11 December 2010
BEIRUT: The employees union of Electricite du Liban (EDL) will hold a sit-in Monday to protest an unprovoked assault against the head of the utility’s Jounieh division, who was attacked in his office by an angry subscriber.
Butros Farah was severely beaten Friday by an individual whose home electricity supplies were cut off by the Jounieh EDL division after he failed to pay a number of electricity bills.
The EDL union said the individual entered Farah’s office and after having a short conversation with Farah, began harshly slapping him on the face, which caused a number of bruises and injured Farah’s eye.
The EDL official also suffered mental anguish during the assault, the union said, and was taken to hospital for treatment, the union said.
After the individual assaulted Farah, he was pursued by a group of EDL employees throughout the streets of Jounieh, before finally being caught and handed over to Internal Security Forces personnel.
Farah received a number of bruises to the face in the attack, and the EDL union condemned what it said was official inaction in the wake of series of attacks on state employees, and particularly EDL personnel, as they go about their work.
“The government and concerned ministers give their attention to buildings over people, and their entire concern is directed at privatization and selling state institutions,” the union said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, public servants, and particularly EDL employees, are being assaulted on a repeated basis, and no one is reacting,” it added.
The union said its employees would suspend work on Monday and hold a sit-in, “in the hope that this incident will be the last in a series of violations against employees.”
EDL bill collectors and technicians cracking down on illegal connections to the electricity grid have been subject on several occasions to assaults as they carried out their duty. – The Daily Star
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
