By Linda Dahdah
Daily Star staff
Monday, May 16, 2005

BEIRUT: The Khiam Rehabilitation Center for the Victims of Torture issued a report Sunday on those missing in Syrian and Israeli prisons, urging the Lebanese government to seriously follow this "crime against humanity." The report urges Beirut to prepare a full file in coordination with the United Nations and with the participation of representatives from the foreign and justice ministries.

The report was sent to Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Justice Minister Khaled Qabbani, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, the UN, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and international humanitarian organizations.

"Calls for revealing the fate of missing persons," the report says, "should encompass missing persons and detainees in Syria as well as in Israel and should stay clear of political bickering."

The report says the missing-persons file cannot be closed by reports or committees, "as every missing person is alive until proven otherwise."

Qabbani said on Saturday that Mikati had asked him to appoint a judge to reopen the file of those Lebanese who are missing or detained in Syria. Qabbani said he plans to call for a session with the families of detainees and the missing to reorganize the file.

After a long silence and total denial by the Lebanese and Syrian authorities, the file of Lebanese detained in Syria resurfaced amid the popular uprising which followed the killing of former Premier Rafik Hariri and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence agencies from Lebanon.

Recent television shows devoted to ex-detainees and families of missing persons have brought the previously taboo case into the public eye, creating a general feeling of solidarity.

Threats have been followed by violence against those who had testified and named Lebanese and Syrian officials involved in their detention. In Tripoli, one ex-detainee was shot at, and in the Chouf area the family of another received threatening phone calls.

A Catholic radio station in northern Beirut, which had devoted its prayers to the missing, was recently targeted by a 25-kilogram TNT bomb. Around 25 people were wounded.

The Follow-Up Committee for UN Resolution 1559 said it will address a memorandum to the UN and Security Council members in which it will urge the UN to form an international commission to visit Syrian prisons and verify the demands of the families of Lebanese detainees. The announcement came during a news conference held Saturday at the Press Club.

Ghazi Aad, representing the group Support for Lebanese in Detention and Exile, participating in the conference. He called for an investigation into cases of detention and mass graves near former Syrian intelligence posts in Lebanon. -L.D-
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KRC note: the report will be soon posted in English. To read the Arabic version, please click here.