SYRIA/LEBANON: AN ALLIANCE BEYOND THE LAW - Enforced Disappearances in Lebanon
Source: Montreal Studies on the Contemporary Arab World
by Human Rights Watch
May 1997 Vol. 9, No. 3 (E)
ABOUT THIS REPORT
This report was written by Virginia N. Sherry,
associate director of Human Rights Watch/Middle East.
It is based on information that Ms. Sherry obtained
during fact-finding missions to Lebanon from August
8-September 4, 1995, and from July 25-August 22,
1996, as well as subsequent research. The report
also includes information collected by Houeida Saad,
an attorney and consultant to Human Rights Watch,
who conducted a fact-finding mission in Lebanon from
October 31-November 16, 1996. The report was edited
by Eric Goldstein, acting executive director of Human
Rights Watch/Middle East, and Michael McClintock,
deputy program director of Human Rights Watch. Awali
Samara, associate at Human Rights Watch/Middle East,
skillfully prepared this report and its appendices
for publication.
The author dedicates this report to the "disappeared" who
are still alive in Syria and to the families who
continue to wait for Syrian government confirmation
of their whereabouts. The author also wishes to thank
the Lebanese and Palestinians without whose cooperation
this report would have been impossible to write.
For reasons related to their own security and safety,
most of these sources asked to remain anonymous.
With generous support from the J.M. Kaplan Fund,
this report will be translated into Arabic.
SUMMARY
An unknown number of Lebanese citizens and stateless
Palestinians are imprisoned in Syria: some of them "disappeared" [1] in
Lebanon as long ago as the 1980s. In two cases documented
by Human Rights Watch, Palestinian families have
learned only recently, through information brought
to them by released prisoners, that their loved ones
-- "disappeared" in 1984 and 1987, respectively --
may still be alive and in Syrian custody. The problem,
unfortunately, not only involves past abuses but
also extends to current practice. Lebanese citizens
and stateless Palestinians continue to "disappear" in
Lebanon, taken into custody there by Syrian security
forces and then transferred to and detained in Syria,
perpetuating a climate of fear. This report includes
detailed information about three "disappearances" that
occurred in 1997, between January and March, one
that took place in July 1996, and another that dates
back to September 1992. The report also includes
information about "disappearances" of Palestinian
residents of Beirut and Tripoli in 1995 and 1996,
and testimony from Lebanese and Palestinians who
were "disappeared" at various times between the mid-1970s
through late 1993.
The seizures of these individuals take place outside
the law. As the Beirut Bar Association reported to
the U.N. Human Rights Committee in April 1997, "no
existing legislation or bilateral treaty allows such
conduct." Moreover, victims do not benefit from the
protection of the law. There are no effective official
government mechanisms -- in Lebanon or in Syria --
for families to learn of the whereabouts of their
relatives and to seek legal remedy. Human Rights
Watch has also obtained first-hand testimony indicating
that Syrian intelligence forces have detained some
Lebanese and held them incommunicado -- in Syrian
detention facilities in Lebanon, and in Syria --
in order to pressure them to collaborate with Syrian
intelligence in Lebanon.
Syrian troops first entered Lebanon in large numbers
in June 1976, the second year of the country's civil
war. The Syrian military presence was formalized
pursuant to decisions taken at the Arab League summit
that was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in October
1976. The summit led to the creation of an Arab Deterrent
Force (ADF) that was to enforce a ceasefire and separate
the warring sides. Although the ADF would include
small numbers of troops from other Arab states, the
bulk of the forces were Syrian and under Syrian military
command. Syria's significant interference with Lebanese
civil society, including the press, followed, as
we described in a 1991 report:
Late that year, the Syrian army occupied and closed
down seven newspapers and one magazine in West Beirut,
including Lebanon's most famous newspaper al-Nahar ,
as well as L'Orient Le Jour , al-Safir ,
and al-Muharrir . Only three pro-Syrian newspapers
remained....Syrian forces also arrested several journalists,
including al-Safir editors Muhammad Mashmushi
and Tawfiq Sardawi, both critics of Syrian intervention.
They were subsequently imprisoned in Damascus. After
a major protest campaign, the Syrians withdrew from
the occupied publications, and two months later they
released Mashmushi and Sardawi. But al-Safir and
other newspapers got the message; only rarely since
then have they printed items that would seriously displease
the Syrian regime. [2]
Twenty-one years later, an estimated 30,000 Syrian troops remain in Lebanon,
as well as an undisclosed number of intelligence officers and other operatives.
Syrian intelligence forces are known to maintain detention facilities in at
least five locations inside Lebanon: in Tripoli in the north; in west Beirut
at the headquarters of Syrian intelligence on Sadat Street, near the Beau Rivage
Hotel in the Ramlet al-Baida neighborhood, an area also known as Beau Rivage;
in Chtoura in the Beqaa' valley; and in `Anjar, east of the Beirut-Damascus
highway, near the Lebanese-Syria border. There is also a detention facility
in Hazmiyeh, on the outskirts of Beirut, where a joint Syrian-Lebanese intelligence
force reportedly is based. This report includes information about and testimony
from Lebanese and stateless Palestinians who have been detained at these facilities.
Close Syrian-Lebanese bilateral relations were formally cemented by the May
1991 Treaty of Fraternity, Cooperation and Coordination, which established
joint councils to coordinate decision-making and activities related to foreign
affairs, economic and social affairs, and defense and security affairs. The
Defense and Security Affairs Committee created pursuant to the treaty is composed
of the defense and interior ministers of both countries. According to the terms
of the treaty, the committee is responsible for "studying the adequate measures
needed to safeguard the two countries' security and for suggesting joint measures
to confront any aggression or threat endangering their national security or
any unrest that may disturb their internal security." For Lebanese Muslims
and Christians alike, the phenomenon of "disappearances" is one manifestation
of what many of them view as de facto Syrian control -- or "annexation" or "occupation," as
they variously describe it -- of their country. A prominent Shi'i lawyer, who
requested anonymity, put it this way in an interview with Human Rights Watch
in August 1995:
No one in Lebanon will talk about the reality. Our government is not a government.
Syrian intelligence forces are controlling this country. We are moving toward
a police state. Here in Lebanon, there are masters and servants. Lebanese government
officials are the servants of Syria.
Indeed, public discussion of "disappearances" is largely taboo in Lebanon,
and efforts to address the problem generally, or individual cases specifically,
are not undertaken. Families of the "disappeared" typically are afraid to come
forward with information for fear of worsening the situation for their loved
ones or putting themselves at risk of harassment or reprisal. They have been
unable to secure assistance from Lebanese government officials or Lebanese
nongovernmental organizations to obtain information about, access to, or the
release of their relatives. The son of one Lebanese who was seized and "disappeared" in
the early 1990s, and is believed to be held in Syria, told Human Rights Watch
in 1997 that no one in Lebanon, including former colleagues of his father who
now serve in high-level government positions, would talk to him about the case.
The son said that he met privately with President Elias Hrawi in 1992, who
told him "there is nothing that we can do."
Human Rights Watch has written to Lebanese and Syrian government officials
four times to express concern, to request information, and to recommend steps
to remedy the problem of the continuing "disappearances." These letters --
to Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in October 1996 and March 1997, and
to Syrian President Hafez al-Asad in November 1996 and March 1997 -- have gone
unanswered, and persons continue to be detained and "disappeared" on Lebanese
soil. Families continue to wait for news, and official confirmation, that their
relatives are dead or alive. To end this agony for the families, Human Rights
Watch urged President Asad in November 1996 to disclose fully the names and
other information about non-Syrians held in Syrian custody in Lebanon and Syria.
We received no reply to our letter.
The Lebanese government clearly has ceded certain police powers to Syrian
intelligence forces inside Lebanon -- in practice if not also by secret agreement.
By providing an effective guarantee of impunity for human rights abuses under
this arrangement, Lebanese authorities must bear a measure of direct responsibility
for these abuses. Lebanese complicity in abuses by Syrian forces sometimes
goes beyond official acquiescence and becomes direct collaboration with Syrian
forces in carrying out reported "disappearances." To end complicity in torture, "disappearance," and
other abuses by Syrian forces in Lebanon, it is incumbent upon Lebanese authorities
to establish enforceable procedures under which Syrian forces present and operating
in Lebanon can be held fully accountable for their actions under both Lebanese
and international law. Lebanese authorities should begin to address this problem
by ending immediately their silence concerning abuses being committed by Syrian
forces on Lebanese territory, and by carrying out independent and effective
investigations of "disappearances" in such a manner as to bring the perpetrators
to justice.
This report focuses only on "disappearances" in Lebanon at the hands of Syrian
intelligence forces and their Lebanese accomplices. It does not address the
issue of Lebanese citizens who have been seized in Lebanon and transported
to Israel, which occupies approximately 10 percent of south Lebanon (850 square
kilometers) in a zone that is home to some 150,000 Lebanese. Lebanese citizens
imprisoned inside Israel, along with other Arabs and Iranians, is the subject
of a separate inquiry by Human Rights Watch/Middle East and a report that we
will publish later in 1997. In March 1997, Human Rights Watch presented a written
statement to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights which was meeting in its fifty-third
session in Geneva. Our statement addressed the problem of "disappearances" of
Lebanese citizens and stateless Palestinians in Lebanon by Syrian security
forces, as well as Lebanese citizens who are being held in extended periods
of detention in Israel, either without charge or trial or long beyond the expiration
of their sentences. Human Rights Watch's submission regarding "disappearances" at
the hands of Syrian forces is elaborated upon in this report. The part of the
statement that addressed Israeli practices is appended to this report.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To the Government of Syria
The Syrian government should apply the principles of transparency and accountability
to address the problem of foreign nationals and stateless Palestinians who
are detained in Syria, and to bring some measure of justice to victims and
their families. Human Rights Watch urges the Syrian government to take the
following actions:
- Make public the names of all non-Syrians -- including Lebanese citizens
and stateless Palestinians -- who are currently detained or imprisoned in
Syria.
- In addition to releasing the names, the Syrian government should make public
the following additional information about each individual:
1. Nationality or place of permanent residence, and date of birth;
2. Date and place of initial arrest, and the name of the security
force that took the person into custody;
3. Date of transfer from Lebanon to Syria, and the basis in Syrian
or Lebanese law, if any, for such transfer;
4. Name and location of the facility where the person is currently
being held in Syria;
5. Whether the person has been permitted to contact his family and
lawyer, and the date on which such contact was initially made;
6. Whether the person has been permitted family visits, and the frequency
of such visits; and
7. The basis in Syrian or Lebanese law for the continuing detention
and imprisonment of each person held in Syria.
- Individuals who are unlawfully detained should be immediately and unconditionally
released.
- Syrian authorities should also investigate allegations that Lebanese citizens
and stateless Palestinians have been tortured at Syrian detention facilities
inside Lebanon, and should take steps to bring such practices to an immediate
halt.
- The Syrian government should instruct its judicial authorities to determine,
on a case-by-case basis, if foreign nationals and stateless Palestinians
have been subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention in Syria. In cases of
arbitrary arrest or detention, authorities should set forth and disseminate
widely in Lebanon information about the official legal mechanisms by which
victims can exercise their enforceable right to compensation, as provided
in Article 9(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
to which Syria is a state party.
- To ensure that individuals in the future are not subjected to arbitrary
arrest or "disappearance," Syrian authorities should undertake the following
measures:
1. Communicate to all Syrian military, intelligence and security forces
that "disappearances" will no longer be tolerated, and that commanders
who order or condone such actions will be held responsible for these
criminal offenses to the fullest extent of the law.
2. Require that at the time of arrest or detention, the arresting
authorities identify themselves, and that all individuals take
into custody be held only in publicly recognized detention facilities,
where accurate registers of detainees and prisoners are maintained
and available for public inspection. Such procedures should be
instituted at each of the now-secret Syrian detention facilities
in Lebanon -- alternatively, these centers should be closed.
3. Inform individuals taken into custody of the reasons for
arrest, and enable them to challenge the legality of their detention
before a judicial authority.
4. Permit individuals taken into custody to inform without delay
their relatives and lawyers of their arrest and place of detention.
5. Establish effective procedures for prompt response to inquiries
from families, lawyers and nongovernmental organizations about
the whereabouts of individuals who have been detained.
To the Government of Lebanon
Initiatives by the Lebanese government are also required in order to hold
Syrian security forces in Lebanon accountable for their actions. The following
affirmative steps may help break the barrier of fear that has prevented families
from coming forward when "disappearances" occur, and has likewise discouraged
lawyers from providing legal representation and independent nongovernmental
organizations from undertaking advocacy on behalf of the victims:
- Take firm and fully transparent measures to ensure that abuses at the hands
of Syrian security forces in Lebanon come to an end.
- Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and President Elias Hrawi should publicly declare
that Syrian forces will not be permitted to operate with impunity on Lebanese
soil, and should set forth the legal regime by which such forces are disciplined
and held accountable for criminal offenses committed in Lebanon. Similarly,
Lebanese government officials should convey to commanders of Lebanese military,
intelligence and other security forces that their personnel must not participate
in "disappearances" in any manner. The government should further make clear
that commanders who order or condone "disappearances" will be held criminally
responsible for these actions and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law.
- To ensure that Lebanese military and security authorities in no manner
participate in or facilitate "disappearances," the government should require
that at the time of arrest or detention on Lebanese soil the arresting authorities
identify themselves, and that all individuals taken into custody in Lebanon
be held in publicly recognized places of detention, where accurate registers
of detainees and prisoners are maintained and available for public inspection.
- As a matter of priority, the Lebanese judiciary and police should be instructed
to formulate, implement, and widely publicize procedures for taking written
complaints from citizens and lawyers about cases of suspected abduction and "disappearance." As
part of these procedures, copies of the complaints should be forwarded promptly
to the offices of the prime minister and the president, the justice minister,
the head of the parliamentary human rights committee, and the president of
the bar association.
- Immediate steps should be taken to establish an independent legal office
with full authority to investigate all cases of "disappearances" in a prompt
and transparent manner. This office should be empowered not only to determine
the whereabouts of the "disappeared," but also to secure prompt access to
these individuals for lawyers and family members. The creation of this office
should be widely publicized in Lebanon, and its services should be made available
to all residents of the country, including stateless Palestinians who are
permanent residents.
- Provide medical care and psychological counseling, when required, to "disappeared" individuals
who reappear.
To the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
- The Working Group should investigate cases of enforced disappearance in
Lebanon, and make demarches to Lebanese and Syrian authorities in order to
determine the fate and whereabouts of the "disappeared."
- Given the extraterritorial dimension of the practice of enforced disappearances
in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch recommends that the Working Group analyze
the issue in light of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance, and publicize its conclusions in relation to the
implementation of the Declaration when there is such a dimension.
To the European Union and Member States
Publicly acknowledge at a high level and condemn actions
by Lebanese and Syrian authorities that result in the "disappearances" of Lebanese
citizens and stateless Palestinians.
- Raise with the Lebanese and Syrian governments at the highest levels, and
as an urgent matter, the cases of Lebanese citizens and stateless Palestinians
who have "disappeared" at the hands of state agents, and impress upon both
governments the need to respond positively to the recommendations in this
report.
- Instruct embassy staff in Damascus to raise and pursue specific cases of "disappearances" with
Syrian authorities and to seek access to detainees whose names are known.
- In the context of negotiations over the Euro-Mediterranean Association
Agreement with Lebanon, urge the government of Lebanon to implement the recommendations
of this report, and publicly support such initiatives by the government of
Lebanon.
- Use all possible means, including linkage of aid and financial assistance
to Syria, to obtain a full accounting by the Syrian government concerning
persons detained and "disappeared" by agents of the Syrian state, and on
a public commitment by the government of Syria to cease such practices immediately.
- The European Union and member states need to demonstrate that they take
seriously their previous commitments regarding human rights abuses by the
government of Syria. The Council of Ministers should forward to the European
Parliament, without any further delay, the report on human rights conditions
in Syria that it received in November 1995 from the European Commission,
a report that the Council had committed itself to prepare as part of the
December 1993 decision to extend Fourth Protocol assistance to Syria. The
Council should further instruct the Commission to prepare an update to this
report, to be submitted to the Parliament before the Parliament's August
recess. These reports should be made public.
To the Clinton Administration
- Publicly acknowledge at a high level and condemn actions by Lebanese and
Syrian authorities that result in the "disappearances" of Lebanese citizens
and stateless Palestinians.
- Raise with the Lebanese and Syrian governments at the highest levels, and
as an urgent matter, the cases of Lebanese citizens and stateless Palestinians
who have "disappeared" at the hands of state agents, and impress upon both
governments the need to respond positively to the recommendations in this
report.
- Instruct embassy staff in Damascus to raise and pursue specific cases of "disappearances" with
Syrian authorities and to seek access to detainees whose names are known.
- In the context of the multilateral "Friends of Lebanon" initiative, launched
in 1996 to promote assistance to and investment in Lebanon, urge the government
of Lebanon to implement the recommendations in this report, and publicly
support such initiatives.
INTRODUCTION
This report examines cases of "enforced disappearance" in Lebanon. The term
was comprehensively defined by the U.N. General Assembly in 1992, in the Declaration
on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The declaration
identified the elements that must be necessary in order to characterize an
act as an enforced disappearance:
[P]ersons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise
deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government,
or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with
the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government,
followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned
or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, thereby placing
such persons outside the protection of the law. [3]
Human Rights Watch has documented cases in Lebanon that meet these criteria.
Syrian security forces in Lebanon, in some cases with the support and cooperation
of their Lebanese counterparts, have deprived Lebanese citizens and stateless
Palestinians of their liberty. Furthermore, once these acts were committed,
family members and lawyers were unable to obtain any form of official acknowledgment
of either the arrest, detention or abduction or the whereabouts of the individuals
who were "disappeared," placing these persons outside the protection of the
law.
The declaration provides the authoritative set of principles and broad guidelines
to assist states in preventing and eliminating enforced disappearances. The
declaration states unequivocally that "[n]o State shall practice, permit or
tolerate enforced disappearances." [4] It
notes that such actions should be classified as extremely serious criminal
offenses, [5] and
states that "[n]o order or instruction of any public authority, civilian, military
or other, may be invoked to justify an enforced disappearance. Any person receiving
such an order or instruction shall have the right and duty not to obey it." [6] The
declaration also describes the grave consequences of enforced disappearances:
Such act of enforced disappearance places the persons subjected thereto outside
the protection of the law and inflicts severe suffering on them and their families.
It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter
alia , the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right
to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also
violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life. [7]
THE METHODOLOGY OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN LEBANON
"No one dares to say anything. The Syrians feel free to do what they want
here, and no one can interfere."
--Palestinian resident of Tripoli, Lebanon, August 1996.
There is a clear pattern to the method of "disappearances" in Lebanon in
the cases that Human Rights Watch has documented and examined. First, individuals
are seized by Syrian intelligence operatives, usually dressed in plainclothes,
sometimes with the participation of their Lebanese counterparts. No written
arrest or detention orders are produced at the time of detention. Second, families
experience severe suffering following these state-sanctioned abductions because
Lebanese and Syrian authorities do not officially provide information about
the detention, fate, or whereabouts of the "disappeared." Third, most victims
in cases investigated by Human Rights Watch were tortured while in custody
in Syrian detention facilities in Lebanon or while in detention in Syria. In
some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, the "disappeared" have been pressured
by high-ranking Syrian officers to collaborate with Syrian intelligence in
Lebanon.
Apprehension and Irregular Arrest by State Agents
Human Rights Watch has identified two types of enforced
disappearances in Lebanon: those that appear to be carried out solely by Syrian
agents, and those in which Lebanese security forces have participated in the
handover of individuals to the Syrians. One Lebanese citizen, who requested
anonymity, "disappeared" in late 1993. He described what happened when two
Lebanese and one Syrian, all in civilian clothes, arrived at his home in Beirut
just after midnight:
One of the Lebanese asked my name, then put a .38 [caliber revolver] to my
head and said that they were security. The other one had an AK-47 [machine
gun]. I asked for written orders, but they showed me nothing.
He was blindfolded, his hands cuffed, and was taken away in his pajamas. "They
put me in the back seat of a car and told me to keep my head down. We drove
for about seven minutes, arrived at a building, and went up five flights of
stairs. After this, I was in Syrian hands," he said. His blindfold was removed.
He was surrounded by Syrians in plainclothes, who moved him to Syrian intelligence
headquarters in Beirut, under the command of Col. Rustom Ghazali, located on
Sadat Street in the Ramlet al-Baida section of west Beirut,
near the Beau Rivage Hotel (an area also known as Beau Rivage). Col. Rustom
Ghazali has long been identified as the head of Syrian intelligence in Beirut.
This individual, who described having been interrogated and tortured in Beau
Rivage, was held in Syrian custody in Lebanon for eight days, during which
time his family and lawyer were unable to ascertain his whereabouts. [8]
Gabi `Aql Karam: "Disappeared" in January 1997
More recently, two men in plainclothes knocked at the door of the home of
the mother of Gabi `Aql Karam in the Sinn al-Fil neighborhood of Beirut, looking
for Karam. [9] Two
armed Lebanese soldiers remained outside. It was the morning of January 6,
1997. Karam was asleep and his mother woke him up. According to a written complaint
filed by Muhamed Mugraby, Karam's lawyer, the two men, who identified themselves
as members of Military Intelligence, asked Karam to accompany them to their
headquarters so that he could be questioned. They added that Karam had committed
no offense and would be returned later that day. Karam was taken to Lebanese
Ministry of Defense headquarters in Yarzeh. After Karam was not returned that
day, or on the two following days, his mother went to Yarzeh to inquire about
him. She was reportedly told by a soldier: "You can't see him. Bring his clothes
for him." When she returned the next morning with clothing, she was informed
that Karam was no longer at the facility and was provided no information about
his whereabouts. Karam had "disappeared." It was learned later, after Karam's
release, that Lebanese authorities had turned him over to the Syrians on January
7. He was first moved from Yarzeh to Hazmiyeh, on the outskirts of Beirut,
where a joint Syrian-Lebanese intelligence force is based and maintains detention
facilities. From there, he was transported to the Palestine Branch of Military
Intelligence in Damascus, where he was held incommunicado until March 27, 1997.
Karam was turned over to Lebanese authorities upon re-entering Lebanon and,
according to his lawyer, was held in Lebanese custody at the Lebanese army
garrison in Ablah in the Beqaa' valley for one week and then released on April
3, 1997. [10] There
was no official acknowledgment of Karam's detention by Lebanese or Syrian authorities,
and there was no written reply to the abduction and unlawful detention complaint
filed by Karam's lawyer on March 12, 1997 with Lebanon's chief public prosecutor
Adnan Addoum. [11] Karam
reportedly is in poor health, is taking pain-killing medication, and is in
need of medical attention.
Karam also suffered through the seven-year "disappearance" of his wife, Hala
Haj, who was born in 1957. She was abducted in Beirut on January 12, 1990,
near the Barbir Hospital crossing point. It was assumed for many years that
she was in Syrian custody, but no one knew for certain. During his incommunicado
detention in Syria in 1994, Gabi Karam thought that he heard his wife's voice,
lawyer Muhamed Mugraby told Human Rights Watch. Hala Haj was finally released
from Syrian custody on December 28, 1996, when she was sent back to Lebanon
and transferred to the custody of the Lebanese military. She was released on
January 20, 1997 -- while her husband Gabi was still "disappeared"-- and currently
faces charges before the military court for alleged "contacts with agents of
the enemy," according to Mugraby. Hala Haj reportedly was tortured repeatedly
during her long years in custody in Syria and required five surgical procedures
while she was in Syria. These included three surgeries to stop internal bleeding,
and two to remove infected tissue from the area around her nose. Her left retina
was also damaged, seriously impairing the vision in her left eye. As a result
of injuries that Haj sustained, she also suffers from hearing problems and
is in need of medical attention, Human Rights Watch learned.
Magi `Aql Karam: "Disappeared" in March 1997
In contrast to the cases described above, Syrian agents in Lebanon have also
taken individuals into custody on their own. Gabi Karam's sister Magi `Aql
Karam was detained and "disappeared" in March 1997, three months after her
brother's "disappearance." Magi Karam, who was born in 1953, lives with her
husband and six children in the Beqaa' valley. According to the written complaint
filed by her lawyer Muhamed Mugraby, Magi Karam reported to Syrian security
forces in Chtoura, in the Beqaa', on March 1, 1997, after she was summoned
there for questioning about an unspecified matter. Karam, who had previously
been arrested and tortured, reportedly was terrified. [12] Mugraby
filed a written complaint of unlawful detention with public prosecutor Adnan
Addoum on March 15, 1997. [13] He
received no written reply to this complaint, and there is no evidence that
Lebanese authorities began an investigation of this "disappearance." Magi Karam
was released from Syrian custody on March 27, 1997. After her release, it was
learned that she had been held incommunicado in the Palestine Branch of Military
Intelligence in Damascus.
Bashir al-Khatib: "Disappeared" in July 1996
In another case, Bashir al-Khatib, who was born in 1957 and is the father
of four children, was apprehended in the northern city of Tripoli by a high-ranking
officer in the Syrian security forces on or about July 8, 1996, according to
information obtained by Human Rights Watch in Lebanon from reliable sources. [14] Al-Khatib
had been visited the day before by Syrian security forces, who asked him questions
and took notes. "He didn't run away, because he thought that it was nothing," one
source reported. After his "disappearance," Syrian security forces in Tripoli
admitted informally that al-Khatib was in their custody in the city, would
be questioned for a few days, and then would be released. Several days later,
the Syrians said that he had been moved from Tripoli to `Anjar (the Syrian
detention facility near the Lebanese-Syrian border), and "probably was in Damascus." [15] Human
Rights Watch subsequently confirmed that al-Khatib was in Syria, and was being
held in Damascus, in the Palestine Branch detention center of Military Intelligence, [16] one
of Syria's internal security forces. There was no official acknowledgment of
his whereabouts, however. Letters sent by Human Rights Watch to Lebanese and
Syrian authorities in March 1997, asking for confirmation that al-Khatib was
in Syrian custody, went unanswered.
In 1995 and 1996, Syrian intelligences forces also detained Palestinian residents
of Lebanon who subsequently "disappeared." Palestinians who live in Nahr al-Bared
refugee camp in Tripoli told Human Rights Watch in August 1996 that Palestinians
from the camp had recently been detained and "disappeared," although sources
were reluctant to consent to the publication of names and other identifying
details. According to one resident:
Syrian mukhabarat (intelligence agents) picked people up near the
Corniche. It started one month ago. They also took a man two months ago from
his uncle's house [in the camp]. No one know why. No one dares to say anything.
The Syrians feel free to do what they want here, and no one can interfere.
Another resident, in a separate interview, said this: "Last week, not far
from here, Syrian mukhabarat stopped a car on the Corniche and took [a man
in his fifties with kidney problems]. They put him in the trunk. He was a member
of the pro-Iraqi Ba'th party but had not been active for a long time. He was
in bad health."
A rumor was spread that one of the Palestinians who "disappeared" in 1996
was suspected of collaborating with Israel, specifically with the Mossad in
Greece. "This is ridiculous," a source in the camp said. "He never left this
camp. He does not even have a travel document. This kind of an [allegation]
makes people especially afraid to get involved [in the case]."
Another resident of the camp recounted the "disappearance" in October 1995
of a Palestinian man in his forties known as Abu Maher. Syrian security forces
in plainclothes "came to his house. They said that they wanted to talk to him
outside for five minutes. They took him, and no one knows where he is," he
said. [17]
Unacknowledged Detention
Once individuals are in Syrian custody, there is no official acknowledgment
of the detention or official confirmation of their whereabouts. Families are
not notified officially about the arrest and whereabouts of their relatives,
and Syrian authorities maintain a wall of official silence about non-Syrian
nationals in their custody. There was, for example, no reply by Syrian President
Hafez al-Asad to a letter that Human Rights Watch sent to him in November 1996,
requesting the names of all non-Syrians in Syrian custody. The consequences
of this silence for families in Lebanon, and elsewhere in the Arab world, are
devastating, as the following four cases indicate.
Abdallah Diab Hussein al-Razayneh: "Disappeared" in 1984
Abdallah Diab Hussein al-Razayneh, a forty-seven-year-old Palestinian from
Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was reportedly taken into custody
by Syrian security forces in 1984 on the Lebanese-Syrian border. Al-Razayneh's
wife Fatimeh, who lives with their six children in Jabaliya camp, had no contact
with or news about her husband's whereabouts since 1984 and believed that he
was dead. But information from a prisoner who was released in 1996 gave the
family hope that he is still alive.
According to the prisoner, al-Razayneh was held in Mezze military prison
in Damascus from 1984 until 1992, first in Section 248 and then in Section
235 of that facility. Prisoners at Mezze heard that in October 1992 al- Razayneh
was transferred from Mezze to Sednaya prison. [18] Human
Rights Watch wrote to President Asad on November 6, 1996, requesting that Syrian
authorities provide information about al-Razayneh's whereabouts. We asked the
Syrian government to respond to reports that he had been held in Mezze prison
for eight years, and we inquired about his current whereabouts and the reasons
for his continuing detention. The letter was not answered.
Rushdi Rashed Hamdan Shehab: "Disappeared" in 1987
Rushdi Rashed Hamdan Shehab, a Palestinian, "disappeared" in Sidon, Lebanon,
in October 1987. "At ten in the morning, he left his car with a mechanic at
a gas station, saying that he would return in the evening to pick it up," his
brother told Human Rights Watch. [19] Shehab,
the father of three who was forty-two years old at the time, never returned
that evening for his car. And he was never seen again in Lebanon. "I went to
Jordan in the summer of 1988. We heard stories about his disappearance, and
someone told us that he was in Syria. I went to Damascus with his wife, but
there was no real news," his brother said. There were rumors that Shehab, who
was a member of Yasir Arafat's Fateh, had been abducted, variously, by rival
Palestinian factions led by Abu Nidal or Abu Musa, but the family received
no concrete information. According to his brother, Shehab had left Lebanon
in 1982, at the time that PLO fighters were evacuated in the wake of the Israeli
invasion, and relocated to Syria. He was based in Syria until 1987, traveling
freely between there and Lebanon numerous times without any problems from Syrian
authorities.
After being "disappeared" for almost ten years, the family had given up hope
that Shehab was still alive. But in early April 1997, news reached a cousin
in Jordan that Shehab had been seen alive and was being held in Syria's infamous
Tadmor prison. [20] The
information came from a Palestinian prisoner who had been released in August
1995, after spending over nineteen years in incommunicado detention in Syria.
Boutros Khawand: "Disappeared" in 1992
Boutros Khawand, a prominent member of the political bureau of the Phalange
party, "disappeared" on September 15, 1992, about a half-mile from his home
in Sinn al-Fil in East Beirut, an area under the control of the Syrian army.
Khawand's car was intercepted by a group of about two dozen men, dressed in
civilian clothes but wearing army-issue boots, who arrived in a red van and
two BMW automobiles. Khawand's son Fadi, who was in the house at the time of
the abduction, made the following written statement:
On that day, Tuesday, September 15, 1992, my father left the house at 9:00
o'clock in the morning as usual. He got in his car, a red Opel, and drove toward
the main street. Minutes later, I heard gun shots, I ran out of the house to
investigate. I found my father's car parked in the middle of the road with
the driver's side door wide open, and my father nowhere to be found.
One witness informed me that she observed two cars and a van surrounding
my father's car. She further stated that the kidnappers ran toward my father,
held him at gunpoint, lifted him from the driver's seat, and threw him in the
rear door of the van. Other neighbors who witnessed this kidnapping shouted: "Kidnapping,
kidnapping." [21]
Following the abduction, the Phalange party organized a public protest in
Beirut:
Demonstrators carrying red-and-white Lebanese flags marched to the ministry
of justice in the Christian Ashrafiyeh suburb led by [Phalange] chief George
Sa'adeh, party officials and several deputies, amid tight security by army
and police. Sa'adeh handed Justice Minister Nasri Ma'alouf a letter protesting
the kidnapping. [22]
The party also used iconography to suggest, indirectly, that Syria was holding
Lebanon "hostage" and was responsible for Khawand's abduction:
A new poster covers the walls of the Maronite Christian Phalange party headquarters
near Beirut port. "Freedom kidnaped -- Lebanon hostage," it says. Dollops of
red ink fall from the arrow-pierced heart of a dove of peace. Prison bars are
superimposed over a map of Lebanon and upon a photograph of Mr. Khawand, a
party official kidnapped on September 15. [23]
Although the "disappearance" received international press attention at the
time, [24] it
has now been all but forgotten. Khawand is assumed to be held incommunicado
in Syria. It is believed that he first was held in Mezze military prison in
Damascus but, based on information provided by released Lebanese prisoners,
it is feared that Khawand currently may be in Tadmor prison.
By several accounts, Khawand was extremely influential in the Phalange party,
particularly at the grass-roots level. While one faction of the party was cooperating
with the Syrians, Khawand "was pushing for independence," according to one
source interviewed by Human Rights Watch. By seizing Khawand, the Syrians hoped
to "paralyze the party's cadres" that opposed the Syrian presence in Lebanon,
he said. [25]
Derar al-Karmi: "Disappeared" in January 1997
In 1997, Jordanian authorities were unable to obtain information from the
Lebanese government about Derar al-Karmi, a Jordanian citizen who was seized
and "disappeared" by three unidentified men in Beirut on the evening of January
3, 1997. Al-Karmi, a financial manager at the Marriott Hotel in Beirut, was
seen leaving the hotel with "three people dressed in civilian clothes who drove
away in a gray Range Rover with a Lebanese license plate." [26] Sam
Ibrahim, the general manager of the Marriott Hotel, told the Reuter news agency
on January 18: "All I know is he left the hotel on January 3 at about 5:15
pm with unknown persons. We don't know where he is now." [27]
A Lebanese lawyer informed Human Rights Watch that Lebanon's chief public
prosecutor, Adnan Addoum, denied on a television talk show on January 19, 1997,
that he had any knowledge of al-Karmi's whereabouts. [28] Prosecutor
Addoum was also quoted as saying the following one day earlier: "I cannot confirm
or deny his arrest because I know nothing about the matter and I was not given
any orders to arrest anyone." [29]
Although the Jordanian government sent its first demarche about the abduction
to Lebanese authorities on January 4, 1997, Jordanian Minister of Information
Marwan al-Mu'ashshir reported three weeks later that no reply had been received: "[W]e
are currently holding contacts with competent Lebanese authorities....we have
not yet received any reply." [30] As
of January 23, 1997, the Jordanian government still had not received a reply
from Lebanese authorities about the case. Jordanian ambassador to Lebanon Fakhri
Abu Taleb said this to Radio Monte Carlo in an interview that day:
So far, I have not received a response to the letter I sent on 4th January
[about al-Karmi's abduction]. Yesterday I also sent another message; but so
far, I have not received any responses. If there is any question about this
subject or this person, I cannot answer it. You can ask the competent authorities. [31]
Al-Karmi was released on January 25, 1997, but neither al-Karmi nor the Marriott
Hotel in Beirut would discuss the case:
An official of the Beirut Marriott Hotel told Reuters on [January 26] that
its financial controller Derar al-Karmi returned home at 9:30 pm on [January
25] but did not want to talk about his experience. "He's not saying anything....the
Marriott doesn't want to say anything either," the official said. "He doesn't
want to meet the press." [32]
According to a report by AFP, al-Karmi's abduction "may have been linked
to a dispute with Syrian soldiers stationed near the Beirut hotel." The AFP
report continued:
Three weeks ago, hotel officials complained that the badly maintained army
post next door was harming the luxury hotel's image, drawing the ire of Syrian
soldiers. One official who had complained that the soldiers hung their clothes
on windows facing client rooms and left garbage in front of the building was
even beaten, sources close to the Amman Marriott said. The soldiers also allegedly
tried to extort money from the hotel, a common practice suffered by many institutions
in Lebanon located near Syrian posts. [33]
After al-Karmi's release, the Jordanian government stated again that it had
received no information about his abduction. "We welcome his release but we
reject any aggression against Jordanian nationals. We don't have any information
about who was holding him," an unnamed Jordanian government official quoted
by Reuter said on January 26. [34] It
was clear from public remarks of Jordan's ambassador to Lebanon that Jordanian
authorities believed that al-Karmi had been in Syrian custody, although the
ambassador made the allegation in an oblique manner, without mentioning Syria
by name. He said this in a telephone interview with Reuter:
Through my personal contacts and the contacts with the hotel's general manager...we
found out that Derar is not in the hands of Lebanese security forces. According
to unofficial information, he is with security forces concerned with security
in Lebanon. [35]
Torture in Syrian Custody
Human Rights Watch interviewed Lebanese who have been tortured in Syrian
detention facilities inside Lebanon, including the intelligence headquarters
under the command of Col. Rustom Ghazali, on Sadat Street near the Beau Rivage
Hotel in the Ramlet al-Baida section of west Beirut (an area also known as
Beau Rivage), and the detention facility at `Anjar, east of the Beirut-Damascus
highway near the Lebanese-Syrian border. It has long been common knowledge
that Col. Ghazali is in charge of Syrian intelligence in Beirut. Testimony
suggests that Col. Ghazali, a senior officer, is at the very least aware that
torture was taking place in his headquarters.
One Lebanese citizen described how he was tortured in Beau Rivage in 1993,
and then interrogated the next day by Col. Ghazali. He said that he was placed
in a chair and beaten on the knees with a four-by-five-inch piece of wood from
a door frame. "We will do this until you speak," his interrogators allegedly
told him. "If you do not tell us the truth, we will bring your wife and daughters
and humiliate you." [36] Another
Lebanese, who was also held in Syrian custody in Beau Rivage in 1993, told
Human Rights Watch that he was present in an interrogation room when a Lebanese
who had been tortured was brought before Col. Ghazali. The victim was "blindfolded,
with his hands cuffed behind his back. His legs were swollen from having been
beaten. Col. Ghazali told him to talk, and said that he would not be beaten." [37] A
stateless Palestinian who lives in Beirut told Human Rights Watch that he was
held in Beau Rivage for three days, then transferred to Syria and imprisoned
there without charge for four years. The man said that in Beau Rivage he had
been beaten repeatedly and given electric shocks on the neck. [38]
Detainees held at `Anjar have also been tortured. A Palestinian resident
of Lebanon who was detained there for five days said that he was suspended
for hours from the ceiling, "like a sheep." A Lebanese citizen, who spent over
three days at Anjar in late 1993, told Human Rights Watch this: "They punched
me [on all parts of my body] and beat the soles of my feet. I could not wear
shoes for one month." Conditions of confinement at Anjar reportedly are appalling.
A Lebanese who was held there in a cell with twelve other men, ten of them
Lebanese, said that the cell was located in what appeared to be a horse stable.
It had one high window and an electric light that was kept on twenty-four hours
a day. He said that he and his cellmates were allowed to use a toilet only
once a day; otherwise, they were forced to accommodate their needs in a single
bucket inside their cell. [39]
Human Rights Watch has also collected testimony from individuals who "disappeared" in
the 1970s and 1980s, and were tortured while held incommunicado in Syria. For
example, a Palestinian who was held incommunicado in Syria for over nineteen
years -- from January 1976 to August 1995 -- said that he was tortured for
the first two weeks of his detention at the Palestine Branch of Military Intelligence
in Damascus. Another Palestinian from the West Bank told Human Rights Watch
that he was imprisoned by the Syrians in February 1977, and was interrogated
and tortured at the Palestine Branch, before being transferred to Tadmor prison,
where he was held incommunicado from September 1977 to March 1993. [40] There
is reason to believe that this practice continues.
