LEBANON: Opposition Mounts Against Solidere Reconstruction Company

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Samer Renno

BEIRUT, Nov 15 1994 (IPS) - Lebanon’s land and store owners are up in arms over alleged corruption at the Lebanese Reconstruction and Development Company (Solidere), which has been contracted by the government to rebuild war ravaged downtown Beirut.

They charge that the reconstruction company is in some cases demolishing buildings without giving the land owners monetary compensation and in others, that Solidere is underestimating the values of the properties.

Setting aside ideological differences, political rivals are also seizing on the longstanding controversy over the three billion dollar company Solidere, to attack the billionaire prime minister, whose brainchild it is.

Opponents say his two-year-old government is fixated on large- scale projects while ignoring the dramatic social and economic problems afflicting ordinary Lebanese.

The reconstruction plan, billed as the world’s biggest urban development project of the 1990s, is expected to take 25 years during which Solidere will build skyscrapers, office blocks, seafront avenues and public parks.

“It is the hold-up of the 20th century,” said Omar Al-Daouk, head of the Owners’ Right Coalition which is comprised mainly of land and business owners in the commercial district in the capital.

Al-Daouk claims that Solidere is a front company for Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s ambitions in controlling the business life in Beirut.

The prime minister, who has business interest in the capital and is Solidere’s biggest shareholder, however denies the charges. Hariri has pledged that his profits will go to the Hariri foundation for educating Lebanese students.

He also says he is keen to reconstruct the capital since there are likely spin-offs like the building of a Pan-Arab highway, reconnecting the telephone lines, and solving the electricity problems which would help Lebanon enter the 21st century as an important and leading participant in regional development.

Solidere’s Chairman Nasser Chammaa also sees a stronger role for the company in helping the country assert its role in the region and in the Arab world in general.