March in Beirut against detention of teachers in Israeli- supported Khiam detention center
Lebanon-Israel, Politics, 11/9/1999

The follow-up committee for supporting the case of the Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons organized a public march in Beirut on the occasion of the day for detained teachers to protest Israel's continuation of detaining nearly 200 Lebanese captives, including tens of teachers and students.

The committee mobilized the utmost participants in this day to consider it a national platform for asking the international community to practice the ultimate pressure on Israel in order to release the detained teachers and students and closing khiam detention center for good.

Meanwhile, the "The Follow-up Committee for the Support of the Lebanese Detainees in the Israeli Prisons" describes the "Khiam torture and detention camp (KDC)."

Beginning of statement:

The KDC is a detention and interrogation center established by the Israeli Army in 1985 in the occupied Southern Lebanon as a substitute to the detention camp of Ansar that was a French barracks built in 1930.

WHO IS MANAGING THE KDC? 

Israel occupying the South of Lebanon is managing and supervising the KDC despite its constant denial while blaming the pro-Israeli militias that were created, trained and supplied with money and arms by Israel itself and which are a main part of the Israeli occupying Army executing its orders and instructions. 

Because of the pressure of the human rights organizations around the world, Israel has admitted recently that it was responsible for the camp and the Israeli Shabak is in charge of training the wardens on the means of interrogation and torture. 

So the KDC is an Israeli prison and according to the international laws Israel is responsible for every thing that is taking place behind its walls.   

HOW MANY DETAINEES IN THE KDC? 

Since it was created in 1985, Israel has held in the KDC about two thousand Lebanese citizens out of which 500 women and young girls. Currently, until the 28 October 1999, the number is 161 prisoners. 

WHO ARE THOSE DETAINEES? 

Those detainees are Lebanese citizens of different categories of ages who were captured and tortured. Inside the KDC, there are six women among which the journalist Cosette Ibrahim and the oldest Al-Abda Malkani that is seventy years old. Some of the detainees are 14-year-old teenagers who were abducted from their homes and dragged to the camp such as Ali Tawbeh arrested with his father in 1997 while he wasn¹t even 14 years old. 

There are more and more prisoners who are very young and still they were captured. In July 1999, Israel abducted from the village of Ayta Al-Chaab the two teenagers Hassan Moussa Rida (15 years old) and Ahmed Jamil (16 years old) and locked them in KDC and on October of the same year, Ahmad Samhat (15 years old) was abducted also from the village of Aynata. The number is currently amounting to 15 teenage prisoners.    The elderly people did not escape the savagery of the Israeli Army. Thus, men over sixty years old are locked up such as Mohammed Ghanwi (64 years old), Zaki Hassan Awada (66 years old), Hussein Awada (65 years old) and Mohammed Salim Katbay (60 years old) who is suffering constantly from heart attacks and was transferred many times to Marjeyoun Hospital. 

Furthermore, Israel is detaining members of a whole family the husband, the wife and some of the children such is the case of Mustafa Tawbeh and his son Ali or the two brothers Bilal and Ahmad Jaafar, Najwa Samhat and her son Ahmad, the two brothers Khalil and Suleiman Karnibe and many others. Sometimes the husband is released while the wife in kept in prison such is the case of Al-Abda Malkani or vice versa.   

WHY THOSE PEOPLE ARE IN PRISON? 

None of the prisoners of the KDC was ever put on trial or even allowed to appoint a lawyer to defend him. Every prisoner in that camp is simply a hostage. The main and only reason for their detention is because they refused to cooperate with the Israeli forces or to join the pro-Israeli militias. That is why their detention is abusive and against all international laws especially the Fourth Geneva Convention. Some of them were arrested for having a mobile phone as they were accused of leaking information to the Lebanese Army or the Lebanese Resistance of the movements of the Israeli Army. 

Others were arrested because they refused to organize tours for students to Israel. That is why about 60 students are in the KDC and some teachers such as Fahed Ali Saleh, a mathematics teacher in the High School of Ayta Al-Chaab. The other prisoners are farmers who refused to pay taxes or because their sons have escaped the occupied zone to avoid the military service in the Israeli army. The majority of the prisoners are Lebanese civilians who resisted the Israeli occupation and this is a right that is recognized by all international laws. 

WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS INSIDE THE KDC? 

The prisoners are subjected to electric shocks on their fingers, toes, tongues or genitals. Sometimes cold or hot water is poured on their bodies all depending on the weather conditions. They are threatened to destroy their houses or abduct all members of their families. Nails or hair are sometimes pulled away by pinches. The prison itself is 90x 90 cm so the prisoner in unable to stand up. Lighting is so weak that many prisoners have suffered sight defects. The food lacks for the nutritive elements and is inedible most of the time. 

As a result of torture, 14 prisoners have died in detention such as Haytham Dabaja- Hussein Ali Mahmoud- Zakaria Nazar. Other detainees such as Salim Awada and Rida Youssef Moustafa were transferred to hospitals but died there. Most of the prisoners suffer from ulcer, stomach problems and rheumatism. 

The medical exams of the released prisoners have showed the following cases: concussions-heart attacks- pulmonary tumors- asthma (due to humidity of the cells)- impotence- fractions in the hips and skull- dermatological infections. About 50 released prisoners, men and women, are suffering form physical and psychological problems. 

WHAT CAN THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS COMMITTEE DO? 

When the International Red Cross Committee was allowed to enter the KDC in 1995, the conditions in the camp have relatively improved. The prisoners were allowed to be visited by their families and receive food packages and letters. However, despite the importance of such step, it is still however incomplete because of the numerous obstacles put by Israel that tried to put an end to the visits of the family members to the camp.  

WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF THE DETAINEES? 

Israel is relentless in playing the game of releasing prisoners and then arresting the double of those who are released. The average of the arrested youngsters and elderly people is getting higher and higher every day. Diseases are invading the camp because of the total absence of sanitary and medical care. Most of the detainees spent half of the week in Marjeyoun Hospital and the other half in the camp such as: Mustafa Tawbeh- Suleiman Ramadan-Moussa Ghosn- Mustafa Arabieh- Hussein Akil- Karam Mustafa- Ghandi Ayoub- Khalil and Ibrahim Karnibe- Riad Kalakiche- Mujibe Turmus- Tayssir Shaaban- Mohammed Salim Katbay- Ali Ghanwi- Ali Ghazi Assaghir etc.   

WHY THE KDC MUST BE CLOSED DOWN? 

The conditions inside the KDC are unbearable. Prisoners are threatened to die because of many health problems they are suffering such as fainting, amnesia not to mention the very hard psychological conditions and the escalation of abusive arrests reaching 70 prisoners, men and women, last year only. 

The KDC is a prison that is against all international laws and treaties. It is hermetically sealed before the human organizations. Although it has been there for more than 14 years, no international investigation commission was authorized to have access to the camp so it will not discover the horrors committed behind its walls. One hundred and sixty one citizens are held as hostages in that place of horror. That is why the world should move to free those people and close down forever the Khiam Detention Camp? 

End of statement.

Previous Stories:
  Solidarity rally in Lebanon with Khiam detainees   (10/29/1999)
  UN representative to inspect conditions of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails   (8/26/1999)

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