Testimonies to torture

Survivors from Israel´s Khiam Detention Center in Lebanon

Testimonies to torture

Compilation by www.khiamcenter.org

Summary of testimonies from some detainees who survived the Khiam Detention Center and the tortures they encountered during their detention period:

Tawfic Mansour from the town of Aitaroun in South Lebanon:

Held in the Khiam Detention Camp from November 13, 1989 to January 28, 1994.

"I was beaten with a rough stick during the interrogation period which resulted in breaking three of my vertebrae. During the interrogation period, I was interrogated up to 15 hours per day.

The interrogators wanted me to confirm their suspicion that I had cooperated with the resistance. I told them, however, that I was only a member in the syndicate for tobacco farmers. One of the interrogators, Jean Homsi, asked me about a release that I distributed on March 8, 1989. The release, demanding for a rise in tobacco prices, was considered by Homsi as supportive to the resistance!

After my interrogation period, I was taken to a cell with other detainees. Our struggle for better conditions in the Khiam camp became a daily routine. Having access to the sun and getting the minimum level of nutritious food were our main demands.

To achieve our demands, we did a hunger strike for five days starting on April 12, 1991. As a result, many detainees were brutally beaten that two of them, Mohammed Jawad and Haidar Al-Ghoul, were taken to Marjayoun Hospital. The quality of food has become better since. Still they do not contain the minimum level of nutrition. Having access to the sun was allowed though far from sufficiency.

In July 1993, I told one of the detainees to be aware that there were collaborators in the cells. Twenty days later, I was questioned about what I had said and was told that the word ‘collaborator’ was prohibited from being said. I responded: ‘But to me it is not prohibited.’ So the one questioning me said: ‘You want a resistance in the camp?’ He quickly brought a metal whip and started hitting me so hard that my fingernails were displaced. I was put in a solitary confinement for 15 days as a punishment. I was then transferred to the section were they confine whom they consider detainees with riotous behavior. It is a section in which the sun can not enter. I stayed there for eight months. As a result of darkness and humidity, I suffered from severe backaches to an extent where I lost the ability to stand up.

The Khiam detention camp is a grave for the living.

Maamoun Yassin

Detained on November 19, 1991 and released after 34 days.

I was taken to the Khiam camp with my son and brother. I was tortured and pressured despite the interrogators’ knowledge of my having cardiac problems. The enemy and their collaborators blew up my house. During my detention, I thought all the members of my family had been killed. When I was released, however, I knew that my daughter was killed with a gun silencer. My other daughter’s foot was cut.

Daher Nasrallah from Houla:

Detained in the Khiam camp from April 7, 1992 to January 7, 1994.

One of the SLA security men, Ali Ayyoub, came to the Kfar Kila public school where I teach and said: "We need you in the Khiam." They took me to the Khiam camp where I was accused of provoking students against the Israeli occupation forces and organizing resistance cells.

They used the following torturing methods against me during interrogation:

I was beaten with a whip all over my body.

I was also tied to a post.

Electricity was applied on my fingertips.

Cold water was throw on me where I had to keep wearing my wet clothes for four days.

My body was covered with dark spots as a result of harsh beating.

I was put in a solitary confinement for two months. I was then taken to a cell with other detainees where I started having an unpleasant burning feeling in my stomach. I asked for medicine but was given a painkiller. They even sometimes refused to give me anything. My body became feeble and my nerves were too loose. I had a continuous feeling of nausea due to the food that lacked the basic elements of vitamins and proteins. In addition, we had no access to the sun. My heartbeats had speeded up and I had become very pale from anemia. I reached a stage where I couldn’t stand up except with the help of two of the detainees.

My deteriorating health state forced them to take me to Marjayoun Hospital, which is located inside the occupation zone. I suffered from an extreme case of anemia where I was given units of blood. I later knew that the blood was taken from other detainees. When I had an inflammation of my chest, I was released and the International Red Cross transferred me to Hammoud Hospital in Saida and then to Bhennes Hospital. I am now continuing my treatment from home. I call upon all international human rights organizations to save the detainees in Israeli prisons and in the Khiam Detention Camp.

Ali Abbas Fawaz from Dibaal:

Detained in the Khiam Detention Camp from May 31, 1987 to October 21, 1996.

