Jihad Eid was 20 years old when he was captured by the Syrian army on October 13, 1990, the same day that Syrian troops defeated General Michel Aoun’s forces. His mother, Sonia Eid, described how she had to bribe Syrian and Lebanese officials to be allowed to see Jihad one year later. “He was in his underwear, hands bound and blindfolded, while being led with other prisoners into interrogation at the Mazzeh Prison,” she said.
She hasn’t seen her son again since, but she knows, through information passed along by former detainees, that he was last seen in Saidnaya prison near Damascus. Sonia heads the Committee of Parents of Lebanese Detainees. The committee was initiated in 1997, seven years after the establishment of SOLIDE (Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile), a Beirut-based human rights group established in 1990 and working for the release of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons.
The Committee of Parents of Lebanese Detainees was created along SOLIDE to give the group a more human and less political face. After all, as SOLIDE founder and directory Ghazi Aad pointed out, “No one can tell a mother that she is lying or trying to politicize the issue of detainees.”
Despite all the warnings by Syrian and Lebanese officials not to contact human rights organizations or raise the issue in public, SOLIDE and the parents’ committee have worked tirelessly over the years to break the silence, through communiqués, demonstrations, and sit-ins, in the hope of bringing international and local attention to detainees’ plight.
In addition to the arbitrary detentions that took place during the years of Syrian hegemony in Lebanon, as many as 17,000 people disappeared between 1975 and 1990 during the Lebanese civil war. The whereabouts of the majority of those are still unknown. In 1999, the Lebanese government finally appointed a committee to investigate the 17,000 vanished Lebanese, but the committee only came to the conclusion that “all of those who remain missing should be considered legally dead.”
The Syrian regime has repeatedly denied the presence of any Lebanese detainees in its prisons, and hence refuses to release the names of the Lebanese held by the regime. But throughout the Lebanese civil war and after, units of the Syrian military and intelligence apparatuses kidnapped Lebanese and transferred them to Syrian prisons – escorted either by Syrian troops, or by various pro-Syrian Lebanese militias. In 1976, leftist National Movement members were abducted; in 1978, people involved with Christian militias were taken with no explanation. And in 1996, hundreds of Islamic fundamentalists in Tripoli were also arrested and transferred to Syrian prisons. Between 1989 and 1990, around 150 Lebanese army soldiers under Aoun’s command and many of his supporters were kidnapped; from 1992 until the Syrian troops’ withdrawal in 2005, people who opposed Syrian hegemony in Lebanon were the primary marks for abduction.
Lebanese detainees have been classified by SOLIDE into four groups: (1) those who were taken by the Syrian forces during the civil war, (2) soldiers who were abducted by the Syrians when they defeated Aoun in 1990, (3) those who were taken by pro-Syrian militias between 1991 and 1992 when the Christian militias disarmed and (4) those who were kidnapped by Syrian intelligence after 1992 on account of their political views and activities.
Aad told NOW Lebanon that these arbitrary detentions and the repeated Syrian denials are part of a strategy used by the Syrian regime to force people into submission, sending the message that the regime will not meet opposing voices with leniency. “They believe they can intimidate the Lebanese this way, and thus gain more authority and control over Lebanon,” he said. And indeed, arbitrary kidnappings became one of the favorite tools used by Syrian and pro-Syrian Lebanese officials to silence the voices of those opposing Syrian hegemony over Lebanon.
In March 1998, President Emile Lahoud announced that 121 detainees were to be released, despite previous denials that any Lebanese were held in Syrian prisons. Lebanese activists saw this step as an attempt by the Syrian regime to say that results could only be achieved through political channels, not by advocacy and pressure groups. But even two years later, just 54 of the promised 121 Lebanese had been released – and not one of the Lebanese soldiers arrested in 1990 was included. But once again, the Lebanese and Syrian governments announced that there were no more Lebanese prisoners in Syria.
Challenging these absurd statements has been much more difficult for SOLIDE and the parents’ committee on account of these persistent and blanket denials which mean that families and activists do not even know exactly how many Lebanese are still held in Syria – though they do know it is, at very least, in the hundreds.