Based on information that Human Rights Watch received in February 1997, Bashir
al-Khatib, who was transferred to Syria after he was abducted in Lebanon in
July 1996 (see above), may have been subjected to torture at the Palestine
Branch of Military Intelligence in Damascus, where he was last seen. Al-Khatib
reportedly was walking with great difficulty, shaking constantly, and had signs
of torture on his hands. His face was pale and his skin discolored. The report
about al-Khatib's condition, which came from a credible source, is a cause
for deep concern. Human Rights Watch has also documented cases of Syrian prisoners
who have been interrogated and tortured while held incommunicado at the Palestine
Branch. The victims have been blindfolded and handcuffed, then beaten, given
electric shocks, and placed in special torture devices such as the "German
chair" and the "tire." During a visit to Damascus in 1995, Human Rights Watch
representatives saw the injuries that some of these victims -- current and
former prisoners alike -- had sustained from torture, such as broken bones,
broken teeth, disfigured extremities, and lateral marks on the skin from the
impact of hard objects. [41]
Human Rights Watch wrote to Syrian President Hafez al-Asad on March 20, 1997,
requesting information about al-Khatib's legal status in Syria, including the
basis for his detention and the charges against him, if any. We recommended
that his incommunicado detention be ended, that he be afforded regular access
to family members and lawyers, and that forensic medical doctors -- including
independent Lebanese physicians seconded for this purpose to the Lebanese embassy
in Damascus -- carry out a physical examination in order to determine if there
was merit to reports that he had been tortured in Syrian custody. We further
recommended that, if it was determined that al-Khatib's arrest and detention
by Syrian security forces was arbitrary, he should be promptly released. This
letter went unanswered.
Coercion to Collaborate with Syrian Intelligence in Lebanon
Senior Syrian intelligence officers have exploited the extreme
vulnerability of persons whom Syrian forces hold in secret detention, "disappeared." According
to information obtained by Human Rights Watch, "disappearances" have provided
high-ranking Syrian intelligence officials with opportunities both to extract
information under torture and to pressure Lebanese Christians and Muslims to
collaborate with Syrian intelligence in Lebanon. Persons who have been "disappeared" have
been pressured to collaborate both while they have been held in Syrian custody
and after their release.
This practice dates back at least to the 1980s, according to information
obtained by Human Rights Watch. One Lebanese, who was taken into Syrian custody
in 1986, said that he was first held in an intelligence facility in Damascus
for two years, in a cell that measured 1.8 meters by 80 centimeters, where
he was unable to sleep laying down. From there, he was moved to two other facilities
and held for another two years. According to his testimony, during this entire
time the Syrians "asked me to work with their intelligence in Lebanon," which
he repeatedly refused to do. [42]
A Lebanese who was handed over to Syrian security forces in Lebanon by Lebanese
authorities in 1993 told Human Rights Watch that he was first held in Syrian
custody in the Beau Rivage section of Beirut, where he was interrogated by
Col. Rustom Ghazali. From there, he was moved to `Anjar. He was held at `Anjar
for eleven days, and then was returned to Beirut, accompanied by Gen. Ghazi
Kanaan, long known to be the head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon. "He tried
to recruit me to work with Syria. I told him that I do not work with intelligence," he
told Human Rights Watch. Back in Beirut, he was also summoned by Col. Ghazali,
who sought his cooperation with Syrian intelligence. The man refused, and he
continued to be targeted by the Syrians. "I tried to start a business, and
the Syrians went to my partner and told him not to work with me," he said.
His ordeal was not over. He was arrested in 1995 by Lebanese security forces
and tortured at the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Yarzeh:
They started beating me. I was in my underwear, blindfolded, with my hands
behind my back, for twenty-four hours. They wrapped my hands and dangled me
from the ceiling. They brought electric wires and electrocuted my private parts
and all over [my body] and I passed out.
He was provided with medical treatment for the injuries that he sustained,
and then the interrogation and torture continued:
They started beating me all over my body. I stayed outdoors for five days,
standing up and not allowed to sleep. My legs were swollen. They threatened
to beat and rape my wife in front of me.
After he was released in 1996, he was again summoned by Col. Ghazali: "He
wanted me to join them [the Syrians], and I said no." This man believes that
his repeated refusals to collaborate will cost him his life; he told Human
Rights Watch that he fears that he will be killed by the Syrians. [43]
A Lebanese who was "disappeared" in Lebanon in the early 1990s [44] told
Human Rights Watch that senior Syrian officers attempted to persuade him to
cooperate and provide them with information. "They asked about my organization.
I answered honestly. Then they asked questions about terrorist actions [in
Lebanon] against them. They would beat me, then ask questions. All the time,
they were smoking and drinking in front of me. Finally, they accused me of
being an Israeli spy," he said. When the questioning was completed, he was
forced to thumbprint over forty pages of handwritten papers from the "investigation," which
he was unable to read.
After three and-a-half days, he was moved from `Anjar to another nearby location
where he met with another senior Syrian intelligence officer in Lebanon: "He
started talking to me with contempt....He said that he knew that my organization
had no foreign links. It was a long, long prepared speech, as if from a text." The
officer gave the man his business card and telephone numbers, and said that
he should call him to continue the discussion. The man made it clear that he
had no interest in cooperating. He told Human Rights Watch that for the first
month after his release, his home was under conspicuous surveillance by men
in plainclothes. [45]
THE FAILURE OF THE LEBANESE GOVERNMENT TO ACT
"The police said they knew nothing about him. The courts and the prisons
told us they had no records of him and he probably was taken by the Syrians.
No one can help. I've put things in the hands of God."
-- Palestinian resident of Beirut, discussing her son's "disappearance," August
1995.
Although cases of "disappearances" in Lebanon are widely known and privately
discussed by residents of Lebanon, top Lebanese government officials either
have publicly professed ignorance about the problem or have privately acknowledged
that they are powerless to address it. For his part, Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri
has been particularly unresponsive. He did not reply to letters on the subject
sent to him by Human Rights Watch in October 1996 and March 1997.
The women in one family apparently had become so frustrated by the lack of
information about the whereabouts of a relative that they raised his case publicly
at an "open house" that Prime Minister Hariri hosted in a large hall in Beirut
on January 19, 1996. An eyewitness, who requested anonymity, described what
transpired:
At one point, there was a commotion in the rows behind me.The bodyguards
intervened and I saw them talk to an older woman and one or two younger ones.
They had their heads covered and seemed poor. Since the women were some rows
behind me, I heard what they said very clearly. They were unruly and said [loudly]
that their son (and brother) had been taken by the Syrians, that nobody was
answering their calls, and that they had nobody left to ask but the prime minister
himself. [46]
Despite encounters such as these, and reports in the Lebanese press that
individuals have "disappeared," the Lebanese government was silent about this
practice in its second periodic report to the U.N. Human Rights Committee,
the treaty body that monitors the compliance of states with the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The government's report, submitted
in June 1996, did include critical comments about activities in Lebanon by
both Israel and the South Lebanon Army (SLA), Israel's proxy militia in occupied
southern Lebanon. [47] The
report specifically charged the SLA with "holding some 250 persons illegally
in Khiam prison," a facility located in Israel's so-called security zone in
south Lebanon, and stated that another seventy-five Lebanese were being held
in prisons in Israel without access to delegates of the International Committee
of the Red Cross. [48] The
report made no note of Lebanese held in Syrian custody in Lebanon and Syria.
Prime Minister Hariri has publicly expressed ignorance of the practice rather
than acknowledging it as a problem. At a press conference in Washington, D.C.,
on October 17, 1996, the prime minister responded this way to a question from
a Human Rights Watch representative about the abductions: "If there is a specific
case...I would like to know the information, and I will see what to do about
it." On March 5, 1997, Human Rights Watch provided the prime minister with
information about a specific recent case, that of Bashir al-Khatib, who was
taken into custody in Tripoli in July 1996 by Syrian security forces and transferred
to Damascus, based on information that Human Rights Watch obtained from reliable
sources (see above).
Human Rights Watch urged in our letter that the Lebanese government make
inquiries about al-Khatib with Syrian authorities and, in particular, that
the prime minister discuss al-Khatib's case on his next visit to Damascus to
meet with President Asad. We recommended that the prime minister seek to clarify
al-Khatib's state of health and legal status in Syria, including the basis
for his detention and the charges against him, if any. This letter went unanswered.
On November 24, 1996, President Hrawi made a surprising public statement
about Lebanese held in Syrian custody. He said that 210 Lebanese were imprisoned
in Syria, adding that all of them were accused of collaboration with Israel.
