[Imc-germany-audio] CKUT Radio: [Lebanon] Hariri: Reconstruction, Poverty & Unrest....

[Stefan Christoff]

CKUT Radio: [Lebanon] Hariri: Reconstruction, Poverty & Unrest....

Listen to an interview with Leila Hatoum staff writer at Lebanon's Daily Star 
newspaper, the largest English Daily in the Middle East. This interview focuses 
on the economic policies of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, 
who was assassinated in downtown Beirut in February 2005. Hariri's public image 
in Lebanon and throughout the world is directly associated with the Lebanese 
"opposition" movement, sparked by his assassination and defined by large-scale 
street demonstrations in downtown Beirut demanding Syrian withdrawal from 
Lebanon.

After Syrian withdrew 15 000 troops and intelligence officials from Lebanon in 
compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, increasingly people in 
Lebanon are focused on the effects of Hariri's economic policies on the people 
of Lebanon. Today approximately 30% of the population lives in poverty, while 
the country maintains a growing national debt that today towers over 40 billion 
dollars. Many in Lebanon draw direct links between Hariri's post civil-war 
economic program and the looming financial crisis which Lebanon faces today, as 
unemployment, poverty and national debt are growing at alarming rates.

-> To listen / download the interview with Leila Hatoum visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=13908

-> To view the Lebanon's Daily Star online visit: http://www.dailystar.com.lb

-> For more information and analysis on politics in Lebanon visit the 
Independent Media Center of Beirut at: http://www.beirut.indymedia.org

[This interview was recorded and produced in Beirut Lebanon by Stefan Christoff 
for CKUT Radio in Montreal, who is currently in Lebanon working as a media 
activist, producing written, audio, and visual reports on present-day struggles 
for social justice in Lebanon. To contact Stefan email, christoff(at)resist.ca]

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