Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Hidden Article

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Gormless George's beloved Syria and what it did to Lebanon

Anti-intolerance | 21.11.2005 10:44

Hundreds of men from across Lebanon are listed as missing. Their families worry they have been taken away by the Syria's occupying forces. For years, they have stayed silent, fearing their oppressors.

But now resistance is stirring: for months, the relatives of the missing have been camping outside the UN Building in Beirut.

The men in the photos have thick, heavy moustaches and long hair. Some are wearing smart shirts with oversized collars that were all the rage back then. But that was long ago. The photos -- displayed under protective plastic on a board leaning against a white pillar -- are all from the 1970s and 80s. In many cases, they are the last pictures their families took before their sons, brothers and sisters vanished off the face of the earth.

Daniel Joseph Montesourati for example. "We have no idea why they took him," says his sister. Daniel was 33 when he failed to return home from a trip to Syria. That was back in 1992; if he is still alive, Daniel is now 47 years old. His family has spent a lot of money trying to find out what happened to him. Today all they know is that Daniel was arrested on suspicion of being an Israeli spy. In 2000, the family had their first and last news of his fate: A prisoner who had been released from Syria's Sitnaya Prison confirmed he had seen Daniel there.

There are more than 700 cases like this one, according to support groups for those left behind. The story of the "disappeared" forms one of the darkest chapters in the history of Syrian-Lebanese relations -- a link already poisoned by the quasi-occupation of Lebanon by the Syrian Baathist dictatorship. It wasn't until this year that the Lebanese government even admitted that cases like that of Montesourati even existed. "Before that, it was taboo," says Ghazi Aad, founder of SOLIDE (Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile). "The government was controlled from afar by Damascus. Whether those who disappeared are alive or dead, nobody knows exactly."

Camped out in front of the UN

Aad, a marine biologist who is confined to a wheelchair, is almost constantly talking on his mobile phone -- often to the press. He is trying to raise as much awareness for their cause as they can and his group has learned a lot by watching the Lebanese opposition recently. They are camping out in the middle of the city, turning it into a cross between a campsite and a vigil. The difference between this and the opposition protests is that those gathered here now are some 30 years older than those who shook up the status quo in Lebanon at the beginning of the year and set off the so-called "Cedar Revolution" which led to the Syrians' withdrawal from Lebanon.

A "No Smoking" sign hangs neatly at the entrance of the tent, located directly in front of the United Nations building in Beirut. The choice of location is a strategic one -- the group, says Aad, is demanding an international UN commission to investigate the disappearances. The small camp has been there for seven months, with around 50 relatives gathering each day, and at least two sleeping in the tent at night. The edge of the site is marked by large walls displaying photographs of the disappeared. As sesame biscuits are handed around, relatives exchange the stories of their missing loved ones.

"He wrote the two letters that he smuggled out with the charcoal from the tip of burnt matchsticks" says a woman of her brother Imad Abdallah, who was 20 years old when he disappeared in 1984. Ever since she received his letters in 2002 she has known that he is being held in a Syrian jail in Tarmud. Ten different passers-by, who had also spent time in prison in Syria, recognized her brother's photograph and were able to confirm the story. "I'm a physical and mental wreck," her brother wrote. "Please help me!" Imad was also accused of being an Israeli collaborator. "In truth, the fact that he was a supporter of the Arafat wing of the PLO didn't suit the Syrians," his sister says.

At least 200 cases

"Nothing was easier than accusing someone of being an Israeli spy," confirms Ghazi Aad. This was by far the most frequent excuse given, that is if any excuse were given at all. Aad has been looking into the cases of the disappeared since 1990 -- when it was still a very risky undertaking. He called on the families to document their cases and within two weeks, 200 separate cases had been compiled. "It was only then that we understood the full extent of this," he says. "We saw that those on the left and right, Muslims and Christians, Druze and Palestinians were all equally effected." Aad today believes that the Syrians were really using this as a method to bring the Lebanese under their control. Whoever had a relative disappear would then behave themselves by conforming to the system -- so that they wouldn't jeopardise the chances of seeing their loved ones again. This is why so few cases were made public.

The varied backgrounds of the disappeared is reflected here at the camp. There are elegantly dressed ladies, tastefully made up, wearing expensive, rimless spectacles, sharing tea with ragged looking Palestinian women from the refugee camps. All wear badges bearing the question "How much longer?" next to a photograph of their relative.

"We're waiting"

They are hopeful that -- now that Lebanon is in transition -- information about their relatives might soon be forthcoming. And indeed, there is now a Syrian-Lebanese governmental commission charged with uncovering the fate of the disappeared. But the Syrians -- so say the Lebanese -- are hindering the process. Additionally, says Ghazi Aad, they have come up with the bizarre claim that -- just in the last three and a half years -- some 759 Syrians have disappeared while in Lebanon. The families are fed up with the infighting and have demanded an international, independent investigation.

Hope has also come from the UN investigation into Syrian involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri being led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis. Mehlis has added international weight to the accusations the Lebanese opposition has long been making: namely that a conspiracy between Lebanese and Syrian secret services was responsible for the killing of Hariri. Aad and his group would also like to work toward the kind of clarity that has been achieved by Mehlis, but Syria has proven a roadblock. Still, Lebanon -- whose official request is needed to get the UN involved -- has already indicated that the Mehlis report has pried open doors that have long been locked up tight. "We're waiting," says Aad.

For almost three decades, Syria held all the power in Lebanon. The small country on the Mediterranean was packed with Syrian spies and military personnel -- it was little more than a Syrian satellite. And the mini insurgency of the family members of the disappeared shows just how many open wounds are left from this period.

"Nothing has changed yet," complains Imad Abdallah's sister impatiently. But the others comfort her. "Everything will come out," they promise. Meanwhile, Ghazi Aad is once again on the phone with the press. He is also the only one of the group who isn't missing relatives in Syria. "I am doing this," he says, "because I had to watch as friends of mine were taken away."

 http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,385120,00.html

Anti-intolerance

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Is the history repeating itself: Galloway praises Syrian president — disrespect
  2. Galloway never Praised Saddam — Lets put things right
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech