2001 the Year of the Ex-detainees And 2002 the Year of Freeing the Detainees And Establishing an Institution that Takes Care of the Detainees and the Families of the Martyrs and the Missing 

Presented by the General Secretary 
Mohammed Safa 

Report of the year 2001 And The plan of the committee for the year 2002

2001 was the year of salvation and freedom for the ex-detainees, it witnessed many seminars and strikes that the official forces could limit through validating the article 364 on August 14/ 2001. This article was a forward step in comparison to what was achieved in the last years. Thus instead of continue in employing the ex-detainees in the official institutions, the issue was replaced by a very shameful compensations for some of them and so little retirement salaries for others. 

2001 was the year of the official semi-total absence at the issue of detainees and hostages whom Israel persists in constraining them. All the official initiations were just talk shows about the Israeli violations for the blue line and the Lebanese Areas. 
 

The Hostages 
The Israeli Troops freed the detainee Mohammed Bdeir on January 28/2001 and the detainee Bolus Abu Zaid on January 18/ 2001 after having finished the period of their sentences. Moreover a Lebanese-British citizen named Jihad Shuman was constrained inside the occupied Palestine on February 11/2001. Also 4 Lebanese Citizens were kidnapped on June 13/ 2001, their names are as follows: Dib Mohammed Owada, Hussein Mohammed Owada, Hussein Mohammed Owada, Diab Mohammed Owada and Fadi Mohammed Owada. 
 
And in addition to constraining 13 Lebanese citizens as hostages in its prisons till now, Israel is constraining around 10 Lebanese Citizens for reasons that have something to do with Mafia. 

Though Israel has withdrew two years ago, the issue of the detainees is not solved till now neither through the United Nations nor through an exchange operation. This issue exceeded the Lebanese boarders to become a national issue, but the world is just asking about the conditions of the Israeli Soldiers and the video tape ignoring the constraining of the Lebanese Hostages and the suffering of their families. And the year 2001 knew an international Israeli 
Campaign about its soldiers comparing with a total Lebanese official absence of a similar campaign to defend the Israeli unfair campaign.

Eventhough our Committee could face the Israeli campaign through the National Solidarity Campaign. So we took the following steps: 
1. Participating in the session 57 of the Human Rights Committee in the United Nations’ place in Geneva. 
2. Holding a meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Koffi Anan, in the Lebanese National Airport on June 15/ 2001. 
3. Meeting the general director of the National Committee of the Red Cross, Mr. Paul Grossreader, during his last visit to Lebanon on November 9/2001. 
4. Holding a dinner party sponsored by the Director of the National Committee of the Kuwaiti Prisoners, Alshaikh Salem Sabbah Alsalem Alsabbah. 
5. Hosting the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Mrs. Irene Khan, for a number of ex-detainees in the Office of the committee on December 6/ 2001. 
6. Addressing tens of letters to the national organizations and governments.  7. Organizing many seminars and strikes in order to keep this issue alive. The most significant of which is the strike of July 14, The Day of the Lebanese Detainee. 
8. Giving the female detainees the Legions of Liberty in the National Woman’s Day. 
9. Having the Ministry of communications issuing a postage stamp with the logo of the committee on it. 
10. Pitching again the Tent of Liberty in front of the United Nations place in Lebanon on the National Day for Human Right on December 10/ 2001. 
11. Celebrating the Christmas and The New Year in front of the place of the National Committee for the Red Cross on December 27/ 2001.

Though its importance, the National Solidarity Campaign was under 
the accepted class of the last years because of the following: 
1. Having Khiam Detention Camp closed. 
2. The capture operation of the Israeli Soldiers. 
3. The decreased contribution of the National Organizations. 
4. The objective obstacles that the Follow-up Committee faced. 
 
We’ve faced great, direct and indirect, political pressures to pause the National Solidarity Campaign. Then there came the official decision that the Tent of Liberty in front of the place of the United Nations should be released on December 10/ 2001and the reason that they took was that we had no permission. But suppose we don’t have permission, shouldn’t the moral and the native duty make us respect the role of a committee that held this issue for years? 
Then, shouldn’t they respect the fact that they shouldn’t hurt the feelings of the families of detainees instead of destroying the tent and trampling the slogans of the committee and the photos of the detainees down? What occurred there is greatly condemned and we will persist in our demand to punish the responsible for such an action. 
 
We just want to have the support of our government in such activities and to make this issue one of its native and informative priorities.

The National Solidarity Campaign And The Exchange Operation 
 
He, who thinks that there’s a contradiction between the exchange operation and the persistence of the National Solidarity Campaign, is wrong. The first should have been reinforcement for the second at the national side and not a cause for relaxation and waiting. The exchange operation is not an aim itself, but must be a part of the diplomatic movement that is practicing pressure to set the hostages free. Add that the activities of the Follow-up Committee and the civil committees do not weaken the exchange negotiations but strengthen it with a public force. 
 
The detainees’ issue can’t be exclusive for one party or region, it’s a human Lebanese and National issue and the continuity of the solidarity activities go behind the exchange operation. It is a way to remind the United Nations and all the governments in the world that to keep the Lebanese hostages in the Israeli prisons is illegal and contradicts with all the human rights. The solidarity campaign should be developed to break the local and national silence, and the Lebanese Government should present a memorandum to the National Security Council against Israel. 
 
And since the Arabian Summit will be held on March 2002 we demand to make the issue of the Lebanese and Arabian prisoners in the Israeli prisons a basic point in the work schedule of the summit. Also we invite into a solidarity strike during holding the summit and to present the file of this issue to the Arabian kings and presidents. 
 
 
The ex-detainees 
 
2001 was the year of the ex-detainees as a result of the activities that demanded to continue in the employment operations and to put a project of total social and healthful care into action. The following can summarize these activities: 
1. The two symbolic strikes that the Follow-up Committee organized in front of the council of ministries and the government house. 
2. Forming a committee of ministers to study the conditions of the ex-detainees as the Follow-up committee suggested. 
3. Making an informational file by Alsafir Journal about the conditions and suffering of the ex-detainees. 
4. The annual seminar of the follow-up committee for the year 2001 which formed a special activity in the issue of the ex-detainees. 
5. The statistic study of the Ministry of Social Affairs. 
6. The solidarity activities for the issue of detainees. 
7. The important achievements that were achieved in the year 2001 as 
for the social presentations or the employment operation that started in the year 1999. 
 
So the article 364 wasn’t a storm in a clear sky or just an outcome of many strikes, but a result of our struggle regardless of our point of view towards it. 
 
 
A national and not demand issue 
During its struggle for the issue of the ex-detainees, the Follow-up Committee remained strict with the following standards: 
1. Never separating between the issue of the hostages in the Israeli prisons and the demands of the ex-detainees. 
2. Considering the issue of the ex-detainees a national and not a demanding one. They are the heroes of our nation and not a group of poor hungry people and so they have the right of a social care as the duty of the government. 
3. Stay online with the framework of the committee that suggests completing the employment operation of the ex-detainees in the official and private institutions and rehabilitating them physically, psychologically and socially. 
 
 
The strikes of the ex-detainees 
 
Although the committee has reservations towards the open strikes, we contributed to make the ex-detainees’ movement successful because their issue is our issue and no one can overbid in this concern. So the committee joined the strikes with holding a number of press conferences and presenting memorandums to the politicians asking them to make the ex-detainees stop their strikes because it constitutes an insult for our government, the Resistance and the whole society. 

Also the ceremonies of July 14, The Day of the Detainee and the National Day for Opposing Torture had become solidarity stations supporting the detainee and the ex-detainees. 
 
 
The official taking of the strikes 
 
Most of the officials in the Lebanese Government have asserted their adoption for the ex-detainees’ demands. And many of the ministers and deputies visited the ex-detainees that were striking in front of the Government house where they asserted their solidarity with them. 
That was a significant scene: the authority strikes against the authority!! 
 
The official position with the following: 
1. Launching promises about employing the ex-detainees and then going back. 
2. Making the ex-detainees dizzy from filling so many applications though they have a statistic study in the Ministry of Social Affairs. 
3. Blaming the committees of detainees for the misinformation about this issue as if the 22 years of the Israeli Occupation were not enough for them to make files with complete information! 
4. Issuing many projects and articles instead of completing the employment of the ex-detainees by groups as the Follow-up Committee suggested. 
5. Strike the unity of the ex-detainees through provoking some officials against the Follow-up Committee and distorting the meaning of the employment operation on 1999 and refusing to hold a meeting with the Follow-up Committee to discuss the point views with it. 
6. Containment the strikes of the ex-detainees whish began in an independent way ad ended into forms of political struggles among the authorities and the political parties. 
 
