Families of Lebanese missing in Syria demand answers

By Malek Mohamad Mosbah in Beirut
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-04-27

[Malek Mohamad Mosbah/Al-Shorfa] The Committee for Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE) accused politicians of ignoring their demands.

At ten in the morning every day since April 11th, 2005, mothers of Lebanese believed imprisoned in Syria gather at the "Freedom Tent" in front of the United Nations building in downtown Beirut, waving pictures of their sons, some in black-and-white and bearing old dates.

On April 26th, the fifth anniversary of the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, the mothers raised their voices anew, demanding their right to know the fate of their missing loved ones.

Ahmed Cherkaoui's mother, who has been waiting for her son to come back for more than 20 years, told Al-Shorfa that she, like other mothers, demonstrate in the "hope of meeting them [their sons] or at least uncovering their fate before they die."

During the civil war between 1975 and 1990, thousands of Lebanese went missing and were believed to have been buried in mass graves on Lebanese territories or transferred illegally to locations outside the country.

The families issued a statement on Monday (April 26th) calling for the formation of a national committee that would devise a mechanism to resolve the issue of the detainees, and accusing politicians of ignoring their demands.

"There is no solution to this issue outside of a national body," said Ghazi Aad, head of the Committee for Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE).

The Secretary-General of the Lebanese Centre for Human Rights, Wadih Al-Asmar, said that the relatives' demand is "humane and right. They want the truth."

"The responsibility of the Syrian government is to demonstrate with clear evidence that it has no Lebanese detainees," he added.

A national commission established ten years ago to follow-up on the issue declared all those who disappeared as dead, but following its announcement, several Lebanese believed to be missing were released from Syrian prisons.

"The [government's] file of the detainees in Syrian prisons includes a number of confessions that confirmed the presence of detainees, including those who were released," said Sonia Eid, president of the Association of Families of Lebanese Prisoners in Syrian Prisons.

"We have all examined the DNA and exhumed a mass grave on the Ministry of Defence land. Now they tell us to silence our voices so that we don't hinder the improved special relationship with Syria," Eid said.

She added, "We are talking about human beings, about young people, about living martyrs who fought to keep Lebanon and keep you, you politicians—shame on you. Remember your children—if they were among them, what would you have done?"

Aad said that today, "nothing has changed unfortunately."

"Before the withdrawal, the government's answer was that talking about this issue hurt Lebanese-Syrian relations and it was best to put it on the shelf. Today, in light of the new relations with Syria, the subject remains a sensitive issue for the Syrian authorities and it must be discussed away from the media and politics—in other words, we will put it on the shelf."

Meanwhile, the Youth and Students Council within the Kataeb Party organized a march on April 26th headed by MP Sami Gemayel, demanding the Lebanese government step up discussions of all outstanding issues between Lebanon and Syria, including the file of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons.

Gemayel said that the issue of the detainees is "a national, not sectarian issue," adding that there are 300 Lebanese in these prisons.

He said, "We have proof of this, and all their files are now with human rights organizations and the Lebanese government, and no one can evade this issue."

Bookmarking

Please comment on this article so that we can improve the experience of viewing this website.