ANMag | Enjoying Sovereignty: Lebanese Prisoners outside Lebanese Cells

What happened to the Lebanese detainees in Syrian Prisons?

They were killed	51.8%
They are still living	32.9%
They were freed	10.6%
Nothing	4.7%

Total Votes: 85

November 2007
ANMag Issue 22

[- +]

Editorial

Enjoying Sovereignty: Lebanese Prisoners outside Lebanese Cells
By Shadi Tabbara, Editor-in-Chief

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Since 1976, and during the last 31 years, the Syrian regime has carried out arbitrary detentions and kidnapping thousands of Lebanese citizens and has transferred them to Syrian penitentiaries in violation to the rule of Lebanon and international law. Furthermore, in violation to the Geneva Convention on prisoners of conscience and war, the Syrian regime has tortured the Lebanese citizens and treated them inhumanly throughout the years. Now that we took our one-dimensional sovereignty, we have to go back in time and remember how the Lebanese were treated during the last mandate and consequently take the right action into solving this one-of-many issues with our neighbor.

Good Excuse?

After the beginning of the 1975 Civil War, the Lebanese governments were passive and refrained from taking responsible measures when putting justice into practice. The Syrian forces incurred into Lebanon in 1976. These forces had to protect the [present] regime, and in order to do that, they have been interrogating, detaining and transferring Lebanese (and other nationals residing in Lebanon) to Syria. With the regime’s culture, and to extract the utmost information from these detainees, the Syrian forces, military and intelligence have often tortured, mistreated and placed the Lebanese citizens in terrible conditions for decades, even if a large portion of them did not have anything to offer.

As the Baath regime treats the Syrians in Syria, it treats the Lebanese in Lebanon. The regime’s philosophy backs oppression if there is a feel of any potential threat to the party. In other terms, the regime does not tolerate opposition and will do the impossible to fight for its continuity. According to the Syrian regime, the accusations used against the prisoners vary from associating with the enemy (Israel) and basically any other type of opposition to the regime.

The Deceptive Sequential Events

Sadly, confused Lebanese leaders left little room for trust after their affiliations with the Syrian regime affected their ethical judgments as country rulers. Lebanese Prisoners have been kept in the dark for ages, and no government till now has made the right choice to study in detail the status of these prisoners. Of course, time speaks for itself and reveals the true leaders they are:

Date	Event
October 1987	Amnesty International publishes a report about Lebanese detainees in Syrian Jails.
1993	Lebanese President Elias Alhrawi announces that Syria was not holding Lebanese prisoners.
1995	The Lebanese Government issues a decree considering all citizens missing during the war to be legally dead.
October 1996	Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri denies the presence of any Lebanese detainee in Syria.
November 1996	Lebanese President Elias Alhrawi contradicts his previous declaration and announces that Syria is holding 210 Lebanese Nationals.
October 1997	The Lebanese Committee of the families of Detainees in Syria was established to pressure Lebanese authorities.
February 1998	The President of the Bar Association in Syria denied the existence of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian detention centers.
March 1998	Syrian authorities admitted the existence of 155 Lebanese prisoners in Syria.
March 1998	Syrian Authorities ordered the release of 121 Lebanese detainees. Amongst those were 10 Palestinians
January 1999	Amnesty International published a detailed report about Lebanese Detainees in Syria.
September 1999	The Lebanese Adel Khalaf Ajouri died after nine years of torture in a Syrian prison.
January 2000	Prime Minister Salim Al Hoss set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the 17,415 disappearances during the Lebanese civil war, between 1975 and 1990. No tangible outcome ever resulted from this commission.
February 2000	Security agents stormed a conference in Lebanon to address the fate of Lebanese jailed in Syrian Prisons.
July 2000	Lebanese Officials close to Syria stated that there are no Lebanese held in Syria.
August 2000	Syria released Cheikh Hachem Minkara, a prominent Islamist activist in Tawhid Movement in Tripoli, North of Lebanon, who disappeared 15 years ago, and whom Syria had previously denied holding. It also released Samir Al-Hassan, military official in Tawhid Movement.
September 2000	Lebanese Human Right Organizations and Dozens of Lebanese Families held a demonstration near the Maronite Christian Patriarchate and accused Syria of having illegally jailed Lebanese opponents.
September 2000	Ninety-nine Syrian individuals, including intellectuals and journalists called on the Syrian Government to grant amnesty for all political detainees and to allow for political freedoms.
September 2000	SOLIDE (Support for Lebanese in Detention and Exile) organized a demonstration of 300 relatives of Lebanese detained in Syria; they were finally granted an interview with an official at the Lebanese Defense Ministry.
October 2000	An official Syrian source admitted for the first time that Syria is holding Lebanese prisoners, but said that they number fewer than 50.
December 2000	The Lebanese Speaker of the House Nabih Berri mentioned, after his visit with the Maronite Patriarch, the possible release of Lebanese Detainees from Syrian jails.
December 2000	The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) published an official statement that Syrian President Bashar Alassad will release a number of detainees as a reward for the Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s national stand against Israel.
December 2000	A committee of top Lebanese Security Officials headed by State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum was formed to take charge of receiving the prisoners and studying their files.
December 2000	Syria handed over 54 prisoners, 46 of which were Lebanese, seven Palestinians and one Egyptian
December 2000	State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum made public the presence of 95 other Lebanese detainees still imprisoned in Syria for non-political crimes. He declared the matter to be “permanently closed.”
December 2000	After pressured, the Lebanese Presidential Palace clarified that President Lahoud was prepared to “request the Cabinet, in its next meeting, to set down a mechanism for investigating the fate of those missing, based on information submitted by their families to the competent security authorities.”
January 2001	Another special commission was created by the Lebanese government under pressure from the families of the missing individuals. No official report has been issued. However, one member of the commission declared to the press that the commission had examined 96 files of Lebanese detainees in Syria.
June 2001	Syrian President Bashar Alassad during a visit to France declared that there were no Lebanese prisoners in Syria.
June 2001	Syrian Authorities freed 11 Lebanese and delivered the remains of one Lebanese who died in jail.
July 2002	The rest of the families of Lebanese prisoners detained in Syria met with the Syrian Minister of the Interior Ali Hammoud and the Director of Syrian Jails Boghos Sarraj and were promised to review the detainees’ files submitted to them. The families have been waiting since then.
October 2002	Lebanese citizen Henri Badih Daou was arrested at the Syrian border and detained in isolation. The Syrian authorities accused him of crimes committed in Lebanon against the Syrian Army in 1975.
November 2002	The daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat published comments made by Prosecutor General Adnan Addoum in which he admitted the existence of 20 Lebanese political prisoners in Syria.
December 2002	Lebanese MP Mrs. Nayla Moawad addressed the Commission, headed by Minister Fouad Essaad charged with investigating the fate of Lebanese political detainees in Syria. Pro-Syrian MPs and Ministers refused to address the issue in Parliament and accused Mrs. Moawad of taking an anti-Syrian stance harmful to Lebanon’s sisterly relations with Syria.
May 2003	Hanna Youssef Challita who holds dual citizenships, Lebanese and Australian, was arrested at the Syrian border and then incarcerated at the “Palestine Section 235” Investigations Bureau in Damascus for unknown reasons. Mr. Challita was released few days later without being charged.
June 2003	A delegation of the Association of Families of Lebanese Prisoners traveled to Damascus to meet with the Syrian President and discuss the release of their missing relatives was denied the meeting.
June 2003	Joseph Emile Houeiss, a Lebanese citizen, died in a Syrian jail after 11 years of detention following a car accident in Lebanon in which Syrian citizens were killed.

The Material of “The Deceptive Sequential Events” is taken from the Lebanese Forces official site

What about the other Lebanese prisoners?

In the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, in 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon for two reasons: to remove the military activity of the Palestinian Authorities and to withdraw Syrian forces from Lebanon, near and beyond the Israeli border. As Syria, Israel holds today an undefined number of Lebanese detainees; some political analysts believe this number to be close to 50. Israel has also violated the Geneva Convention on Human Rights, but still, Israel is an enemy; Syria is not.

Syrian Regime Vs Syrian Citizens

We need to distinguish between the Syrian Regime and Syrian citizens. The Syrians have nothing to do with the current regime’s domestic or foreign policy. Like Lebanese, Syrians have been treated in the wrong manners throughout the last thirty years, and cussing at them or blaming them is wrong. We need to support them and to draw the line between them and their terrible fate.

Taking Action

Pressure groups only arose against the Lebanese detainees in Syria. However, Hezbollah is taking its own measures to release some of the Lebanese detainee from Israel. Disregarding both parties, the Lebanese government should, by itself, pressure the international associations into the immediate release of Lebanese prisoners outside Lebanon. Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations should have access to their cells to check on their health status. Also, if the missing people are dead, their remains should be sent back to Lebanon as respect for their family. Finally, an international commission should investigate into the cases of disappearances perpetrated by the Syrian forces against Lebanese citizens and more importantly, a detailed list of names and their status of the 17,415 Lebanese citizens who were missing since 1976 till date should be published; this will help erase the stains left since the end of the war.

Justice will only be served when the mothers of these victims refrain from having forged hopes and know about the fate of their once-young children.

[Top]