1.     Introduction:

In the year 2004 Khiam Center for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Torture took a great leap forward and its activities went beyond Lebanon. Khiam Center has become one of the main centers working against torture and for the rehabilitation of its victims in the Middle East and South Africa.

Khiam Center was elected in the secretariat-general of Aman Network, and on the international level, it participates annually in the United Nations Human Rights Committee sessions in Geneva. It participated also in other international conferences dealing about torture, rehabilitation, arbitrary arrests and human rights.

In the year 2004 we witnessed a major event in Lebanon when 23 Lebanese detainees and 401 Palestinian and Arab detainees in the Israeli prisons were freed in an exchange of detainees between Hezbollah and Israel in 29/1/2004.

Moreover, the death of the prisoner Ismael El Khatib under torture in Lebanese prisons in 28/9/2004 revealed the unfortunate and inhuman situation of these prisons.

On the Arab level, the shameful photos took in Abou Ghreib detention center shook the conscience of the world and reminded it of the barbaric ways of torture used in the dark ages to humiliate the human being's self esteem.

In 2004, the arrests of human rights activists continued in the Arab world and civil organizations and rehabilitation centers are still threatened. Besides, the open strike which 8000 Palestinian detainees declared in Israeli prisons in August 2004 revealed the critical medical, psychological and social situation of the detainees.

The savagery of torture in Israeli and Arab and American prisons after the occupation of Iraq, in addition to extermination and killing operations in Darfou, Sudan, make the presence of rehabilitation centers extremely important because hundreds of victims of torture and their families are left without any care, and the ex-detainees feel that they haven't left their prisons.

The psychological traces left by the current events in Palestine and Iraq and Sudan and the terrorist operations in Maghreb and Saudi Arabia on the peoples of the region are very dangerous. Therefore massive Aman network must assume massive responsibilities in order to become a strong and effective network in a hot spot of the world where torture and human rights violations are a daily occurrence in the life of the citizens.

  2.     Schedule and Achievements:

The activities of Khiam Center were centered around organizing visits to the victims houses and villages, in order to assess their situation through discussions and meeting their families. It has been proven by experience that house visits are very useful because they help us build a friendship with the victims of torture and therefore we encourage them to visit our center later.

Due to the support offered by the UN Voluntary Fund For The Victims Of Torture UNVFVT, and OAK Fund through IRCT and prominent social Lebanese and Palestinian personalities, our center was able to continue its medical, psychological and social program offering the victims of torture the following:

• Medical Assistance, consultations, medicines lab tests and simple surgical operations.

• Discussion groups with the victims of torture while listening to their suffering and suggestions.

• Psychological Guidance and medical awareness.

• Social and entertainment activities for the children of the victims of torture, such as painting sessions and distribution of gifts on festive days.

The medical and psychological assistance offered by Khiam Center for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Torture in 2004 reached 83 persons with their families and we continued the treatment started in 2003 for 78 persons spreading on more than 30 Lebanese villages and cities, from different nationalities with ages ranging between 6 and 75 years.

3.     The House of Lebanese Detainee:

After the inauguration of the house of the Lebanese Detainee in Kfar Hamam in June 2003, we inaugurated another house in Deir Sirian in 26/6/2004 in the cadre of the celebrations for the International Day Against Torture.

This house is a glimpse of hope in the rehabilitation of the victims of torture and offers them a medical, psychological, social and educational assistance.

The House of the Lebanese Detainee has become a model in South Lebanon, not only for the services it offers to the ex-detainees, but also by becoming a moral entity for the female detainees victims of torture during the Israeli occupation.

This house is open everyday and is supervised by the doctors and social and psychological assistants.

4.     Training and Seminars:

We organized in our headquarters in Beirut a painting session for 30 kids, sons and daughters of ex-detainees. Their ages range between 6 and 16 years old.

We organized also a session of floral arrangement in the house of the Lebanese detainee in Deir Sirian and held a medical seminar about breast cancer in addition to several social reunions in the houses of the victims of torture under the supervision of a social assistant.

5.     Events and Conferences:

Khiam center participated in the 60^th session of the Human Rights Committee which was held in the middle of March of year 2004 in the UN headquarters in Geneva. Our delegation contained the center's Secretary General and the ex-detainee Anwar Yassine and Bassam Al Kontar, the brother of the 1^st Lebanese detainee in Israeli prisons Samir Al Qontar. Anwar yassine gave a testimony and described the conditions of his arrest and torture during 17 years in Israeli prisons.

We organized also a number of sit-ins and activities to express our solidarity with the detainees and the disappeared. The most important activity was an exposition of photos in Sanayeh park in solidarity with the victims of torture in the occasion of the International Day Against Torture, on the 26^th of June. We organized also an open sit-in in the tent of freedom in front of the UN house during 24 days, in solidarity with the Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons and with all the victims of torture and prisoners of opinion in the Arab countries.

We participated in the celebration organized by the regional office for the high commissioner of Human rights in the Arab countries on the occasion of the International Day for Human Rights in the UN house on 10/12/2004. The Secretary general of khiam Center and assistant secretary general of Aman network, Mr. Mohammed Safa offered a work plan aiming at developing the human rights movement and fighting torture in the region.

The steps for achieving this aim are the following: Organizing a wide campaign about the unfortunate situation of Lebanese prisons and increasing the efforts in medical, social and psychological rehabilitation for the victims of torture and fighting the widespread syndrome of escaping punishment. The work plan claimed the Lebanese and Arab governments to join Rome's essential system for the International Criminal Court, and asked the Arab governments which did not sign the agreement against torture to sign it and create an Arab observatory to fight torture and organize the widest solidarity campaign ever with the Palestinian people and their detainees.

It claimed to organize a wide Arab and international campaign in order to stop the threats that human rights organizations and human rights activists and prisoners of opinion in the Arab world are subject to. It claimed also building a website and a regular bulletin announcing the activities of the organizations, in addition to a call for holding an Arab conference for all the organizations of the civil society.

The work plan hoped that the office of the UN High Commission of Human rights in the Arab world would embrace this conference and ensure all the means of its success, especially that the inauguration of this office was a strong support to the human rights movement in the region. Finally the work plan asked for the distribution of over 5000 copies of the International Declaration of Human Rights in the schools and universities in Lebanon in coordination between Khiam Center and the High Commission office and the Lebanese ministry of education which issued a circular confirming the celebration of this event according to a suggestion made by our center.

6.     Conclusion:

The new administrative staff of Khiam Rehabilitation Center elected in November 2005, will work to increase its activities and develop the work of the center and its medical staff, while strengthening the center's branches in Kfar Hamam and Der Sirian. They will also work to develop the financial resources of the center in order to help it overcome the difficulties it faces and offer a better medical, psychological and social support to the victims of torture in the detention camps and in the society. Meanwhile they will continue their local and international campaign against torture in cooperation with the organizations of the civil society and make all the necessary efforts to help Aman network overcome its crisis and to show their solidarity with all the victims of torture in the world.

April 2005