Mr. President,

I came from the South of Lebanon, to present to your respective commission a testimony about the torture that I suffered for seventeen whole years inside the Israeli Prisons. My name is Anwar Mohammed Yassine, a Lebanese citizen who was born in a southern village called Al-Dellafah. We were holding a peaceful life, until the savage occupation invaded us, killed our children and women, displaced our people, and imprisoned hundreds of youth. I had my share of that savagery; my family was displaced, we were exiled from our village, we lost our living resources and thus lived in degradation. And each time we moved to another place, we used to find the occupation waiting us there. Living this exodus, we have suffered a lot. Thus, in response to my humanistic conscience I’ve joined the Lebanese Native Resistance in order to defend my homeland and people, the thing that the International Conventions assure as a right for the populations whose lands are under occupation.

During my struggle within the Native Resistance, I had to exist on the borders. On 15/9/1987 the Israeli Troops launched a commandos operation in a neighbor village, aiming at killing more strugglers and preventing the farmers from going to their field. In response to that, we started to fire at the Israeli soldiers who confronted directly setting fire randomly over the villages through their helicopters. This battle lasted for hours and in the end, a number of the Israeli soldiers were killed and others were wounded. As for me, I was injured in different parts of my body and then fainted. Consequently, I was captured on 16/9/1987.

I’ve been subjected to severe torture, beaten on all the parts of my body, kicked, isulted, and left in the open space for hours. After that, I’ve been taken to the investigation jails where they investigated me for three months, during which I was forbidden to see the sunlight or to sleep. They used to force me to stand for long hours with chains in my arms and legs. After that they used to splash me with hot water followed by cold water to leave me then wet in the open space during the cold winter for a whole day and sometimes till late midnight, without food or cover. I remember that when one of the employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross cried when he saw me after a hard torturing session.

The Israeli court sentenced unfairly me to 30 years imprisonment. I served 17 years of it before being freed on 29/1/2004 during the last exchanging operation between Hizbullah and Israel through the German Mediation.

Today, I stand in front of you after 17years to present only a small part of my long journey with suffering. 17 years passed me by inside closed humid cells unable to recognize the seasons change except through the slipping air. 17 years passed me by, with me missing not only freedom or my family, but also missing to see the rain falling from the sky and the sun rising from behind the mountains.

Israel, which pretend to be democratic, has confiscated my private diary in the day they released me. This diary, which contained my daily thought while in prisons, was my fortune that I have collected over a period of six thousand days.

For 17 years I have witnessed big violations for the human rights:

      - Lebanese citizens held as hostages.
- Palestinian citizens dying under torture.
- Pregnant women delivering in jail.

For 17 years I have witnessed the tragedy of the Palestinian population, being exterminated by the occupying forces.

Mr. President,

At this moment, missions are being held in the Southern Lebanon seeking for the corpses of Lebanese strugglers that were killed by Israeli soldiers during the Invasion of 1982 till the evacuation in May 2000. In most of the discovered group graveyards the martyrs were found to be tortured after their death (for example corpses were burned) and left in the open space till the citizens barried them in a secret way since the occupation used to forbid that.

What have been discovered of group graveyards till now, is another evidence of Israel’s savagery and its violations for the human rights conventions.

Today, I am a free man, thanks to the efforts of our resistance, the International Solidarity Campaign, the German Mediation, and the statements and recommendations that your respectful commission is issuing annually. However, I still feel pain because I left in prison Palestinian, Syria and Jordanian comrades suffering severe torture in a way that violates Geneva Conventions and the International Laws.

I feel pain because I left in prison my comrade, the Lebanese detained struggler Samir Al-Kantar who has been detained since 26 years and whom Israel excluded from the last exchanging operation to keep as a hostage. It’s from this point that I appeal to you and to the whole world to exert efforts in order to get Samir Al-Kantar and all the Arab detainees freed and the destiny of all the disappearance uncovered and the martyrs’ corpses delivered, hoping that you support the Lebanese project in this issue.

Thank you Mr. President