I was badly wounded while carrying a military operation against the Radar position inside the occupation zone. An Israeli soldier moved towards me, fired over my head and said: "This is a dead one." He didn’t know I was alive until another soldier saw me moving. The soldier lifted my wounded left leg and started pulling it to hurt me. I screamed from pain. Others came and started beating me while I was bleeding from my injury. One of them said to me, "You are a mop for shoes." Then he stood over my body and started stepping on it and on my face again and again until my lower lip was split.

I was admitted to a hospital in Israel where I resumed consciousness after five days. I was taken to prison in Haifa although the judge said I had to stay in hospital for six months to continue my treatment. I stayed in a cell from June 7, 1987 to November 12, 1987 without treatment. No one cleaned my wounds and I had no shower. Therefore, bloodstains were not removed from my face and foot. As a result, I suffered from inflammation. My smell became horrible and I was continuously throwing out. I even saw white worms on my thigh. My situation was too bad that I used to lose my consciousness that relieved me from the pain. Actually, I wished if I could stay unconscious.

I was then transferred to Ramle Prison where I was admitted to its hospital that is surrounded by sewers. There were crazy patients there who never stopped screaming. They used to take blood from me that was never admitted to the laboratory.

Ismail Hussein from the Malikia:

Detained in Ashkelon and Birsheba Prisons from December 29, 1987 to May 30, 1994.

The Israelis caught me wounded after a military confrontation with them. I was taken to Safad Hospital to be treated. The police and civilians were swearing at me and beating me whenever they saw me. I was then transferred to the Sarafand Hospital for two days. The interrogation started while the injury in my abdomen was inflamed. I was not allowed to pee or to clean my injury. I had to sleep on a bed of stone and suffered from physical and psychological torture.

I was then taken to Ramle Prison where I faced the charges brought against me. The Israeli Lod court sentenced me to six years in prison. The judge told me after the sentence was passed: "It’s the judgement of heaven."

We suffered in prison from several methods of torture and insults:

1 - "The Ghost" was when the prisoner would be situated at a very short chair, the height of which was 15 to 25 centimeters. The prisoner’s hands and feet would be chained with a stinking sack on the head.

2 - The prisoner would be confined in a cell called "refrigerator" with a deafening music that would sometimes lead to losing one’s consciousness.

3 - The prisoner would be put in a very cool place where he would be violently beaten on the genitals. If the prisoner had a wound, the beating would be on his injury.

We did a hunger strike that lasted for 17 days in 1992. The Israeli guards threw tear gas and other kinds of bombs to control us. Several prisoners were killed and wounded.

Kamil Daher from Shebaa:

Detained in the Khiam camp from October 4, 1989 to December 12, 1991.

I bought the books for the school year that was about to begin. But on the same night, I woke up by a loud voice. It was my father shouting, "There is nobody in this room." The Israelis did not allow me to change my night garment. They took me and I spent the first night in a room full of mice. I was taken in the morning to the Khiam camp. I was ordered to stand there near a wall until late at night. I was then taken to a room and a person started questioning me. I told him I was student. So he asked me, "Do you know what is this?" I tried to touch it since I was blindfolded. It turned out to be a scourge made by a collection of electric wires. He ordered me to kneel down and started whipping my back and my bare feet for three hours until I fell helplessly on the ground. After dragging me and tying me to a post, he started throwing cold and hot water on my naked body.

I was then put in a solitary confinement that had no access to the sun for one week. During the second session of torture, the interrogators wrapped a metallic wire between my fingers, ordered me to kneel down and spilled water on my body. As I felt the electric current flowing to my blood, my whole body started shaking uncontrollably. They put the electric wire on my genitals and between my teeth.

Each day carried a new way of torture with it. The interrogator whose weight was over 100 kilograms had walked over my back. He once hit me hard with a rough stick on my head that my sight was weakened. Whenever I asked to see a doctor, their answer was "We have no doctors here." I threatened them of doing a hunger strike to death. So, an Israeli doctor examined my eyes and said there was no treatment for my eyes. He added that he would give me a walking stick because I was going to lose my sight in a short period as he said.

I tried to go back to school following my release but was unable to read or see what was written on the board. I couldn’t continue my education.

