ANSD : Father dies after setting himself on fire over school payments

FRI 19 - 4 - 2024

Date: Feb 9, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Father dies after setting himself on fire over school payments

Justice Minister to investigate George Zreik incident

_{Finbar Anderson And Sahar Houri| The Daily Star}
BKEFTIN / RAS MASQA / BEIRUT: The day before he died, George Zreik drove his taxi to the school where his young daughter was enrolled, walked onto the grass of its courtyard, poured gasoline over his body and set himself ablaze. After struggling to pay fees for his daughter’s private elementary school in the small town of Bkeftin in Koura, Zreik Thursday morning asked its administration to provide him with her transcripts so he could enroll her in a more affordable public school.

According to Zreik’s brother, Shukri, the school director refused, even after Zreik promised to sign a document ensuring he would eventually pay back all he owed. The two then got into an argument, and Zreik swore he would self-immolate in front of the school if his demand was not met.

Shortly after, at around 10 a.m., he did.

Zreik’s daughter had not been at school that day, Shukri said, and his teenage son went to a different school.

After onlookers extinguished the fire, Zreik, still alive, was taken to Tripoli’s Al-Salam Hospital. Gabriel Sabeh, the hospital director, said Zreik had sustained burns on 90 percent of his body - everywhere except his feet, because of his shoes. Sabeh showed The Daily Star an image of Zreik, covered in ashen-white powder, pieces of skin hanging off his body. “The fire even went inside his throat and scorched his lungs. It’s true he lived, but his situation was worse than horrible,” the doctor said. “Nobody survives with 90 percent burns.”

Sabeh said Zreik had consumed 23 liters of IV fluid during the roughly 22 hours he was at the hospital, in order to cope with the massive inflammation of his body. They had also provided him with morphine to ease the pain. “In the end, God had mercy on him and relieved him quickly, at 9 a.m. We knew if he didn’t die today, it would have been tomorrow or the day after.”

The Internal Security Forces was able to obtain a statement form Zreik while he was at the hospital. A security source told The Daily Star earlier Friday that Zreik had set himself on fire to protest the elementary school’s decision and his difficult financial situation.

The school, Bkeftin Orthodox College, issued a statement mourning the “painful incident” that led to Zreik’s death, and said it had been waving Zreik’s payment of tuition fees since 2015 in sympathy with his financial situation. However, it said he still had to pay transportation, registration and other fees.

But Shukri said that his brother had indeed been paying tuition fees, in installments, some of which he had admittedly missed. Bkeftin Mayor George Shawbah told The Daily Star that Orthodox Metropolitan Ephrem Kyriakos had given clear orders to the school to be compassionate and not to focus on profit. While he regretted Zreik’s death, Shawbah claimed the school was being cast in an unjust light.

A source close to Kyriakos told The Daily Star the church was not involved in daily management at the school, but it did have input in the hiring of the school's director.

The source also corroborated that the school had been paying all of Zreik’s daughters’ tuition.

The school’s statement denied claims that it had threatened to expel Zreik’s daughter if he didn’t pay.

However, the school also shared with The Daily Star a letter it sent to Zreik that said his daughter would no longer be welcome at the school as of Tuesday, Feb. 5, if he did not accompany her. The letter also listed the occasions the school had requested Zreik to appear to settle the fees. School officials declined to comment beyond the statements they provided.

“We’re devastated, but we are not embarrassed by what happened,” Shukri said. “We want everyone to know: The responsibility is on the school and its director.

“My brother was just trying to get by, like anyone else in this country. They didn’t respond to any of his demands and he couldn’t handle it anymore, so he did what he did.”

Education Minister Akram Chehayeb has ordered an investigation into the issue, a statement from the ministry said. It also noted he would “take care of the education of [George Zreik’s] children and provide the necessary scholarships for them.”

A source at the ministry told The Daily Star that Zreik had not approached the ministry for assistance and that it had not been aware of his situation.

The ministry source said that those seeking to transfer their children from a private school to a public one can ask the ministry for help in securing the necessary paperwork if the school refuses to provide it.

Several politicians have commented on the case. Kataeb MP Nadim Gemayel tweeted: “George Zreik is new conclusive evidence of the unprecedented level of despair which Lebanese people have reached.”

Marada Movement MP Tony Frangieh said Lebanon should “wake up before the whole country burns alive.”

From the steps of the church where condolences were being accepted in Zreik’s hometown of Ras Masqa, Jean Fayad, Zreik’s cousin, compared his relative’s death to the 2011 self-immolation of Mohammad Bouazizi in Tunisia.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt also made the comparison in a tweet. Bouazizi’s fatal act sparked the 2011 Tunisian revolution and is credited as the opening act of the Arab Spring.

Reported acts of self-immolation have since been on the rise, mostly as an act of protest and defiance against crushing economic conditions in the Middle East. Hundreds of cases have been registered since 2011 across North Africa especially, but also in Iran, Iraq and the Levant.

In Lebanon, several cases have been recorded in recent years. In 2015, a man set himself on fire and jumped off a bridge in Beirut’s Cola area, ultimately surviving. Another man survived self-immolation at a protest in front of Beirut’s military tribunal the same year.

Dr. Sabeh said that two or three Syrians had been brought to his hospital in the last couple of years after setting themselves alight, but were saved because their injuries were moderate. He said that these cases usually involved pre-existing psychological issues that were exacerbated by harsh living conditions.

Deteriorating economic and social conditions in Lebanon have in recent weeks brought thousands of anti-austerity demonstrators to the streets. Zreik’s death promises to inspire more.

His cousin Fayad said residents in Ras Masqa may stage a demonstration after the burial.

Activists, including a committee of parents of private school children, have called for a protest in front of the Education Ministry Monday.

Some already gathered there Thursday after news of Zreik’s death broke. They left behind graffiti on columns in front of the large building, reading: “George is a martyr.”

Justice Minister to investigate George Zreik incident

BEIRUT: Justice Minister Albert Serhan Saturday said he would investigate the circumstances that led to the self-immolation of George Zreik, who died Friday after setting himself ablaze over a dispute with his daughter’s school.

“With my sincere sympathy to the family of George Zreik, and my strong condemnation of this painful incident, I confirm that judicial investigations will be completed to clarify” the incident and hold those responsible accountable, Serhan said in a statement.

Zreik had set himself alight Thursday after the director of his daughter’s school in the Koura town of Bkeftine refused to give him his child’s transcripts, preventing him from registering her at a more affordable public school. His death sparked an outpouring of both sympathy and anger, reigniting public criticism of Lebanon’s economic situation and the state.

A demonstration condemning the situation that led to Zreik’s death is planned for 9 a.m. Monday in front of the Education Ministry.

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