Lebanon: MPs step up calls for clarity over fate of Lebanese missing in Syrian jails

Hundreds of Lebanese are thought to have been forcibly disappeared in Syria many years ago

Smoke rises in a Beirut street during clashes between Palestinians and members of Christian militia the Lebanese Forces, backed by Lebanon's Christian Kataeb Phalangist party, on April 15, 1975. AFP

Guerrilla fighters on a tank in a street in Beirut during Lebanon's civil war, in December 1975. Getty Images

A Katyusha rocket is fired from the back of an army lorry into an apartment complex during the first year of the Lebanese civil war, in 1975. Getty Images

A mass of burnt vehicles in the harbour area of Beirut after the outbreak of civil war in 1975. Getty Images

A Red Cross nurse from Sweden takes care of a boy shot in the heel by a sniper, on September 9, 1976, at a hospital in the Coral Beach Hotel, on the road between Beirut and Saida. AFP

Israeli shelling on west Beirut on August 2, 1982. AFP

A man sits on rubble in a desolated area of west Beirut on August 20, 1982. AFP

The US embassy in Beirut on April 18, 1983, after a bomb destroyed part of the building. AFP

French soldiers watch the skyline in Beirut on September 26, 1983. The troops were part of the Beirut security multinational force sent to keep security after the Israeli invasion of 1982. AFP

General Francois Cann, commander of the French troops of the multinational forces, on October 23, 1983, as rescuers search for survivors in Beirut through the rubble of a building that was destroyed by a suicide lorry bomber overnight. Fifty-eight French soldiers and five Lebanese were killed in the attack. AFP

Rescuers continue to search on October 31, 1983, for corpses and identify the victims of the attack on October 23 on the headquarters of US troops from the multinational force in Beirut. AFP

Rescuers search for victims on March 8, 1985, 15 minutes after a car, packed with an estimated 250kg of TNT, exploded in a crowded street of the southern Bir Al Aabed district in mainly Shiite southern suburb of Beirut. At least 75 people were killed and 256 injured in the explosion. AFP

Israeli Defence Force soldiers on March 19, 1985, confront a civilian at Kasmyah bridge after troops the month before evacuated about 500 sq km around Saida. AFP

Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, on October 4, 1985, after a ceasefire between pro-Palestine and pro-Syrian militias was agreed to in Damascus. AFP

A woman cries in shock, minutes after a car bomb exploded in a crowded neighbourhood of mainly-Muslim west Beirut on August 8, 1986, killing 13 people, including three children, and wounding at least 92. AFP

A nun inspects a damaged room in the Hotel Dieu Hospital in east Beirut on February 25, 1990, after a break in the battle between rival Christian factions. AFP

MPs in Lebanon have called for Lebanese missing in Syrian jails to be included in the remit of a UN-created body that seeks to establish the fate of the tens of thousands of people who have been forcibly disappeared in the brutal civil war in Syria.

The UN General Assembly this year approved the creation of The Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP), which seeks to establish the situation of about 130,000 who have gone missing since the civil war broke out in 2011.

Human rights groups and MPs say hundreds of Lebanese were disappeared in Syria, largely stemming from the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war and the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which ended in 2005.

Family members, rights groups and 46 MPs from Lebanon's 128-seat parliament have launched a petition calling for the case of missing Lebanese – believed to be more than 600 – to be included in the IIMP's agenda.

“It's very important to note that it's not a political statement, it's a purely humanitarian right for the people and for the families to know the whereabouts and fate of their missing [relatives]," Nadim Gemayel, MP for East Beirut and a signatory of the petition, told The National.

When a vote was held this year on a UN resolution to establish the independent institution, Lebanon abstained – a move condemned by many in the country.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said it did not want to politicise the issue.

The 46 MPs who signed the petition, which was addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, can largely be characterised as being against the current Syrian government and from factions that had opposed Syria's previous occupation of Lebanon.

Syria does have political allies in Lebanon, including the Shiite duo of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, both of which have numerous MPs in parliament and cabinet ministers from their respective parties. Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese armed group, has sent fighters to support the government led by President Bashar Al Assad during the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

“We have specific cases, all documented, about 600. Until now, the Syrian regime refused to make clear the facts of this situation,” George Okais, MP for Zahle, told The National.

Asked if the Lebanese government had done enough on the issue of the missing Lebanese, he responded: “Not at all. They are either afraid of the Syrian regime or they are in the same coalition with them.”

Mr Gemayel said “as the representatives of the people of Lebanon, as a member of parliament, since the government is not ready to support this request, we will support it directly. And we are going directly to the United Nations to ask for the inclusion of the Lebanese missing persons into this new institution that has been formed.

“I think it's taken a very long time [to resolve the file of those missing] because the Syrian influence in Lebanon is still remaining. We know that through the presence of Hezbollah, we know it because the allies of Syria are still in the government. Today, since we have a new window that is open through the creation of this independent institution, I think we have a bright window.”

Mr Okais said those who had disappeared were from “different geographical regions, different communities and religions, from different parties. So we are all affected by the Syrian occupation at that time.”

The petition says some previously detained Lebanese “have confirmed upon their return to Lebanon the presence of other Lebanese citizens still remaining in custody inside Syrian jails”.

Syria's presence in Lebanon ended in 2005 after the Cedar Revolution, in which vast rallies were held in protest against the thousands of Syrian soldiers in the country and Damascus's influence on Lebanese affairs. The revolution came after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Syria's departure in 2005 led to the return of exiled former army chief Michel Aoun, who had fought and lost against Syria during the Lebanese Civil War. He would eventually be elected president in 2016.

It also led to the release of imprisoned Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. The former militia has now evolved into Lebanon's largest party in parliament and its MPs signed the petition sent to the UN.