Mohammed Yassine from Taibeh:

Detained in 1985 in the Khiam Camp and released in 1991. The Lahd members who took me to the Khiam camp chained my hands and put a sack on my head. When we reached the camp, I was lashed by two different kinds of whips all over my body and with no caution to the sensitive areas. An extremely loud siren was placed very close to my ear and was turned on. Then they threw hot and cold water over my body. I was then dragged to the interrogation room with my hands because I was unable to move. There were two interrogators waiting for me. One was an Israeli and the other was Lebanese. They applied electricity on my hands where I lost my conscious several times. They threw very cold water on me each time they wanted to wake me up. After I did not give them any confession, they told Lahd’s police inside the camp to take care of me. Lahd’s police chained my hands to a post upwards where my tiptoes barely touched the ground. While I was hanged on the post, they started whipping me hard. They threw cold water on me every 15 minutes before resuming their whipping. My blood ran down and I had slashes across my body.

I was then put in a solitary confinement for 20 days where I was allowed to wash my face only once. The cell was two meters in height and 90 centimeters in width and had no toilet.

I was then joined to the other inmates. We were five in a cell that was two meters in height and 1.5 meters in width. We had in our cell a wastebasket and a kettle of water. I remained in such a situation for five years. We were allowed to have a shower once a month and to have access to the sun once every 10 days and for five minutes only.

Riad Issa from Hibariyeh:

Detained on September 14, 1989 and released on October 22, 1991.

I was held in the Khiam camp following a military operation by the resistance in the region. The moment I entered the interrogation room, the interrogator said to me that he knew all my movements and activities and my meetings with resistance officials. But after I refused to confess, the torturers tear the nails of my foot and punched my eardrum. When they saw that torture was not achieving their goals, they held my sixteen-year-old sister. They took the sack off my head and there my sister was with a sack on her head and a female guard standing beside her. I was so furious that I shouting at them. But they promised me to get my mother and then my father if I did not confess. It was after four months that I was transferred to a cell with other inmates.

Rabah Shahrour from Kfar Hamam:

Detained on March 23, 1988 and released on May 16, 1989.

I was detained from my school in the village of Kfar Shouba. SLA members entered the classroom and asked me to go with them. I was only 13 years old. They took me to the Khiam camp where I had to stay in a cell that was one meter long and half a meter wide during the interrogation period which lasted for one month and the half. They used to interrogate me late at night, usually with my hands chained and a sack on my head. They applied electricity on my fingers, my tongue and other sensitive areas of the body. I used to faint. But the interrogator would wake me up by throwing me with cold water. He would wait for 10 minutes before throwing hot water on me. The interrogator used to say to me after the interrogation session was finished: "We were not tough on you because you’re very young." During my detention, my mother and two sisters were also held in the camp.

When I was released, the military official there said: "We are releasing you because of your young age and your sickness." I was suffering from fractures in my thoracic cavity that was resulted from kicking. I was expelled after my release with other members of my family. My sisters and my mother were also expelled from our village after their release.

Jamila Shahrour (Rabah’s sister) from Kfar Hamam:

Detained on April 26, 1988 and released on November 2, 1989.

I was detained in a field near the village. Two militiamen from the SLA came to me and said, "Come with us to the Khiam camp; we want to ask you a couple of questions." When we arrived to the camp, I was put in a small room with my hands chained. Two women from the SLA police searched me violently. They took me to the interrogation room and the interrogator asked me directly about my brother. My answer was that I knew nothing about him. He repeated the question and I repeated the answer. He became harsh on me where he hit me, shoved me and pulled my hair. I was then confined alone in an office for five days where pressure and terrorizing methods were used.

Maroun Qazzi from Jieh:

Detained in the Khiam camp on October 13, 1991 and released on January 5, 1995.

I was taken from Casino Ahiram in Ain Ibl. I was taken to Center 17. I was told that I was accused of monitoring the movements of the SLA. The collaborator Akl Hashem said that I had cursed the SLA. His men hit my teeth with stones and one of them pushed his shoe into my mouth. I was then taken to Israel where I met an Israeli officer. The officer said to me, "You’re a Christian Maroun, cooperate with us and you’ll have a good salary." I refused and preferred to be held in the Khiam camp. The Israeli officer said, "We will either hand you over to our Lebanese dogs (referring to the SLA who are running the Khiam camp) or you will cooperate with us."

I ended up in the Khiam camp. A sack was put on my head and electricity was applied to my fingers. They also stripped me and threw hot and cold water over my body. I was chained to a post for 45 days. Soldiers would come and kick me on my stomach. I used to take medicine to treat my stomach ulcers. With the harsh kicking and beating, my ulcer was ruptured and I started spitting blood.

