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The Saker Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
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Lebanese groups issue human rights warnings against Syria national |
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news report
 Thursday June 12, 2003 20:52 by Solida, Albawaba.com
 Three human rights groups issued a joint communique stating that Syrian authorities continue to deny the imprisonment of Lebanese citizens, despite the findings of several international organizations. Now they fear Syria may be hiding mass graves... Lebanese human rights groups warn of potential mass graves in Syria Three Lebanese human rights organizations have appealed from Beirut for an international action to rescue many Lebanese allegedly held in Syrian jails, warning of family fears of potential mass graves in Syria similar to those recently discovered in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. The call was voiced by The Lebanese Human Rights Organization, Solida-France and Solid for the Support of Imprisoned and Banished Lebanese, An Nahar website reported on Thursday. The three bodies said in a joint communique that Syrian authorities were still denying the presence of any Lebanese prisoners in Syria, although several international organizations have established that many Lebanese were still held in Syrian prisons. Representatives from the three human rights groups had lately visited Damascus, seeking meetings with Syrian officials, but they were denied access to top Syrian officials, the statement said. (Albawaba.com) http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=251596&lang=e&dir=news RELATED: Lebanese Political Prisoners in Syria On the 54th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Lebanese MP Ms. Nayla Moawad questioned Parliament yesterday about the fact that its Inquiry Commission, headed by Minister Fouad Es-Saad and charged with investigating the fate of Lebanese political detainees in Syria, had not yet issued any findings to the families and relatives of the victims. Her remarks were met with the customary bad faith of some Lebanese officials in what concerns this matter, as one Minister and one MP vehemently denied even the existence of the problem, even as Ms. Sonia Eid, President of the Association of Families of Lebanese Prisoners Detained in Syria and whose own son Jihad has been held in Syria since 1990, was present and spoke on the issue at the session of Parliament. For the Lebanese authorities, time seems to have become suspended in June 2001 when President Bashar Al-Assad was on visit to France. He then declared that there were no Lebanese prisoners in Syria. But the Lebanese government ignored the remainder of the Syrian President's statement, in which he welcomed any request submitted by the Lebanese government on this matter, thus admitting half-heartedly the persistence of the problem. Yet, things have dramatically changed since June 2001, and the fact of Lebanese political prisoners held in Syria is now officially recognized: - On July 22, 2002, the Association of Families of Lebanese Prisoners Detained in Syria met with the Syrian Minister of the Interior and the Director of Syrian Jails, both of whom admitted that a number of Lebanese citizens, specifically Lebanese military personnel, were being held in Syrian jails. - On November 9, 2002, the daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat published comments made by Prosecutor General Adnane Addoum in which he admitted the existence of 20 Lebanese political prisoners in Syria. In addition to the evidence that the families of the detained have gathered, substantial new information is continuously being collected on specific cases in the form of testimonies and official documents. SOLIDA wishes to reaffirm that the arbitrary detention of no less than 200 Lebanese citizens in Syria is now an established fact that requires no further proof. This matter has become a purely humanitarian question that must be resolved strictly from its humanitarian dimension by both the Lebanese and Syrian authorities SOLIDA hereby urges: 1. Syria to release without further delay all Lebanese citizens who were kidnapped in Lebanon proper, and return to Lebanon the bodies of those who died while in detention. 2. The Lebanese authorities to seek a humanitarian resolution to this tragedy through an effective mechanism of negotiation with the Syrian authorities, or alternatively to seek the mediation of an international third party. 3. The European States, the European Parliament, and the United Nations to pursue their efforts on behalf of the Lebanese political prisoners who are arbitrarily being held in Syria, and of their families who continue to suffer from a lack of closure on this inhumane situation. |
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Check out www.solida.org to see who these guys really are.
Israeli proxies the South Lebanese Army (SLA) guilty of killing over 250 UN troops in Lebanon (50 of whom were Irish) in conjunction with the IDF and their apologists are back again.
This type of propaganda is aimed at Syria and Iran and is about as credible as the Iraqi resistance and Saddams WMD.
are being fucked over royally, first by Arafat and his goons after the PLO were kicked out of Jordan, then by Sharon and his storm troopers, and now they are a puppet state of the Syrians.
another people abandoned and betrayed by the UN/EU/USA & international community, and left to the tender mercies of the islamists.
I was in Lebanon last year and the people there know that their country is the smallest kid in a playground of bullies and are under no illusions about how little the US/UN/EU gives a shit about them or their future. Indymediers will immediately blame Israel for everything under the sun and indeed their brutal assaults that killed thousands of Lebansese in the 80s are well remembered. But Iran, the PLO and Syria aren't exactly too popular with sensible people here, all of them sharing responsibilty with Israel for the woes of these cool and brave people.
I don't know anything about Solida, but the problem of disappeared people in Lebanon is a very real one and I wouldn't dismiss those raising it as Maronite extremists or Israeli stooges. From looking at the Solida website, they appear to be concerned with all Lebanese prisoners detained without due process, whether by Syrian, Israeli or Lebanese authorities. Their latest press release refers to Islamic militants detained by the Syrians. If they were purely a pro-Phalangist or pro-LF group, I doubt if the Syrian government would have been meeting them in the first place.
There's no doubt at all but that the Syrian armed forces and secret police in Lebanon have kidnapped Lebanese and Palestinian citizens and detained them without any legitimate reason, and that the Israeli authorities did the same during their occupation of southern Lebanon and still have many prisoners. I don't think it's a good idea to presume that people raising this question have dubious motives.