Maronite bishops plea for release of Lebanese prisoners in Syria
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Maronite bishops meeting yesterday, Feb. 4, in Bkerke appreciated the exchange of prisoners between Israel and the Hezbollah. The hoped for a similar step to be taken by Syria in the release of hundred of Lebanese citizens detained in the country’s prisons.
During the monthly meeting of Maronite bishops presided over by Maronite patriarch, Card. Nasrallah Sfeir, various topics of national interest were discussed.
In a statement released to the press afterward, point number 5 read: “We applaud the successful negotiations which led to the release of a certain number of Lebanese prisoners from Israeli jails, in the hope that one day all will be freed. We hope that the states of Lebanon and Syria will consider the requests of Lebanese parents for their children believed to be missing.”
Syria, Lebanon’s occupying force, has always denied the presence of Lebanese political prisoners in its own land. Recently sources close to the Lebanese military (former Christian militia) said a 43 year-old man, Joseph Huways, died in a Syrian jail, who was already suffering from epilepsy. Just today, Amnesty International asked Syrian authorities to launch an investigation on the matter and to allow prisoners to have recourse to their own attorneys and to receive visits from family members. Syria's denial came immediately afterward in a press release statement in which the minister of the interior said there “are not any Lebanese political prisoners in Syria.”
Amnesty International says that it has a complete list of names of Lebanese citizens who have disappeared in Syria and are held in prisons for political reasons.
According to Lebanese military sources, most political prisoners are Christians, some even being priests (e.g Frs. Albert Shirfan and Souleyman Aby Khali of the Antonian Maronite order).
On a copy of a list presented by Lebanese authorities to various world organizations (which AsiaNews has come into possession) there are the addresses, professions, dates of capture and abduction of persons Amnesty International believes to be held captive in Syria.
There are 110 prisoners in Syria, brought there before 1990, that is, before the end of the civil war(1975 – 1990). On the list are another 46 names of persons held to be “missing” since 1990 in an area occupied by the Syrian army in Lebanon. On the list appear names of members of Christian Lebanese militia, including ordinary citizens (shop owners, drivers, office workers, etc. )
Among the most discussed issues by bishops were the economic crisis and the unemployment crippling Lebanon. The bishops ended by sending their greetings to all Maronite Catholics for the feast of St. Maron (Feb. 9) “so that all Maronites are inspired to join together and cooperate with their Lebanese brothers in saving Lebanon . (P.B)
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