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Editor Gary C. Gambill Executive Director David Epperly Send questions or comments to info@mideastmonitor.org |
Ghazi Aad is the director of SOLIDE (Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile), a Beirut-based human rights group working for the release of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons.
All government officials, including Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, voice their support for the families of the detainees, who have been staging an ongoing sit-in in front of the UN headquarters in Beirut since the Syrian withdrawal, but they oppose resolving the issue through an international commission of inquiry. Why are they opposed to this? An international commission will eventually incriminate not only Syrian intelligence officers, but also the Lebanese who cooperated with them. Most of the detainees were abducted during the 1975-1990 civil war by pro-Syrian Lebanese militias and Palestinian groups, then transferred them into Syrian hands. Some were abducted after the war with the complicity of Lebanese security officers and officials in the Syrian-installed government. Many of the Lebanese who perpetrated this crime, or helped hide it over the years, are prominent figures on the Lebanese political scene today. It is not in their interest to raise the issue and push strongly for putting an end to it. Of the 17,000 Lebanese citizens who went missing during the war, how many do you know for certain disappeared after being transferred to Syrian intelligence? For almost 3 decades, thousands of Lebanese were illegally detained by the Syrian security forces in Lebanon; hundreds of them were released, but there are still 640 victims of enforced disappearance on our list who are unaccounted for. The Syrian authorities refuse to acknowledge their detention and refuse to disclose their fate and whereabouts. Of these, how many can you confirm through direct eyewitness accounts are, or were at some point, alive in Syrian prisons? Based on credible information from former detainees, more than 300 were last seen alive in Syrian prisons. Testimonies from the former detainees were submitted to the U.N. regional representative of the High Commissioner for Human rights. Earlier this year, you provided the Syrian authorities with a list of the 640 names. What was their reaction? We submitted the list to the joint Lebanese-Syrian commission of inquiry, but the Syrians were persistent in their denial that there are no Lebanese illegally detained in Syria. Then they tried to create a tit-for-tat situation by claiming that 805 Syrians went missing in Lebanon during the years when the Syrian intelligence controlled the country.
No progress was made because the government has no DNA database for the families of the missing Lebanese in order to match with the DNA test results of the exhumed bodies. There are 17,000 missing Lebanese and the government seems oblivious of how to handle this sensitive matter. Are the authorities actively searching for other mass graves? No. Since the mass graves in Anjar were discovered, the government has decided to put a seal of silence on the issue. For the same reason they won't act on the detainees issue? Yes. They realized this issue will stir political trouble, since local militias did most of the abductions. The mass graves in Anjar will eventually lead to the opening of all the mass graves in Lebanon; mass graves that date back to the civil war, implicating many political figures. Taking into consideration the delicate and sensitive situation in Lebanon, the government and prominent political figures decided to close the matter and forget about it for the time being. We in SOLIDE know that there are more mass graves around the previous different Syrian intelligence headquarters and we believe that the government should search for other mass graves and should establish a DNA database for all the families of the missing Lebanese. Some activists claim that the government knows about the location of some three dozen graves. Is this true? How did it obtain this information? In January 2000, the Hoss government established a commission of inquiry into the missing file, which published an official report in July of that year. The report confirms the presence of tens of mass graves and named some of them, so the information is officially confirmed. An additional grave was disclosed to the public by Prosecutor-General Adnan Addoum in a December 2000 press conference, when he said that two monks who disappeared during the Syrian invasion of Michel Aoun's free enclave in October 1990, Father Cherfan and Father Abou Khalil, were killed and buried in a mass grave next to the Ministry of Defense in Yarze. Last November, this mass grave was exhumed and 20 bodies of Lebanese army soldiers were found, but not the monks. What is your strategy for overcoming the political impediments to investigating the fate of Lebanon's disappeared? The strategy has one objective in mind, and that is the establishment of an international commission of inquiry with full powers to investigate the crimes of enforced disappearance at the hands of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon. It has two major plans of action. The first is to maintain the pressure inside Lebanon through the open sit-in in front of the U.N. House in Beirut. The importance of the sit-in lies in its function as a gathering point for all the families in one public place and a platform for any kind of action in an area 100 meters away from the government's palace and 200 meters away from the parliament. The sit-in managed so far to put the case high on the Lebanese political agenda. The second is to continue to press the U.N., international organizations, and concerned governments, mainly the U.S. and the E.U., to establish an international commission. © 2006 Mideast Monitor. All rights reserved. |