In remarks that suggested that the Lebanese government neither monitors nor
collects information about individuals seized and "disappeared" on Lebanese
soil, the president asserted that he had obtained this information from a recently
released Lebanese prisoner, and added: "We have submitted a request for the
release of the prisoners in Syria." [49] Hrawi
also said that ten of the Lebanese in Syrian custody were Christians, and the
remainder were Muslims. Despite this admission by the Lebanese president, the
Human Rights Committee noted that Lebanese government representatives, at their
appearance before the committee in New York on April 7, 1997, "did not provide
information on the role and extent of the exercise of power regarding the arrest,
detention, interrogation, as well as the possible transfer to Syria of Lebanese
citizens, by the Syrian security services which continue to operate within
the State party's territory with the consent of the Government." [50]
Consequences of the Lack of Legal Remedies in Lebanon
A common denominator in cases of "disappearance" in Lebanon is fear. Few
families and lawyers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Lebanon would consent
to the publication of names or other information about cases. Families were
either too afraid to speak or refused to have any information made public for
fear that this could worsen the situation for their loved ones or subject themselves
to harassment by Syrian security forces. The issue is also a delicate matter
for the Lebanese press. One lawyer provided us with the name of a well-known
Lebanese, abducted in 1994, who was unofficially known to be held in Damascus
in the Palestine Branch detention facility of Military Intelligence. His "disappearance" had
been reported in Lebanese newspapers, but with no mention that he was being
held in Syria, according to the lawyer. [51]
Inquiries about "disappearances" have been met with disinterest and inaction
by Lebanese authorities, who reportedly have refused in some cases even to
write down complaints. The problem is compounded because most Lebanese lawyers
and human rights organizations shy away from any advocacy that could be perceived
as critical of the Syrian role in Lebanon. Lawyers too are hampered because
families of the "disappeared" are generally afraid to go public or provide
information to human rights organizations for public use. In August 1996, a
Lebanese lawyer told Human Rights Watch that three months earlier one of his
clients "disappeared" from Jbeil, a city north of Beirut. The family was terrified
when they met with the lawyer, and the lawyer would not provide the name of
his client or details of the case. [52]
With nowhere to turn, and too fearful to go public, families have themselves
searched for "disappeared" relatives at prisons and detention facilities inside
Lebanon, only to be informed that the person was not in custody and "probably" was
in Syria. One internally displaced Palestinian woman who lives just outside
Shatilla refugee camp in Beirut engaged in this frustrating exercise after
her twenty-one-year-old son was taken from his apartment in the Wata Musaitbeh
section of the city early one morning in 1995. She said that Lebanese dressed
in civilian clothes, who identified themselves as "investigators," came to
the door and asked for her son, who was sleeping. "They took him from the bed," she
said. The family's subsequent inquiries at Lebanese police stations, prisons
and courts yielded no information about his whereabouts:
The police said they knew nothing about him. The courts and the prisons told
us they had no records of him and he probably was taken by the Syrians. No
one can help. I've put things in the hands of God. [53]
A Lebanese family described how one of their immediate relatives was taken
into Syrian custody in 1996. The family was able to confirm, through an unofficial
Syrian intermediary, that the relative was being held in Syria, but requests
for help placed with "influential" Lebanese were turned down because the case
was "sensitive," they said. [54]
A Lebanese who was taken from his home in Beirut in 1993 and held in Syrian
custody in Lebanon for eight days recounted how, during his "disappearance," Lebanese
authorities told his lawyer that they had no information concerning his whereabouts.
His lawyer added that, after his client's release, "the police only took his
testimony about what happened" but did not investigate the circumstances of
the "disappearance." According to the victim, "even doctors were afraid" to
document the injuries that he had sustained from torture while in Syrian custody. [55]
The Price of Fear
Some families of the "disappeared" have been victims of
extortion by Syrian security forces. In the absence of effective governmental
mechanisms to make known the whereabouts of their relatives, and if they are
even dead or alive, families understandably become desperate for information.
They have paid money to Syrian security forces -- either directly or through
intermediaries -- in often-fruitless attempts to secure information. "Sometimes
families give money to Syrian officers, but receive no information," said a
Palestinian from a refugee camp where "disappearances" occurred as recently
as July 1996. In some cases, detentions have been informally acknowledged and
family members have been allowed to visit relatives held in Syria, although
it is unclear if in all cases they must pay money to Syrian security forces
in order to do so.
These reports of extortion are consistent with other information obtained
by Human Rights Watch in 1995 and 1996 concerning corruption and a breakdown
of discipline within Syria's security forces in both Syria and Lebanon. For
example, Military Intelligence officers in Damascus informed one Syrian political
activist in 1996 that he would be freed in exchange for a cash sum. This activist
told us that he paid the money and was released. [56] In
another 1996 case, a Lebanese family told us about the demand for a large sum
as a condition for the release of a relative who had been abducted and was
subsequently detained in Syria. [57] In
both cases, the detainees had been arbitrarily arrested and were not formally
charged with an offense.
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS
"No circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war,
internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked
to justify enforced disappearances."
--Article 7, Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearances.
International human rights law guarantees to everyone the right to liberty
and security of person. Article 9(1) of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR), which both Syria and Lebanon have ratified, states
in its pertinent part: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.
No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance
with such procedures as are established by law." Syrian security forces in
Lebanon, by abducting non-Syrian nationals in Lebanon and then not acknowledging
that these individuals are in Syrian custody, have flouted international human
rights standards with impunity.
International standards impose responsibilities upon both Lebanon and Syria
with respect to "disappearances" that occur in Lebanon, and both states are
obligated to investigate and prosecute individuals who have perpetrated "disappearances." Article
14 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
states:
Any person alleged to have perpetrated an act of enforced disappearance in
a particular State shall, when the facts disclosed by an official investigation
so warrant, be brought before the competent civil authorities of that State
for the purpose of prosecution and trial unless he has been extradited to another
State wishing to exercise jurisdiction in accordance with the relevant international
agreements in force. All States should take any lawful and appropriate action
available to them to bring all persons presumed responsible for an act of enforced
disappearance, found to be within their jurisdiction or under their control,
to justice.
Responsibilities of the Syrian Government
Article 9 of the ICCPR requires the government of Syria
to maintain various safeguards against arbitrary and unlawful arrest. These
include providing information at the time of arrest about the reasons for the
arrest, and promptly informing persons arrested of any charges. Moreover, anyone "arrested
or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or
other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled
to trial within a reasonable time or release." [58]
The rights set forth in the ICCPR are applicable whether persons are taken
into Syrian custody on Lebanese or Syrian soil. In cases where Syrian security
forces have detained foreign nationals or stateless Palestinians on Lebanese
soil and then transferred these individuals to Syrian territory, possibly illegally
and arbitrarily, the Syrian government is bound by the requirements and guarantees
set forth in the ICCPR. The Human Rights Committee has found that agents of
a state should be held responsible for violations of civil and political rights
that have been carried out in the territory of another state. The Committee
wrote:
Article 2(1) of the [ICCPR] places an obligation upon a State party to respect
and to ensure rights "to all individuals within its territory and subject to
its jurisdiction", but it does not imply that the State party concerned cannot
be held accountable for violations of rights under the [ICCPR] which its agents
commit upon the territory of another State, whether with the acquiescence of
the Government of that State or in opposition to it. According to article 5
(1) of the [ICCPR]:
"1. Nothing in the present Covenant may be interpreted as implying for any
State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or perform any act
aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms recognized herein
or at their limitation to a greater extent than is provided for in the present
Covenant."
In line with this, it would be unconscionable to so interpret the responsibility
under article 2 of the [ICCPR] as to permit a State party to perpetrate violations
of the [ICCPR] on the territory of another State, which violations it could
not perpetrate on its own territory." [59]
The Syrian government is also under an obligation, pursuant to Article 2(3)
of the ICCPR, to provide effective remedies to non-Syrian nationals who have
been detained in Syria following arbitrary arrest on Lebanese soil. These remedies
include immediate release, permission to leave Syria, and compensation for
the human rights violations that these individuals have suffered. The Syrian
government must also take steps to ensure that similar violations do not occur
in the future.
Responsibilities of the Lebanese Government
The U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
noted in its 1997 report to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights that the Lebanese
government has a "commitment under articles 13 and 14 of the Declaration on
the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance to investigate thoroughly
all cases of enforced disappearance and to bring the perpetrators to justice." [60] Article
13 spells out the obligation to carry out independent and effective investigations
of "disappearances," and to ensure that complainants are not subjected to "any
ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisal." Article 14, quoted above, obligates
states to prosecute and bring to justice all persons found responsible for
acts of enforced disappearance.
The Working Group also wrote that "while taking into account the legitimacy
of derogating from some human rights commitments, in accordance with international
law, in times of public emergency," it "wishes to remind the [Lebanese] Government
that, under article 7, no circumstances whatsoever may be invoked to justify
enforced disappearances." [61]
The Lebanese government clearly has ceded certain police powers to Syrian
intelligence forces inside Lebanon -- in practice if not also by some secret
agreement. By providing an effective guarantee of impunity for human rights
abuses under this arrangement, the Lebanese authorities must bear a measure
of direct responsibility for these abuses. Lebanese complicity in abuses by
Syrian forces sometimes goes beyond official acquiescence and becomes direct
collaboration with Syrian forces in carrying out reported "disappearances." To
end complicity in torture, "disappearance," and other abuses by Syrian forces
in Lebanon, it is incumbent upon Lebanese authorities to establish enforceable
procedures under which Syrian forces present and operating in Lebanon can be
held fully accountable for their actions under both Lebanese and international
law. Lebanese authorities should begin to address this problem by ending immediately
their silence about abuses being committed by Syrian forces on Lebanese territory,
and by carrying out independent and effective investigations of "disappearances" in
such a manner as to bring the perpetrators to justice.
FOR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF THE "DISAPPEARED": WHAT YOU CAN DO
"I am writing this letter on behalf of my neighbor. Almost eleven years
ago her son went on a trip with friends to Syria and he never returned. He
was only seventeen at the time and had just graduated from high school....They
have paid so much money to so many people over the years that they have had
to sell their house and many of their belongings. They have no more money
to pay out and still have not even seen their son's face. They believe that
he was first in Tadmor prison and then in Sednaya prison. They have no other
information about him and although they make monthly trips to Syria, they
have gained nothing further from these trips."
--Letter received by Human Rights Watch from Irbid, Jordan, April 1997.
Often the best way to provide assistance for a "disappeared" relative is
to make public the information about his or her situation -- and to seek the
support of domestic and international human rights bodies. International human
rights organizations can offer support in publicizing the plight of a victim
of "disappearance," and help the family use specialized human rights procedures
of the United Nations that are keyed specifically to making urgent interventions
on behalf of the "disappeared."
Organizations such as Human Rights Watch respect the need, in many cases,
to withhold the identity of the sources of reports of human rights abuse in
order to minimize the risk to them. The risk for families and others who protest
the secret detention of their loved ones may be a real one, and we can only
seek to minimize any risk. International human rights groups have a range of
options in their work for the "disappeared." They can publicize individual
cases of the "disappeared" including, when known, the circumstances of their
detentions, with a view to mobilizing international pressure on the governments
involved to release them or to acknowledge their detentions and whereabouts,
and the reasons they are being held. Publicity is also an important means to
ensure the individuals believed to be in secret detention are not simply forgotten.
