The loosening of the Syrian hold on Lebanon has led to grisly findings.
Mass graves which were dug up in Lebanon over the weekend are believed to hold the bodies of Lebanese soldiers killed during the Civil War. The number of bodies is expected to reach a total of 40 as the Lebanese authorities continue to dig in the third and largest mass grave to be exhumed within a month. “Some of the bones in the graves are more than 20 years old,” said forensic expert Fouad Ayoub, who has been designated by the public prosecutor to officially investigate the latest mass grave in an onion farm on the Nabi Azir hilltop in Anjar. The graves are about one kilometer from the former headquarters of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon and are located in territory formerly occupied by Syrian troops.
Lebanese troops have been working since Friday using bulldozers and a team of forensic experts to exhume the remains of 28 human skeletons. The bodies, which were exhumed from two mass graves beside each other, had traces of underwear, clothes and military uniforms still attached to the bones.
Ayoub said DNA tests will be conducted on the remains and the results will be compared with a list of missing civilians and soldiers.
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Some security officials have said that they could be Lebanese soldiers killed during an October 1990 Syrian military offensive against Lebanese Army units led by then interim-President Michel Aoun.
There has been no official response from the Syrian government. However, a statement on Syrian News Web site quoted an “informed Syrian source” as saying “the victims were part of 400 Lebanese and Palestinians whom Abu Nidal’s Fatah-Revolutionary Council had summarily executed in the Bekaa in the latter years of the Civil War between 1986 and 1991.”
Abu Nidal was then fighting with late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah mainstream faction and victims of their clashes were said “to have been buried in several locations in the Bekaa.”
This may be feasible, and the dirtnap-taking terrorist Nidal would be a great fall guy, but there are signs reported that point back to Syria.
The mayor of the nearby town of Majdel Anjar, who helped lead security forces to the graves, said he believed up to 40 bodies were buried in the area.
“These bodies have been buried near the shrine of Nabi Uzeir since 1993. I have known since 1999 but kept silent,” Shaaban al-Ajami told reports. He said he kept quiet out of “fear” of prosecution by the Syrian intelligence, which had a tight grip on Lebanon during its 29 years of tutelage.
“One of the skulls had the remains of a sock in it, which is proof of the torture tactics used by Syrian intelligence,” he said.
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“This is the biggest proof that the crime is very big and touches the lives of hundreds of Lebanese families,” said Ghazi Aad, head of Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE).
Aad, who has been calling for an international probe into the case of the Lebanese detainees in Syrian jails, demanded a thorough international investigation into the mass graves and other killings allegedly carried out by Syrian occupation troops.
“This is a serious crime against humanity and hence I call upon the Lebanese government to react and hold an immediate session in Cabinet to discuss the discovery,” said Aad.
Human rights groups and families have said that they have evidence of more than 176 Lebanese detained in Syrian jails, many of whom have been there for more than a decade. Another 17,000 Lebanese remain unaccounted for since the 1975-90 Civil War.
Well, that certainly makes Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo seem like a blip at worst on the inhumane radar screen. I await, trembling in anticipation, for the weeks of screaming coverage from the New York Times.