Press Release from NEAL
Boston, Massachusetts - March 21, 2006
As Lebanon buries the remains of some of its soldiers who were unearthed in mass graves left behind by the Syrian regime and its local proxies during 15 years of occupation, the Lebanese government has displayed a callous disregard for the dignity and the feelings of the soldiers' families who have waited for years to learn about the fate of their loved ones. Very few members of Parliament and the government have attended their funerals or expressed their condolences to the families.
Those soldiers - as well as others uncovered in the same and other mass graves and that have yet to be identified by DNA testing - are the unsung heroes of the War of Liberation that culminated in October 1990 by the toppling of the free and legitimate Lebanese government of then-Prime Minister Michel Aoun by the Syrian air force. They died fighting for their country, shot in cold-blooded murder by the invading Syrian soldiers, and were buried in this case in a mass grave on the grounds of their own Ministry of Defense.
Their own military and political leaders were cowards and traitors who knew about these mass graves but preferred to remain silent, not only out of fear for their own lives, but often more out of concern for their positions and the lucrative collaborations they entertained with the Syrian occupier.
These are war crimes that will be investigated, like all the other mass graves whose exhumation was deliberately botched by the Lebanese government in violation of international norms, and in complicity with the government's former Syrian masters only to cover for the atrocities that the Syrian regime and its allies - from the Hrawi-Hariri to the Lahoud-Hariri governments - committed.
The families of the soldiers and all the other heroes whose remains will be identified in the future from the many mass graves of Lebanon should be compensated by both the Lebanese and Syrian governments. Those responsible for committing the crimes and their accomplices should pay the price under the law. Let no one forget that these crimes were committed and covered up by many in the Lebanese political establishment who today claim to be liberators and "anti-Syrian" politicians.
We owe it to our country, and we owe it to our soldiers, and we owe it to our people to preserve the dignity and the rights of our soldiers, even if it is after decades, and even in their death. For how can we rebuild this country of ours, if the dignity and rights of every single Lebanese citizen - particularly those who give their lives to their country - are not upheld?
If the Lebanese government - and the "February 14 majority" from which it derives its legitimacy - wish to prove their "anti-Syrian" label and demonstrate their willingness to confront their past, they must immediately:
- Issue a public call to the Syrian regime to release all Lebanese prisoners held illegally in Syria's jails.
- File an official request with the United Nations Security Council to enter the issue of the Lebanese detainees as a condition for a full implementation of all outstanding resolutions on Lebanon, including resolution 1559.
- All ongoing investigations by the Brammertz commission into the assassinations of Lebanese political figures must include an investigation of the existence of hundreds of Lebanese detainees and missing in Syria.
How can the political and media leaders of Lebanon claim to have any moral fiber if they make an issue out of the assassination of a handful from among their ranks, but not out of the detention and death under torture of hundreds of ordinary Lebanese citizens? Particularly when the suspect is the same Syrian regime with whom they collaborated for 15 years, but turned against it when it killed one of them?
New England Americans for Lebanon.