Alternatively, international organizations can formally communicate, without
publicity, to the governments involved and to intergovernmental bodies which
have as part of their responsibility to raise urgent cases directly with governments.
The provision of basic information about any "disappearance" is essential
to facilitate domestic and international action on behalf of the victim: the
name and other identifying information about the person who was seized and "disappeared," a
detailed account of the time, place and circumstances of the detention, and
the measures taken to establish the whereabouts and legal situation of the "disappeared." A
photograph of the "disappeared" can in itself prove a potent antidote when
governments act as if a secret detainee had never existed.
In continuing our work to end "disappearances" in Lebanon, and to focus attention
on cases of individuals from countries other than Lebanon who "disappeared" at
the hands of Syrian agents, Human Rights Watch is interested in establishing
contact with families who believe that their relatives are "disappeared" and
in Syrian custody. Updated information on "disappearances" is important for
work on behalf of the "disappeared" even when particular details--and names--
must remain confidential. Human Rights Watch will respect requests by relatives
not to make public certain information. Below, we provide information about
how to contact us.
The United Nations has a special mechanism available for the families and
friends of the "disappeared." It is called the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances. The Working Group was established in 1980 by the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which meets in Geneva, Switzerland.
Since 1980, the Working Group has made inquiries to governments about thousands
of cases of "disappearances" in more than forty countries around the world.
The Working Group accepts and examines reports about "disappearances" that
are submitted to it by relatives of the "disappeared" or by human rights organizations
acting on behalf of the family. The Working Group meets three times a year
for six to eight working days. In May 1997, the Working Group met in New York,
and Human Rights Watch presented this report to its members and discussed the
problem of "disappearances" in Lebanon.
Although international human rights groups regularly submit requests for
urgent action to the Working Group, families may want to contact the Working
Group directly on behalf of relatives who are "disappeared." For that purpose,
we outline below the basic information this dynamic part of the U.N.'s human
rights structure requires in order to act. In the appendix of this report is
a copy of a form produced by the Working Group, which the relatives of the "disappeared" can
use to mail information to the Working Group about a specific case.
If you would like to report the case of a relative who has "disappeared" to
the Working Group, you should submit the following minimum information:
- The full name of the "disappeared" person.
- When the "disappearance" occurred.
The date of the "disappearance," including the day, month and year,
if known. You can include either the date of the abduction or arrest,
or the date that the missing person was last seen.
- Where the "disappearance" occurred.
The place of the arrest or abduction, or the place where the "disappeared" person
was last seen.
- Information about who or what agency is responsible, if known
Information about parties that were presumed to have carried out the
arrest or abduction, and/or the parties that are believed to be holding
the "disappeared" person in unacknowledged detention.
- Information about the search.
The steps that your family, and others, have taken to determine the
fate and the whereabouts of the "disappeared" person.
You must submit information in writing to the Working Group at the following
address:
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Center for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
You may also contact Human Rights Watch about the case of a "disappeared" family
member, in any of the following ways:
By mail:
Human Rights Watch/Middle East
485 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10017 USA
By mail to our post office box in New York, without the need to use our name:
P.O. Box 4428
Grand Central Station
New York, N.Y. 10163
By facsimile:
Human Rights Watch/Middle East
New York, New York
fax: 212-972-0905 or 212-986-3357
By email to our office in New York: sherryg@hrw.org
Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org
Listserv address: To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail message to majordomo@igc.apc.org with "subscribe
hrw-news" in the body of the message (leave the subject line blank).
Human Rights Watch/Middle East: Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental
organization established in 1978 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally
recognized human rights in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and
among the signatories of the Helsinki accords. It is supported by contributions
from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government
funds, directly or indirectly. The staff includes Kenneth Roth, executive director;
Michele Alexander, development director; Cynthia Brown, program director; Barbara
Guglielmo, finance and administration director; Robert Kimzey, publications
director; Jeri Laber, special advisor; Lotte Leicht, Brussels office director;
Susan Osnos, communications director; Jemera Rone, counsel; Wilder Tayler,
general counsel; and Joanna Weschler, United Nations representative. Robert
L. Bernstein is the chair of the board and Adrian W. DeWind is vice chair.
Its Middle East division was established in 1989 to monitor and promote the
observance of internationally recognized human rights in the Middle East and
North Africa. Eric Goldstein is the acting executive director; Joe Stork is
the advocacy director; Virginia N. Sherry is associate director; Clarissa Bencomo,
Elahé Sharifpour-Hicks, and
Nejla Sammakia are research associates; Gamal Abouali is the Orville Schell
fellow; Shira Robinson and Awali Samara are associates. Gary Sick is the chair
of the advisory committee and Lisa Anderson and Bruce Rabb are vice chairs.
APPENDIX A: Excerpt of Human Rights Watch Statement
to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights on Prisoners and
Detainees Inside Israel
Among the Lebanese who have never been charged or tried are two prominent
Shi'a leaders, Sheikh Abd al-Karim Obeid and Mustafa al-Dirani, who were abducted
from their homes in 1989 and 1994 respectively, and have since been held incommunicado.
Officials of past Israeli governments have conditioned the release of these
two leaders on the release of, or the acquisition of information about, Israeli
service persons missing in Lebanon (MIAs). Israeli officials also indicated
more generally that the release of other Lebanese detainees was linked to the
issue of Israeli MIAs. In holding detainees in this fashion, Israel has failed
to place them under any regime of legal protection, either under humanitarian
or international human rights law. Moreover, the transport by Israel of these
detainees across international borders has complicated the issue of family
visits, which are at best infrequent and in some cases nonexistent.
The prohibition of hostage-taking is absolute and cannot be justified by
the actions of other parties to a conflict. Insofar as Israel conditions the
release of Lebanese detainees on securing information from third parties about
Israeli MIAs, those detainees are being held as hostages. Human Rights Watch
calls on the Commission to urge their unconditional release or that they be
charged immediately with recognizable criminal offences and afforded a trial
with full due-process guarantees.
Where a detainee's family visits have been rendered difficult or impossible
owing to restrictions on travel between Israel and Lebanon, the Commission
should encourage the Governments of Israel and Lebanon to cooperate in facilitating
these visits. Israel must also end the incommunicado detention of detainees,
including Obeid and al-Dirani, and allow visits to them by relatives, lawyers,
and/or non-governmental organizations. [62]
APPENDIX B: Legal Complaint about the Abduction and
Unlawful Detention of Gabi `Aql Karam
Law Office
Dr. Muhamad Mugraby
Beirut, 3/12/1997
To His Excellency, the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation
Complaint
The plaintiff :
1. Ms. Miryam Yousuf Rouks, widow of 'Aql Elias Karam
2. Ms. Therese 'Aql Karam, wife of Hana Najam Their attorney, Muhamad Mugraby, in accordance with a special power of attorney,
attached .
The defendant : Persons unknown
The accusation : Abduction and unlawful detention
We submit the following:
First: Regarding the factual evidence
1. The plaintiff principal is the mother of Mr. Gabi 'Aql Karam; the second
plaintiff is his sister.
2. At approximately 9:30 a.m. on Monday, January 6, 1997, two civilians who
introduced themselves as members of military intelligence came to the home
of the first plaintiff in Dahr al-Jamal, Sinn al-Fil, Malak Jameela Faqeeh.
With them, waiting outside, were two other persons in military dress, carrying
unconcealed weapons and in a blue Honda.
3. In the presence of both of the plaintiffs, the two aforementioned men
asked Gabi 'Aql Karam to accompany them to their headquarters so that some
questions could be put to him, on condition that they would return him the
same day. He left with them, after being reassured that they were from military
intelligence, and that he had committed no crime.
4. Gabi did not return that day, nor on the two following days. On Friday,
the first plaintiff went to ask about him in al-Yarzeh. One of the soldiers
said to her, "You can't see him. Bring his clothes for him."
5. On Saturday morning, the first plaintiff went to al-Yarzeh carrying Gabi's
clothing. She was told that he was not there, and she was not told where he
was.
6. Now, after a wait of more than two months, there has been no information
about Gabi's place of detention, nor about the identity of those who abducted
him. However, an unknown person contacted the plaintiff by telephone and said
that Gabi was detained in 'Anjar.
Secondly: Under the law
1. Inasmuch as the legal facts of the abduction of Gabi 'Aql Karam, son of
the first plaintiff and brother of the second plaintiff, are [illegible]. More
than two months have passed since his abduction and unlawful detention.
2. Inasmuch as it is understood that no official agency is the one that arrested
and detained him. Otherwise he would have been able to contact his family to
reassure them and he would have requested the assistance of a lawyer.
3. Inasmuch as a number of crimes other than abduction and unlawful detention
are involved. There are persons who [illegible] military intelligence when
Gabi was taken from his home.
4. Inasmuch as there are numerous Lebanese and non-Lebanese security forces
operating on Lebanese territory, we are prompted to turn to you, in your capacity
as the presiding head of the Public Prosecutors and as the primary official
entrusted with the liberties and dignities of the people.
5. Inasmuch as it is necessary to assign the central investigative service,
attached to your office, to investigate these crimes, it having been established
that Mr. Gabi 'Aql Karam has not been detained by any official Lebanese security
force.
6. In the case that Mr. Gabi 'Aql Karam is found to have been detained by
an official Lebanese or non-Lebanese security force, your immediate intervention
will be necessary to secure his release.
7. In any case, it is necessary to prosecute and pursue the perpetrators
of the aforementioned crimes and their accomplices, whoever they may be.
Therefore
This complaint through my aforementioned power of attorney takes the form
of a personal accusation against unknown parties of the abduction and unlawful
detention of Mr. Gabi 'Aql Karam. It requests that an investigation be set
in motion leading to information about the identity of the perpetrators and
their accomplices, to their pursuit, and to the recovery of the personal freedom
of Mr. Gabi 'Aql Karam.
