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 custodyand "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.