 
Article 364 
 
When the ex-detainees were tired of the authority’s declarations that they will close the file of this issue, the Parliament validates the project of the government without basic objections. We refuted this article and warned before they put it into action from approving the compensation principle and partition the ex-detainees into groups. 
 
Article 364 dealt with the ex-detainees as wageworkers and not as strugglers and heroes. Where our basic demand was to assimilate them in the official institutions by groups as happened on 1999. And today we publish an important document, issued by the Ministry of Health, which shows that the government is obliged to assimilate the ex-detainees in its institutions. But Article364 was easier to be implemented for it sets the government free from its commitments towards the ex-detainees. This article lacks all the human and social standards and contradicts with the ex-detainee’s demands and struggles. For example: those who took the benefit of the retirement salaries count for only 300 ex-detainees and the rest of them are given compensations regardless of the mental and social conditions of them. Add that this article excluded the hostages that are still in the Israeli Prisons. 
 
 
 
Not the best that we can 
 
Article 364 is not the best that we can ever do, we could have refused it or at least tried to modify it during the general session of the Parliament on August 14/ 2001. But this didn’t occur because all did agree to get rid of this heavy load. 
 
Here came the protestations of the ex-detainees who found this article unfair for them. So we organized many strikes and meetings in the Lebanese Regions demanding to modify Article 364 and we called a number of deputies who agreed for a modified form of the article but till now that form was not referred to the representative committees to be studied. Some considered the modifications we presented as obstacles that hinder that implementation of the article but this is not true for the implementation is related to issuing a decree-law and validating the budget of the year 2002. 
 
The Follow-up committee doesn’t consider Article 364 a solution but a relieving drop and an official give away from the formal commitments. Then the division about the article is because of the political and the party conflicts. As for our committee, it will keep on trying to modify Article 364 and asking the government to ensure jobs for the ex-detainees and secure them with free medical care and free education. 
 
 
Khiam Rehabilitation Center and the rehabilitation operation 
 
The rehabilitation of the ex-detainees was not separated from the struggle of the Follow-up Committee since it’s been established on 1992. Thus rehabilitation is a correlative operation that is coordinated from the social, economic, mental and cultural sides.  
And Khaim Rehabilitation Center is on of the institutions of the Follow-up Committee and take the experience and heritage of the committee as a base so it didn’t come from vacuum but from a long struggle that the committee organized through years. Hence we are working to develop it after having Khiam Detention Camp closed on April 23/ 2001. 
 
It’s true that there’s no building that has the specifications of  the national rehabilitation centers, but our work comes out from the place of the committee. Hence we organize field visits to the houses of the ex-detainees and their families, and make testimonies and applications. Also we have launched a web cite about the center which is: www.khiamcenter.org 
 
Though it’s important but the building is not what defines the existence of the center. It’s the activity and the good team that give material to the center. You can see how many centers were established around the world but remained at the end nothing but mere empty non-active centers. Our center takes the houses and villages of the ex-detainees as its starting point. 
 
The place of the Follow-up Committee in currently the location of the center, however we declare the following: 
1. Innovating a network of rehabilitation clubs in the emancipated regions to be managed by the ex-detainees themselves. And the firstfruits of this network will be opened officially in Kfarshouba village very soon. 
2. Having the clinic of Dr. Ahmed Ayash as one of the locations of Khiam Rehabilitation Center where a total psychological treatment is presented for the ex-detainees and their families. 
 
It’s very important here to ensure the role of certain local and national institutions in presenting the psychic and social help to the ex-detainees. In this concern, we would like also to greet the agreement memorandum of the Lebanese Government and Amnesty International about the social and economic reintegration of the ex-detainees, which was signed on December 21/ 2001. Nevertheless, the role of the government remains a basic factor. Thus to establish an official institution for the support of the ex-detainees and the families of the martyrs and make the shift of this issue from the Council of the South to the Ministry of Social Affairs a beneficial step towards establishing a special division for the ex-detainees. 
 
 
The lawsuit and the compensation for the ex-detainees 
 
It’s very important the moral compensation for the ex-detainees and this can be actualized through the following: 
1. Erecting a monument by the name of the victims of the Israeli Prisons, so that this monument remains a witness on this issue for the coming generations. 
2. Tracking the executioners and the agents of Israel who practiced torture against the ex-detainees. This is a very important matter in raising the morals of the victims towards whom they practiced forms of inhuman torture. And if Canada refused to lodge those mercenaries then what can we, who were burnt by their whips, say. 
 
