The parents of Lebanese men imprisoned in Syria broke the taboo on this charged topic, a source of tension between Lebanon and Syria, by identifying themselves and recounting their stories in the national press on Friday.
The mother of a missing Lebanese Interior Security Forces (ISF) sergeant, Elias Tanios, told the French-language L'Orient Le Jour daily of their son's ongoing eight year ordeal in a Syrian prison on charges of "collaboration". Tanios is currently serving a 10-year sentence.
"Even if guilty, by what right is he kidnapped by Syrian security services on Lebanese territory, judged by a Syrian tribunal and incarcerated in a Syrian prison," asked his mother Namnum, who remains convinced of his innocence.
Tanios disappeared on December 15, 1992 after both he and his younger brother were detained by Syrian soldiers, said Namnum.
The Syrians released Tanios' younger brother after 24 hours, but it was another seven months before the family learned that Tanios had been hauled before a Syrian court and dealt a prison term in Mazzeh, Damascus' central prison, which recently closed.
Recently, the Syrians transferred Tanios to Saydana, a prison in a Damascus suburb. But his mother has no idea if her son is all right. "All these years we have had the right to visit him regularly, but the Syrian authorities have not granted us permission since June," said Namnum.
The weekly publication, Magazine, featured the story of another mother, Feryal Harb, whose son Naji has endured a decade as a prisoner in Syria.
Naji, who had served in the army of General Michael Aoun, the country's former president and a leader of Christian militants, was captured by Syrians during fighting between Aoun loyalists and Syrian troops in October 1990.
A Syrian military court found Naji guilty of killing two Syrian soldiers and handed him a life sentence, said Feryal.
She complained that Naji's case cannot be appealed, and questioned the court's fairness. She cited the fact that he was denied a lawyer and that the court never offered the names of the Syrian soldiers whom her son was accused of murdering.
While she stopped short of charging the Syrians with torture, Feryal said that her son has lost hair and has grown emaciated in prison.
Another weekly publication, al-Massira, which has links to the Lebanese Forces, an outlawed militia, recently printed allocations of torture against Syria, but refused to disclose names.
The magazine said that Syrians employed methods such as electric shock and whip lashings against Lebanese in Syrian prisons.
According to human rights organizations, 228 Lebanese are prisoners in Syria, principally Islamists and militant Christians hostile to Syria.
Last Friday, Lebanese Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri announced that there were close to 40 Lebanese in Syrian prisons.
Berri added that he was "trying to obtain an official list by the end of the year.
He called for Lebanon to work towards the repatriation of the prisoners so that they could finish their sentences in Lebanon -- BEIRUT (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
