Reminiscent Of Saddam's Iraq, Mass Graves Uncovered In Lebanon
December 14, 2005
by Jim Kouri, CPP, National Association of Chiefs of Police
In a discovery reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, bodies were exhumed from mass graves in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, near the headquarters of the former Syrian military intelligence. Officials uncovered the remains of 25 people. Skulls, bones, tattered clothing and at least one army uniform, were stuffed in bags and buried at two sites close to a mosque about two miles from the border with Syria.
Another mass gravesite was discovered the remains contained there should be exhumed next week by Lebanese soldiers and forensic experts.
The Lebanese government was alerted to the graves by residents of an Armenian town of Anjar, where Syrian military intelligence was based until last April. Syrian troops and intelligence agents departed from Lebanon after demonstrations in Beirut and pressure from the world community.
Ghazi Aad, the head of Solide, which works to release Lebanese detainees in Syrian jails, told The Times of London, “These are not the only mass graves in Lebanon. There are others around the offices of Syrian military intelligence. We need to have an international commission of inquiry to investigate these atrocities.”
Hundreds of Lebanese rounded up by the Syrians during their 29-year presence passed through the notorious interrogation facility and prison. Lebanese human rights activists say there remain scores of Lebanese are still in Syrian prisons. However, the Syrian officials deny it
Last month 12 bodies were dug up from a grave in the Syrian Defense Ministry installation in a suburb of Beirut. They are thought to have been Lebanese soldiers killed by Syrian troops in October 1990.
The mass grave discoveries are certain worsen already bad relations between Beirut and Damascus since the assassination last February of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese Prime Minister, who died in a terrorist-style bombing. Most officials believe the Syrians were responsible for the killing of the popular leader. A United Nations commission is investigating Hariri’s death.
As was Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein and his political minions, Syria is ruled by the brutal, fascist-socialist Ba'ath Party. Syria began it's occupation of Lebanon as a result of a civil war in the early 1980s.
© 2005 Jim Kouri, CPP
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