“Where are they?” - Parents of the disappeared blast ineffectiveness of investigations

On 17 June 1982, some 60 Lebanese students were abducted from the Lebanese University in Hadath by the Lebanese Forces (LF) and brought before an LF military council. None of them were ever seen again. According to SOLIDA (le Soutien aux Libanais Detenus Arbitrairement), about 17,000 Lebanese nationals went missing during the country’s civil war from 1975 to 1990. Over the years, three committees have been set up to investigate the fate of the missing Lebanese, with little success. Parliamentarian and human rights activist Ghassan Mokhaiber said he had already requested the government for information about the missing persons. “’I’ve not received an answer yet,” he said. “I’ll wait for a while, and then I’ll forward the matter to parliament in order to question the Cabinet.” Mariam Soueity, deputy head of the Parents of the Missing Committee, said her 16-year-old son Maher was among those abducted at the Lebanese University. She went on to say that a witness had testified that the LF, a Christian militia that ruled over most of the predominantly Christian areas of Lebanon during the civil war, had been behind the university kidnappings, as well as many others. “A man from the LF wanted to confess to the war crimes he witnessed or oversaw during the war, to make peace with his past and help parents discover the fate of their children,” Soueity said. She added that the source had explained how Lebanese nationals fighting Israel during its 1982 invasion had been handed over to Israel by their LF allies. Brigadier Salim Abu Ismael, head of a committee which recommended in 2000 to declare dead those who went missing during the war and to compensate their parents, denied any knowledge of the LF source. Soueity, however, along with other parents of the missing, insist that Abu Ismael had been informed of his existence. Last month, Abu Ismael faced the wrath of grieving parents during an exhibition entitled “Where are they?”, held to commemorate the missing. “How can we let them declare that our children, brothers, sisters, fathers or mothers are dead when we don't know what had happened to them?” one of the parents shouted at Abu Ismael. “They might still be alive in Israeli or Syrian prisons – or anywhere else.” Many of the parents went on to accuse the LF, the Israelis, the Phalange party and the Progressive Socialist Party – currently headed by MP Walid Jumblatt – of standing behind the abductions, and possible killing, of their loved ones. A second committee formed to follow up the case between 2001 and 2003 had even less luck getting to the bottom of the issue. According to committee head MP Fouad Saad, pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud had told him to “put the files to sleep”. According to Saad, a former minister for administrative development, the files were handed over to former Justice Minister and State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum. “My committee's report was not yet finished when the government asked me to hand over the files to the state prosecutor's office,” said Saad. Last year, however, State Prosecutor Rabia Qaddoura denied that Addoum had received the files, saying that they had been handed over to the prime minister's office in May 2003. LF media officer Antoinette Geagea told IRIN that the 1980s were “a very painful time” for Lebanon. “There was an ongoing war, and most of those who took part in it are now dead,” she said. “There is no evidence of what happened then. If the authorities want to open the war file, then let’s discuss it deeply – or else let’s put bad events behind us and start anew.” Syria, meanwhile, has denied on several occasions having Lebanese detainees in its prisons. But in 2000, after repeatedly denying the presence of Lebanese prisoners, Syria released a number of Lebanese captives several years after their abductions from Lebanon. Last year, a Lebanese-Syrian joint committee was established to follow up the cases of missing citizens. Soueity, however, calls this committee “a sham”. “This committee is only looking into the files of the missing Lebanese who are thought to be in Syria,” she said. “Not those who might be in Israeli prisons or might have been kidnapped by other parties, like the LF.” “Because the general political atmosphere is now against Syria,” Soueity added, “they only want to use that aspect of the case.”