The interrogators told me that if I would accept to collaborate with them, I’d be immediately released. I refused so one of them said to me: "You are a donkey and a crazy man."

Once, I was put in a solitary confinement because I taught one of the detainees French.

Saeed Al-Akhrass from Hibbariya:

Detained on August 15, 1985 and released on March 1, 1995.

From the first day of my detention I was beaten with a thick whip until dark spots appeared on my back. The interrogators had my nails taken out of their place. I can not have children anymore because the interrogators applied electricity on my sexual organs. We suffered from hunger on the first three years of the camp’s establishment that one detainee ate a small part of his shoe.

The lack of health care continued until 1988. On that year, they started offering us Aspirin and Panadol but with a price which doubled the original one.

Kamel Issa, a corporal in the Lebanese army from Yuhmor:

Detained on November 7, 1984 and released after 11 years.

They left me with my hands and feet chained in the camp’s square for 10 days. They placed a pierced can over my head. Two electric wires connected to the can were put on my ears. A third wire was put in my mouth with a cloth so that I would not spit the wire. I fainted. When I resumed consciousness, I saw dark blood flowing from my mouth. Then, a big man sat on my face.

They used to throw cold and hot water on my body while I was chained to a post. I tried to kill myself so that I would not be tortured anymore. I cut my veins by a bottle of glass. But I woke up and found myself in the hospital.

Sahar Zeiter

Detained on May 13, 1992 and released two months later.

I was breast feeding my four-month-old baby when an SLA security official came to take me from my house. My two other children ran behind me and held my dress. They were terrified and started screaming. "Don’t go mama. You will not return like daddy." (Sahar’s husband was detained before her).

When I reached the Khiam camp, two SLA policewomen took my veil off, put a sack on my head and blindfolded me with a piece of cloth tied over the sack. They were shouting at me and calling me names. They made me kneel down and asked me to put my hands over my head. The interrogators hit me with a metal whip and, in between, threw water over my body. They would sometimes whip my head. They asked me also to jump and imitate the animals.

Once, one of the soldiers slapped me on my face so hard that I lost my consciousness.

They used to take me to the toilet at night and make me kneel down there.

They threaten me many times that they would get my children to the camp and torture them. I was so scared of the idea. They used to threaten me also that they would take my clothes off if I did not cooperate. As a result of my detention, I suffer from ulcer problems, a split in my backbone and sharp pain in my chest. I also suffer from inflammation in my ear and severe headaches. When I was released, I found my baby suffering from anemia.

Zeinab Al-Haj from Armata:

Detained on July 14, 1988 and released on March 24, 1993.

The first time I was detained was for two days in 1986. In 1988, I was held for eight months in the Khiam camp. But after four days of my release, the collaborators came to me demanding me to cooperate with them. I refused and thus returned to the camp.

SLA policewomen would order me to take off all of my clothes. They would then put a sack on my head, blindfold me with a piece of cloth and handcuff me. During the interrogation period, I would be put in a solitary confinement. Still, I could hear the other prisoners’ screaming and moaning.

The interrogator slapped me so hard that my eye kept hurting me for a month.

When I was put in a cell with the other girls, I was relieved. We were not allowed to talk in a loud voice. The low illuminated cell was completely turned off at 8:00 p.m. We were not allowed to go to the toilet at night. We used to defecate on a nylon tissue or an empty sack of bread that would remain in the cell until the next morning. We were never allowed to take a shower properly. The policewomen would rush us by opening the doors after 10 minutes where we would get out with soap still over my bodies. This resulted in skin diseases to many of the girls.

Ramadan Mahmoud from Yarine:

Detained from December 3, 1990 to January 1, 1997.

Seven years in the Khiam camp, including two and the half years in solitary confinement were enough to make it difficult for Mahmoud to merge in society. "I got used to loneliness; I refused to go out with my relatives. I was always afraid of the step that I wanted to take, thinking that I might fail. Failing might be that I wouldn’t be able to have a conversation with somebody, or that people would see something wrong in me or in my pronunciation of the words," Mahmoud said.

He tried to escape the camp with three of his friends. He was caught after a landmine exploded, wounding him in the chest, hand and face. Two of his friends succeeded in running away while the third was also caught.