Sincerely yours,
Vested with power of attorney,
[signature]
Muhamad Mugraby, Attorney
APPENDIX C: Legal Complaint about the Unlawful Detention
of Magi `Aql Karam
Law
Office
Dr. Muhamad Mugraby Beirut Beirut, 3/15/1997
To His Excellency, the Public
Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Complaint
The plaintiff : Ms. Magi
'Aql Karam , wife of Mr. Nasif Freij
Her attorney, Muhamad Mugraby, in
accordance with a power of attorney, attached.
The accusation : Unlawful detention
We submit the following:
First: Regarding the factual evidence
1. On Saturday, March 1, 1997, in accordance with a legal summons issued
by the Syrian intelligence service in Chtoura to the principal for the purposes
of questioning her about an unknown matter, and in accordance with reassurances
from one of the siblings of Minister Fattoush, the principal went to the the
site of the aforementioned intelligence service.
2. The aforementioned intelligence service has detained her since that time.
3. Information has reached her family that the principal has been moved out
of Lebanese territory.
4. Now, after a wait of two full weeks, there has been no information about
Magi's place of detention, nor of the accusation made against her. Her brother
Gabi was previously detained, on last January 6, and has not yet returned.
Secondly: Under the law
1. Inasmuch as the legal facts of the principal's abduction and her unlawful
detention have been established.
2. Inasmuch as it is understood that no official Lebanese agency is the one
that arrested and detained her. Otherwise, she would have been able to contact
her family to reassure them and she would have requested the assistance of
a lawyer.
3. Inasmuch as there are numerous Lebanese and non-Lebanese security forces
operating on Lebanese territory, we are prompted to turn to you, in your capacity
as the presiding head of the Public Prosecutors and as the primary official
entrusted with the liberties and dignities of the people.
4. Inasmuch as it is necessary to assign the central investigative service,
attached to your office, to investigate these crimes, it having been established
that Ms. Magi 'Aql Karam has not been detained by any official Lebanese security
force.
5. In the case that Ms. Magi 'Aql Karam is found to have been detained by
an official Lebanese or non-Lebanese security force, your immediate intervention
will be necessary to secure her release.
Therefore
This complaint through my aforementioned power of attorney takes the form
of a personal accusation against unknown parties of the abduction and unlawful
detention of the principal. It requests that an investigation be set in motion
leading to information about her place of detention and the recovery of her
personal freedom.
Sincerely yours,
Vested with power of attorney,
[signature]
Muhamad Mugraby, Attorney
Notes
[1] The
term appears in quotation marks "to emphasize that the victim has in reality
not simply vanished. The victim's whereabouts and fate, concealed from the
outside world, are known by someone. Someone decided what would happen to the
victim; someone decided to conceal it." Amnesty International, " Disappearances" and
Political Killings (Amsterdam, Amnesty International Dutch Section: 1994),
p. 84.
[2] Middle
East Watch (now Human Rights Watch/Middle East), Syria Unmasked: The Suppression
of Human Rights by the Asad Regime (New Haven and London, Human Rights
Watch Books, Yale University Press: 1991), pp. 119-120.
[3] Declaration
on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted by the
U.N. General Assembly without a vote on 18 December 1992 in resolution 47/133.
[4] Article
2(1).
[5] Article
4(1).
[6] Article
6(1).
[7] Article
1(2).
[8] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[9] Karam,
who was born in 1958 and is the father of three children, was last detained
on December 25, 1993 by Lebanese Army intelligence and was transferred to Syria
on January 4, 1994, where he was held incommunicado at the Palestine Branch
of Military Intelligence, one of Syria's internal security forces. He was returned
to Lebanon on February 14, 1994, and was indicted by the military court in
Beirut the next day, along with sixteen other defendants, in the "George Haddad" case,
in which all the defendants were accused of making contact with enemy agents.
The indictment noted Karam's date of arrest as February 14, 1994, omitting
the time that he had been in Syrian custody. Karam was sentenced on July 9,
1994, to three years imprisonment with hard labor for "contacting enemy [Israeli]
agents and instigating contacts with such agents," according to his lawyer.
On appeal, his sentence was reduced on December 1, 1994, to eighteen months,
which he served. He was tortured in Syria and Lebanon, his lawyer told Human
Rights Watch.
[10] Interviews,
New York, April 1997.
[11] See Appendix
B of this report for a copy of the complaint in its original Arabic, and in
English translation.
[12] Magi
Karam was last arrested in Lebanon on January 28, 1994 by Lebanese Army intelligence.
She was reportedly tortured and mistreated at Ministry of Defense headquarters
in Yarzeh, and held there for some time in a bathroom that was in active use.
She was one of the defendants, along with her brother and fifteen others, in
the George Haddad case (see footnote above), and was sentenced to one year
in prison for "contacts with agents of the enemy [Israel]," which was reduced
on appeal to nine months, according to her lawyer. During her detention, she
became ill. She still suffers from numerous medical ailments and is under medical
attention, according to her lawyer.
[13] See Appendix
C for a copy of the complaint in its Arabic original and in English translation.
[14] Al-Khatib
had only recently regained his freedom prior to this abduction. According to
information obtained by Human Rights Watch, he was imprisoned inside Israel
in January 1992, after he was apprehended in south Lebanon near the border
with the Israeli-occupied zone. He was released by the Israelis and returned
to Lebanon in early 1996.
[15] Interviews,
Beirut, August 1996. See "Torture in Syrian Custody," below, for
additional information about `Anjar.
[16] The
name Palestine Branch is misleading, because over the last two decades many
Lebanese and Syrians, as well as Palestinians, have been held there incommunicado
and tortured.
[17] Interviews,
Tripoli, August 1996.
[18] Telephone
interviews, Gaza Strip, October 1996.
[19] Telephone
interview, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 1997.
[20] Abuses
at Tadmor prison documented by Human Rights Watch include prolonged incommunicado
detention, torture, and executions following unfair, summary trials in military
field courts. Some of the victims of execution and others who died in custody
at Tadmor are buried in mass graves. For additional information about Tadmor
prison, see Human Rights Watch/Middle East, "Syria's Tadmor Prison:
Dissent Still Hostage to a Legacy of Terror," A Human Rights Watch Short
Report , vol. 8, no.2, April 1996.
[21] A
copy of this statement, written in 1993, was obtained by Human Rights Watch.
[22] Reuter, "Lebanese
Christians protest official's kidnaping," Beirut, September 24, 1992.
[23] Lara
Marlowe, Reuter, "Iraqis in attack on Kuwaiti post," October 8, 1992.
[24] See ,
for example, The New York Times , "Official of Christian Party Is
Kidnaped in East Beirut," September 16, 1992.
[25] Interview,
Beirut, August 1995.
[26] Al-Dustur (Amman),
January 21, 1997, as reported in FBIS-NES-97-013, January 21, 1997.
[27] Reuter, "Jordanian
Said Arrested for Anti-Syrian Attacks," Beirut, January 18, 1997.
[28] Written
report to Human Rights Watch received on January 20, 1997.
[29] Al-Dustur (Amman),
January 21, 1997, op.cit.
[30] Al-Dustur (Amman),
January 21, 1997, op. cit.
[31] Radio
Monte Carlo - Middle East (Paris), "Ambassador Says "No Tension" in Ties with
Lebanon, January 23, 1997.
[32] Reuter, "Beirut
Hotel Executive Returns After Disappearance," Beirut, January 26, 1997.
[33] Agence
France-Presse, "Jordanian hotel executive released in Beirut," Beirut, January
26, 1997. See "The Price of Fear," below, for additional information
about extortion by Syrian security forces.
[34] Reuter, "Jordan
Says Citizen Released in Lebanon," Amman, January 26, 1997.
[35] Reuter, "Envoy
Indicates Syrians Hold Disappeared Jordanian," Beirut, January 20, 1997.
[36] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[37] Interview,
Beirut, November 1996.
[38] Interview,
Beirut, August 1995.
[39] Interviews,
Beirut, August 1995 and August 1996.
[40] Human
Rights Watch met with these individuals soon after their release; they requested
that their names be withheld. Interviews, Mar Elias, Lebanon, August 1995.
[41] Human
Rights Watch interviewed current prisoners in the Supreme State Security Court
in Damascus, where they were on trial for nonviolent political offenses. For
additional information, see Human Rights Watch/Middle East, "Syria:
The Price of Dissent," A Human Rights Watch Short Report , vol. 7,
no. 4, July 1995.
[42] Interview,
Beirut, date withheld by Human Rights Watch.
[43] Interview,
Beirut, November 1996.
[44] He
asked that Human Rights Watch not reveal the year he was "disappeared."
[45] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[46] Written
report to Human Rights Watch, dated November 1, 1996.
[47] United
Nations, Human Rights Committee, CCPR/C/42/Add.14, 22 November 1996.
[48] Ibid.,
pp. 9-10.
[49] UPI, "Lebanese
leader says 200 held in Syria," Beirut, November 25, 1996.
[50] United
Nations, Human Rights Committee 59th session, Consideration of reports submitted
by States parties under article 40 of the Covenant, Concluding observations
of the Human Rights Committee, adopted on April 10, 1997, CCPR/C/79/Add.77,
p. 3.
[51] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[52] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[53] Interview,
Beirut, August 1995.
[54] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[55] Interviews,
Beirut, August 1996.
[56] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[57] Interview,
Beirut, August 1996.
[58] Article
9(3).
[59] Views
of the Human Rights Committee Under Article 5(4) of the Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Saldías
de López v. Uruguay concerning Communication No. R.12/52, 6 June 1979.
[60] U.N.
Commission on Human Rights, 53rd Session, Report of the Working Group on Enforced
or Involuntary Disappearances, 13 December 1996, E/CN.4/1997/34, p. 42.
[61] Ibid.
Article 7 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearances states: "No circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war,
a state of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency,
may be invoked to justify enforced disappearances."
[62] United
Nations, Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-third session, Agenda item 8, Question
of the Human Rights of All Persons Subjected to Any Forms of Detention or Imprisonment,
Written Statement submitted by Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization
in special consultative status, E/CN.41997/NGO/56, 14 March 1997. |