Lebanon today mourned the death of Ghazi Aad, founder of the Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile group, The Daily Star reports:
Thousands of people went missing during the 1975-1990 Civil War, many of whom are believed to be imprisoned in Syria, while others are likely buried in mass graves throughout Lebanon….A commission, which was formed by the government of former Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss to investigate the fate of the missing, issued its final report in July 2000. It said that none of the disappeared or missing had been found alive in Lebanon, and added that several mass graves were present across the Lebanese territory.
To ensure that the cause of missing persons is not forgotten, local NGO Act for the Disappeared has launched Fus’hat amal, a project to publish a series of testimonies from Lebanese citizens torn from their family, the newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour reports (in French):
My name is Nizar. I am from Zahriye, in Tripoli. I was the eldest of a family of seven. …n January 1, 1983, I accompanied a friend to the Koura to look for a spare part he needed for his car. On the way, we quarreled with gunmen at the Bohsas dam. It was the end of our journey. We will not go any further. According to several testimonies, we were taken to a prison in Amioun. My mother went there many times, but she was always denied entry. She did not give up. She tried many times to see me, until the day she was told I was gone.
Nineteen months after my abduction, a person who had worked with my brother-in-law came to see her, reviving her hope of seeing me alive again. He told her that he had shared my cell in Fih prison in Koura, also known as the “cellar”. He was kidnapped with other colleagues at his workplace before being released.
My name is Nizar el-Kartaoui. My story does not end there.
Fus’hat amal is funded by the International Committee of the Croix-Rouge, the European Union, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Robert Bosch Foundation.