The tardy treatment of the inflammation in his wounded hand led to cutting it. His eye had to be gouged out for the same reason.

After his escape attempt, he was put in a solitary confinement for two and the half years. He had a serious psychological crisis. He was frequently losing his consciousness and tearing the letters from his family. His hearing ability was weakened and his eye bled. He was admitted to the Marjayoun Hospital inside the occupation zone and then released and expelled outside the zone.

When Ramadan was admitted to The Middle East Hospital in Beirut directly after his release, he was so confused that he tried to jump from the window. He thought those holding mobile phones, agents working for different parties. He also refused that his heart be tested with an electrocardiograph equipment thinking it was a torturing machine. His situation is until today unstable.

Suha Beshara from Deir Mimass:

Detained on November 11, 1988 after her attempt to assassinate the leader of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army that collaborates with Israel. Released on May 5, 1998.

I was first interrogated in Israel and then transferred to the Khiam camp. I was mainly tortured by electric shocks. I spent the first six years of my detention in a solitary confinement. I was repeatedly told that that if I want to get rid of my situation, I should collaborate with them.

Mr. Ali Shirrie from Khirbit Silim.

Teacher in Toulin Governmental School.

Detained on 19/02/86 at 21 years of age, and released on 21/07/96, more than 10 years later.

“I was cross-examined by official Israeli lieutenants. The continuous beating of the body, especially on the head area, used routinely during the investigations done by the Israelis, have resulted in my degradation in my eyesight. In 1989 my loss of eyesight was already 3 degrees, and increased drastically to 15 degrees in 1992, and reached 20 by the year 1997. My cellmates used to feed me because of my loss of eyesight. I also suffer urinary bladder infections, intestinal infections due to mal-nutrition, and severe reduction of my white blood cells. It was my parents who brought me medical spectacles in 1989, which they had to bring without any doctor’s consult since there was no doctor in the KDC or any kind of medical care”.

Mr. Ahmad Haidar.

From Kounine. Furniture painter.

Detained on 16/09/85 and released on 21/07/96, about 10 years later during the exchange of prisoners of war at that time.

“I was kidnapped from my house. Torture was consisted of electricity applied to my hands, fingers and feet in addition to the routine beating. At the start of the interrogation they beat me continuously by whipping, then they threw me into a small tight room for a month and a half all the time of which a bag was covering my head. During the years of 1985 and 1986 our food ‘menu’ contained the peels of lemons and bananas which was our only food available. During my years of detention, I was routinely beaten up and had my nose broken and leg sprained. Now, I suffer neurological problems, stomach problems, reproductive system infections, terrible headaches, hearing problems and disc. I now sit in solitude and lost the joy of being with my family and friends anymore”.

Mr. Ali Saad.

From Bint Jbeil.

Detained on 02/07/85 and released 10 years later on 21/07/96.

“I was hanged by the hands for a whole day with my feet above the ground where I was whipped and wetted continuously with boiled water and electricity was applied to my genital areas. My back was also beaten up occasionally by a shovel. An Israeli lieutenant called ‘Yaghi’ did most of the interrogations and on the 20th of February of the year 1995, the Israelis were all over the Khiam detention center. As for the situation and conditions of the detainees, ulcer and back pains are widely spread among the detainees due to the mal-nutrition and the continuous beating”.

Mr. Jamal Shrara.

From Bint Jbeil.

Detained on 01/11/85 and released on 01/05/96.

“I was taken from the middle of my village and subjected to electrification and whipping. I was locked up in a small solitary room for 32 days. I was neither prosecuted nor charged with anything. In the detention camp, they did a non-successful vascular operation which I suffer from now along with continuous terrible headaches, genital vascular embolization and fractures in my left leg due to the torturing activities I was subjected to”.

Mr. Ali Diab.

From Houla.

“I was taken from my village on 09/12/93 and released on 21/07/96. I was subjected to electrification, whipping, and hanging-on-the-pole during which icy water was continuously thrown at me for several hours, and was thrown to a completely dark room for ten days. I now suffer diabetes, shortage in my eyesight and hearing problems where I had to operate on my right ear. I also have blood cholesterol and 3 operations were done on my reproductive system in the KDC”.

Mr. Salman Mustafa.

From Houla.

