that claims legitimacy based on the rights of sects and not on the rights of humans, its legitimacy has fallen and its inability to protect our society from crises has been exposed, as well as its complicity in the murder of people, in starving them, and begging at their expense.

Currently, the regime is fiercely defending its authority under the pretext of immunity. There can be no immunity for crime, nor for a powerless, incompetent, and illegitimate authority. This is something that the regime’s accomplices know well, despite their arrogance, their maneuvers, and their disagreements, when confronted with the legitimate cause of the victims on one hand, and with our political struggle, which started to make a change in the balance of power on the other hand.

Those who organized their attack against the state with war and militias, and finalised it with general amnesty and a tightened set of mutual immunities — after the people have given up and accepted everything to end the massacre — are today in a defensive position, because the cooperation of sectarian parties and the financial coalitions that supported them has fallen, thus their incompetence has become clear for their crowds, the society, and the rest of the world.

There is no more capacity for bribery and the acceptaning false promises is not possible unless the threat of war is back.

We are inspired today by the victims’ families struggle and their realization of the urgent need for a real, capable, and effective state that treats society and citizens as such, and does not replace its loss of legitimacy with bribes while funds are available for looting, or with threats and intimidation once the sources of funding have dried up. Without an actual state, that is, a civil state, and despite the efforts of some courageous judges, there will be no path for judicial justice.

Today, we declare our solidarity with the victims’ families and our participation in their actions to put pressure on this inept, criminal, and fragile authority. No justice can be served as long as this authority exists. We promise them that we will continue to politically confront the current illegitimate authority, in order to transform the accumulated misfortunes of our society into sacrifices. Sacrifices that build a State which derives its legitimacy from the adoption of civil, social, and legal rights of citizens, thus ensuring them a dignified life. This will transform the crime of the fourth of August from a tragedy into a founding event in the construction of a new Lebanon.