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never forgotten lebanon’s missing people l a n o i t a n r e t n I y t s e n m A © Thousands of people who disappeared during the bitter civil war that wracked lebanon from 1975-90 and its aftermath are still missing. some were detained by different parties to the conflict, others may have been killed in the fighting or caught up in the massacres that punctuated the war and dumped in mass graves where their bodies lay unidentified. others simply vanished. Their relatives suffer unrelenting pain and anguish as a result; they remain determined to find out what happened. The civil war in Lebanon was a series of The civil war witnessed invasions and because of the legal, financial and interconnected conflicts involving many occupation by the Israeli armed forces, who administrative problems that result from different parties, Lebanese and others. It finally withdrew in 2000; a long Syrian the unresolved fate of their missing relative. had nationalistic, ideological and sectarian military presence which continued until Many live with the nagging hope that one dimensions, some of which initially 2005; and shifting internal and external day there will be a knock at the door or a coalesced around opposition to or support alliances. It resulted in mass displacements phone call and their loved one will re-appear for the Palestinian refugee population, and of people and transfers of individuals or they will at least get some news of him to an extent pitted Lebanon’s different faith between groups and across borders. or her. communities against one another. It Thousands of people were unlawfully killed involved direct armed intervention by and thousands were victims of enforced Amnesty International spoke to many Lebanon’s more dominant neighbours, disappearances, abductions and other relatives of the missing during a research Israel and Syria, often in alliance with abuses. The Lebanese state’s failure to visit to Lebanon in October 2010, some of different Lebanese factions. These last undertake any truth, justice and whose experiences are told here. It hopes included the Lebanese Forces, which reconciliation process, combined with the that this document will help them in derived from an initial coalition of Christian similar failure of the governments of other their continuing quest for the truth and groups that included the Kataeb (Phalange) states that were involved, means that the for justice. and the Ahrar (National Liberal Party); the fate of many thousands of people remains Shi'a Muslim Amal Movement and unknown and the perpetrators have gone Hizbullah; the Druze-based Progressive unidentified and unpunished. Socialist Party (PSP); the Sunni Muslim- based Murabitun; and several secular The families of the missing have lived with cross-community parties. Palestinian armed the suffering caused by their loss and groups, including the Palestine Liberation uncertainty for decades, some for more Organization (PLO), were also powerful. than 30 years. They do not know if their Another militia, which became known as loved ones are alive or dead. They can the South Lebanon Army, worked with Israel neither organize a dignified burial nor in south Lebanon. properly grieve. They struggle to survive Amnesty International April 2011 index: mDe 18/001/2011 3 r LIfe wIthout A mIssIng husbAnd a b h k A - l wadad halawani, founder of the Committee of a © the families of the Kidnapped and missing in Lebanon, told Amnesty International about her life after her husband, 'Adnan musbah halawani, was taken away from their home in beirut in september 1982, apparently by agents of Lebanese military Intelligence. she was left to raise alone her two young children, aged six and three. she described the “elimination of the warmth” from her home following his disappearance, and how she “lost her balance”. she said she did not know “how to protect the children from the rockets” and was “lost for answers to their endless questions” about their father for which she had no replies. based on her own experience and through knowing many families of missing husbands, wadad halawani outlined the problems faced by such families at three levels, in addition to those connected to the family’s grief – personal and social; legal and administrative; and economic. on the personal and social level, she says that a woman whose husband is missing is neither a married woman nor single, divorced or a widow, and for all that time she will have faced serious problems and obstacles linked to the low status Abov e: Wadad Halawani with pictures of some of women. of the people who have been missing since the 1975-90 civil war. on the legal and administrative level, she says Cove r: Amineh 'Abd al-Husri with a picture of that such a woman cannot spend her husband’s her son Ahmed Zuhdi al-Sharqawi, who has money nor dispose of his property, such as been missing since 1986 (see page 5). selling his car, as she does not have power of attorney allowing her to do so. she also cannot get a passport for herself, nor for her children if of the state or by persons or groups of persons they are under 18 as the guardian required is DefiniTions anD obligaTions acting with the authorization, support or the father or, in his absence, the grandfather or, acquiescence of the state, followed by a refusal in his absence, an uncle – even though the The missing are people who are unaccounted to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by mother is raising the children. for as a result of armed conflict or internal concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the violence. They include those missing after disappeared person, which place such a person on the economic level, wadad halawani says being detained by parties to the conflict; outside the protection of the law.” When the that most of the missing people are from poor people killed whose bodies have not been found state or its affiliates, including armed militias, families, so the loss of the breadwinner has had and identified; and others whose families lost have not played any such role, then the a devastating impact. In many cases, the all contact with them and whose fate and individual is generally considered as missing families have been unable to cover basic daily whereabouts remain unknown. as a result of abduction, not the victim of needs, including food, clothing, housing, enforced disappearance. medical care and the costs of education. an enforced disappearance is defined in the international Convention for the protection of enforced disappearances, when committed all persons from enforced Disappearance, as part of a widespread or systematic attack which lebanon has signed but not yet ratified, directed against a civilian population, are as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any crimes against humanity, considered among other form of deprivation of liberty by agents the most egregious of all crimes. index: mDe 18/001/2011 Amnesty International April 2011 l 4 a ‘I Am sure he wILL return’ n o i t a l n r a e n t o n i I t Tripoli a j y n jj t r j s e e t n n I m y A t s © e n m A © LEBANON j j “how can it be that someone who was trying to j defend the land of his country is now ignored by Beirut his government?” so says sonia 'eid, whose son jj jj j Zahle Jihad george 'eid, a soldier in the Lebanese j Army, was just 20 years old when he went j missing on 13 october 1990. he was said to have j SYRIAN j ARAB been injured and captured at al-hadath in mount j j REPUBLIC Lebanon following clashes with syrian military Saïdajj forces, and then transferred to syria. nineteen other Lebanese soldiers and two priests are considered missing from that day. j j Mass grave sites in Lebanon, sonia 'eid has a big file on her son that makes j her sure “that he is alive there”. however, syria based on research by the has not acknowledged his detention. In 1995 UMAM documentation centre. Lebanese military Intelligence officers visited j http://www.umam-dr.org/ her and told her that her son was detained in ISRAEL jSites of mass graves syria, but the following day Lebanese officials denied both the visit and the information that had been provided. she said, with absolute certainty, “I am sure that he will return”. rIghts of the fAmILIes after the conflict and, when there is “[Under international law] the right to the sufficient evidence, prosecute the alleged truth implies knowing the full and complete perpetrators; l a n o truth about events that transpired… In cases i t a n of enforced disappearance and missing the families of missing people must be r e t n persons, the right also implies the right to recognized as victims of armed conflict; and I y t s know the fate and whereabouts of the victim.” their rights to information, to accountability e n UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to acknowledgement of abuses m A March 2010 committed must be upheld; © Under international human rights failure to inform people of the fate or standards: whereabouts of relatives who went missing marie mansourati points to her son dani, a because of armed conflict is a violation of Lebanese national who disappeared in damascus, families have the right, in relation to the right to family life; the systematic or syria, on 9 or 10 may 1992. three people in plain situations of armed conflict, to know the fate persistent failure to so inform families is clothes stopped dani and his brother Pierre as of their relatives; cruel and inhuman treatment; they were driving, and took dani away in their car.

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