In this concern, the Follow-up Committee along with the Lebanese Committee for Human Rights have brought suit against the leaders of the Israeli Troops and their mercenaries in order to suit them nationally and forcing them to compensate for the victims as the national laws state. The suit was brought by the names of Mohammed Safa, the Secretary General of the Follow-up Committee and Neemeh Jomaa, the Secretary General of the Lebanese Committee for Human Rights having both of them being ex-detainees. So they notified the commissioner at the military court and the Minister of Justice and 
Discriminative Attorney General on August 16/ 2001. And today we ask again to assign a judicial examiner to investigate about those Israeli crimes and all the massacres that Israel committed in the Lebanese Lands and we call upon for all the detainees to bring personal suits against Israel and its mercenaries. 
 
 
 
Khiam Detention Camp: A national shrine 
 
After the Israeli withdrawal on June 24/2001, the Lebanese Government declared the alteration of Khiam Detention Camp into a national shrine and though we asked the Ministry of Culture to take it but this didn’t happen. 
 
Khiam Detention Camp and Ansar Prison are one of the historical and cultural features for the Lebanese Nation, this demands keeping them as the enemy left them in order to keep our memory alive and witness for the Israeli terror. That’s why we ask the Ministry of Culture to take it and transform it into a national shrine away from any party or political tint, and make an official resolution that makes the days of the closure of these two prisons national days. 
 
 
Documentation 
 
Documentation of events is one of the basic roles for our committee, this is a hard operation when there’s a lack in the financial expert resources. Nevertheless we have exerted great efforts to Collect and organize all the documents and memorandums issued from the Follow-up Committee and the national committees. And any researcher can visit our office and we would greet any volunteering effort that participate in our documentation work which will involve: 
1. Medical documentation. 
2. Legal documentation. 
3. Cultural documentation. 
4. Preparing a book, that contains names and pictures of all the ex-detainees in the Israeli Prisons, to be published by the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Culture and be a part of the history books that are taught in schools. 
5. Inviting the ex-detainees to remake handiwork in order to keep on the struggler heritage of Ansar and Khiam Prisons. 
 
 
 
Part of human rights movement 
 
The activities of the committee were not limited to the issue of the Lebanese ex-detainees but also we organized a big campaign against the inhuman practices of Israel against the Palestinian people. Also we participated in the solidarity campaign with the Kuwaiti Prisoners and with all the opinion prisoners in the Arabian Prisons. 
 
Moreover the committee criticized the blood massacre of the Ghangi castle in Afghanistan… then we participated in the National Campaign for Resisting Torture which was organized by Amnesty International and in the Federal Seminars about the forcible disappearance and the funding of the non governmental organization. 
 
At the local level, the committee participated along with the human organizations in Lebanon in the National Campaign for the issue of  the missing and to eliminate the death penalty and defend the public rights. 
 
 
 
The funding process 
 
All the programs and plans remain on papers if sources of funding were not found. So there came the generous gift from Al-sheik Salem Sabah AL Sabbah, the director of the National Committee for the Kuwaiti Prisoners, who contributed in supporting the activities of our committee and the project of Khiam Center. Also we got financial support for the project of Khiam Center from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for the Victims of Torture and from the Norwegian Human Rights Fund. So we greet them all for their contributions wishing the continuity of the moral and financial contributions that help us to go on in our struggle. 
 
 
A national workshop 
 
Our plan for the year 2002, is not the concern of only our committee, it’s open for all the committees, the public and private institutions and all the national organizations. So that we can develop the National Solidarity Campaign to set all the hostages free and supporting the ex-detainees and the families of the 
martyrs. 
 
If 2001 was the year of the ex-detainees, let 2002 be the year of freeing all the hostages and establishing the rehabilitation and cultural centers to reintegrate them in society and developing the activities of Khiam Rehabilitation Center and the documentation operations. 
 
Our annual seminar is a new spring in the history of the committee and the center, so we invite all the ex-detainees to volunteer in our committee that was their voice and conscience and will always be. 
 
It’s the issue of the whole country so let’s all participate in it to free and support the heroes of our homeland. 
 
 
 
18/01/2002