Protesters poured back onto streets and squares across Lebanon on Saturday, despite army efforts to unblock roads, with no end in sight to a crisis that has crippled the country for 10 days and kept banks closed.
Army and security commanders met to plan ways to re-open main arteries to get traffic flowing again while “safeguarding the safety of protesters”, the military said in a statement. But people have closed routes with barriers, sit-ins and mass gatherings demanding the government resign.
The General Security agency -- one of Lebanon's top three security bodies -- said it has started to implement a plan to open key roads. An army spokesman told AFP that security forces would negotiate with protesters, without resorting to violence.
Lebanon has been swept by days of protests against a political class accused of corruption, mismanagement of state finances and pushing the country toward an economic collapse unseen since the 1975-90 civil war.
Banks, schools and many businesses have shut their doors.
“We won’t leave the streets because this is the only card that people can pressure with,” Yehya al-Tannir, an actor protesting at a makeshift barricade on a main bridge in the capital Beirut. “We won’t leave until our demands are met.”
Northeast of Beirut, dozens of demonstrators formed a human chain to prevent the army from removing a dirt berm blocking a seaside road.
As night fell on Saturday, the first day of the weekend, protesters flooded streets across the country amid patriotic music, Lebanese flags and protest banners.
Demonstrators who had slept in tents near Martyrs Square, said they were still defiant.
"We will stay on the streets," said Rabih al-Zein, a 34-year-old from the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.
"The power of the people is stronger than the power of the parties," he told AFP.
Near the northern city of Tripoli, the army said it fired into the air during a disturbance with protesters. Five soldiers and a number of civilians were injured, it said.
Banks will stay closed until life returns to normal and will pay month-end salaries through ATMs, the Association of Banks in Lebanon has said.
It has held crisis meetings in recent days amid growing fears that a rush on the banks when they reopen could deplete dwindling foreign currency deposits.
Emergency reformsThe protests have continued to grip Lebanon despite the government announcing an emergency reform package this week that failed to defuse anger. It has also yet to reassure foreign donors to unlock the billions in badly needed aid they have pledged.
President Michel Aoun suggested banking secrecy should be lifted from the accounts of high-ranking officials. Ministers and lawmakers affiliated with the president's Free Patriotic Movement are set to lift banking secrecy from their own accounts next week, according to an FPM statement.
In recent days, loyalists of Hezbollah and the FPM have mobilized counter-demonstrations across the country, sparking scuffles with demonstrators and journalists.
Lebanon has one of the world’s highest levels of government debt as a share of economic output.
The country’s largely sectarian political parties have been wrong-footed by the cross-communal nature of the mostly peaceful protests.
Waving Lebanese flags rather than the partisan colors normally paraded at demonstrations, protesters have been demanding the resignation of all of Lebanon's political leaders.
"All of them means all," has been a popular slogan.
In the southern coastal city of Sidon, some shops opened their doors after days of closure.
“Shopkeepers are opening up to see if they can get things moving. The end of the month is near, people have rents to pay,” said protester Hoda Hafez. “But in the end, they will all take part and come down to the (protest) square.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Friday against a power vacuum and urged followers to stay away from the protests after they assaulted demonstrators in central Beirut.