“We do not have an exact number, because the file has been always surrounded by mystery and ambiguity,” Aad explained. “However, we have a list of 640 names of people who have been seen in Syrian prisons, either by their parents, or by former detainees.” Aad believes that the number of prisoners is actually far greater; however, many people are still afraid to step forward and talk about their missing children (though more have come forward since the departure of Syrian troops in 2005).
Just before the withdrawal, SOLIDE and the parents’ committee decided to organize an open sit-in in tents in front of the UN House in downtown Beirut, and they have been there nonstop for the past two years, making two demands of the UN: first, they asked the UN Security Council to consider the withdrawal of Syrian troops according to Resolution 1559 incomplete as long as the issue of detainees is not resolved, and second, they called for the establishment of an international commission of inquiry, with full legal jurisdiction, to investigate the cases of hundreds of Lebanese exiled by the Syrian intelligence services.
“Although the Lebanese government’s stance and the international community’s attitude have changed in our favor, nothing has been achieved so far,” Aad said. International human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have been working closely with SOLIDE on reports that clearly demonstrate that there are still a considerable number of Lebanese detainees in the Syrian prisons.
In November 2003, the UN High Commission for Human Rights stated in a report that Lebanese detainees are still held by the Syrian regime, although Bashar al-Assad had declared in 2000 that he closed Mazzeh Prison and released all remaining Lebanese prisoners.
With more international support, especially since 2005, the advocacy government has also gained more support from the Lebanese government. “We felt with the Siniora government, which stated in its ministerial statement that the detainees file is a main concern, that our case was gaining significance,” Aad said. However, he also noted that two years have passed and nothing has been accomplished. “We still do not understand why they don’t try to resolve the issue through an international commission of inquiry, as if this crime is not as central or critical as other political crimes committed in Lebanon.”
One could argue that this kind of inquiry would not only implicate Syrian officers, but also those Lebanese who abducted and transferred prisoners into Syria since the beginning of the civil war. Although the civil war and the Syrian occupation of Lebanon are over, a number of high-ranking Lebanese figures would be implicated in such an inquiry. But, with the critical political and security situation today, many believe that it is best to hold on to this potentially explosive file for the time being.
In May 2005, a joint Lebanese-Syrian committee was formed to investigate the detainees’ files. SOLIDE opposed the formation of this committee for two reasons: it included government officials, which stripped the inquiry of its independence, and it had no powers to arrest or interrogate anyone. “As a result of several meetings, the committee achieved nothing,” said Aad. On the contrary, the only result was that the Syrians used the committee to twist the situation around, claiming that there were 805 Syrians missing in Lebanon as of 2004. “Who would believe that any Syrian would go missing in Lebanon during the peak of the Syrian control over Lebanon? However, assuming this is true, it asserts the necessity of the formation of an international commission for inquiry in both states,” Aad stated.
With political deadlock worsening in Lebanon, the movement to free the detainees is losing momentum on many levels. However, one must wonder how politicians like Aoun, who was in charge of many of the soldiers who were kidnapped, could suddenly forget that these men are suffering because they supported him? How could he present himself as a strong presidential candidate after he ignored and dropped this file from the list of his demands?
Aoun, however, is hardly the only one to blame. Many of Lebanon’s politicians have decided to keep quiet, happy to let their prior complicities with the Syrian regime remain un-discussed. Far too little attention is paid to the plight of the hundreds of men and women detained in Syria and their families, who live in total darkness regarding the fate of their loved ones. This state of affairs should be a national outrage – and the government has a responsibility to make the release of these prisoners (or to start, full Syrian disclosure of their names, locations and alleged crimes) a top priority.
Last summer, Hezbollah went to war with Israel over the continued detention of Lebanese in Israeli prisons. But, there were just three Lebanese in Israeli prisons and one Israeli of Lebanese descent. Regardless, a whole war was waged for these four men; and indeed, most Lebanese, whether or not they support Hezbollah or condone the party’s actions last summer, continue to call for their immediate release or extradition.
Why is there still no such indignation for the vastly larger number of unnamed Lebanese suffering in Syrian prisons? Most of us are guilty of forgetting about the detainees in Syria in our daily lives, but now is the time for this to change.