“I was taken from my home on 29/03/92 and released on 21/07/96. Electricity was the first exposure; it was applied on the fingers and genital area. I was hanged-on-the-pole where I was whipped on my head and back and thrown cold and hot water on. Now a days, I cannot sleep, I suffer neurological problems, terrible headaches, shortage in eyesight and pneumatic problems due to the dampness of the cells, and all they did to medicate me was some pain relief drugs”.

Mr. Saadallah Haydoura.

From Mayss El-Jabal.

Detained on 01/09/86 and released on 21/07/96.

I was first electrified on my tongue and genital area. They threw icy water at me where the head of interrogators was Israeli lieutenant called Abu Brahim. They even took my father as a hostage for 8 months for more pressure on me to get a confession. They hung me on the pole, completely naked, for 6 hours in the snow. I was whipped and beaten up. My jaw was broken and I was not medicated. It is very hard for me to eat food now and I suffer from disc problems, asthma and problems in my eyes”.

Mr. Rida Mustafa.

From Houla.

“I was detained on 28/09/94 and transferred to Marje’ioun hospital in the occupied territories and then to a hospital in Beirut after my release on 16/07/96.

I was interrogated with for a whole month where 7 months later I started having blood pressure problems and heart problems. I also had lung infections and pain in my kidneys. As my health deteriorated, my blood pressure increased and I started to throw up my food. On the 10th of July 1996, I had internal bleeding and the Israelis were forced to move me to Marje’ioun hospital where I spent 5 days there without medical attendance. The apprehension of medical care there was strapping me to the hospital bed for the 5 days I spent there with the bleeding still on going. On the 16th of that month, 2 hours after they gave me a pain relief drug, I heard an Israeli official tell the guards that I should be released so that I ‘would not die there’. The Red Cross then moved me from Marje’ioun hospital to the Middle East hospital and then to the AUH where I am still being treated for blood infection, eyesight problems and hearing problems.

Mr. Ahmad Salim.

From Aita El-Shi’eb.

Detained on 17/06/91 and released on 21/07/96.

“I was whipped with iron chains until blood came out of my ears as well as the rest of my body. They transferred me to Marje’ioun hospital where I stayed there for 7 days. During my detention period, I was beaten and kicked all over and still suffer from their effects as in back pain, continuous headaches and stomach aches”.

Mr. Salim Bazzi.

From Bint Jbeil.

Detained on 01/06/89 and released on 21/07/96.

“During the interrogations, my fingers and genital areas where electrified. I was hanged-on-the-pole for 5 hours where icy water was continuously thrown at me. I was beaten up by the other end of guns and by thick wooden bats. I lost one of my eyes in the KDC and suffer terrible infections in the other eye”.

Mr. Ali Haidar.

From Markaba.

Detained on 08/10/85, and released about 11 years later on 21/07/96.

“I used to work as a door-to-door sales man. Ever since I was taken to the KDC, I was beaten up on the head and chest areas, electrified in the genital area and fingers, hung on the pole and thrown hot and cold water at. I spent 2 months in a 90x90 cm2 solitary dark room, 7 years in the ‘punishment’ division with no lights at all. I now suffer from disordered neurological system, curved vertebral column, torn nerves of the neck, weakness in the right hand, mal-function in the right leg, urinary problems, stomach problems and eyesight weakness”.

Mr. Yehia Hussein.

From Aita El-Shi’eb.

Detained on 20/09/94, for the second time since my first 22 days in the KDC in 1992, and released on 21/07/96.

“An Israeli patrol invaded my house and beat me up until I had severe internal bleeding. One of the Israeli soldiers then said that they would take me to the doctor who turned out to be the ‘KDC’. Inspite of the internal bleeding I was suffering from, they cuffed my hands, kicked me off the chair I was sitting on, and started jumping up and down on my back. They electrified my fingers, put me to solitary for 7 days, hung me on the pole where they threw hot and cold water at me, and whipped me all over. All this to force me to work for them. Soon I started to spit blood and was admitted to Marje’ioun hospital 4 times. Whenever the doctor would subscribe a drug for me, they would not get it. Now, I have 3 calcified vertebral columns, I cannot work because of the internal injury of my stomach and intestinal infections. I have no appetite for food and suffer cardiac and epidermal problems. I also have pain in my eyes and internal nose. When I was first released, my own children were not able to recognize me”.

Mr. Ali Karim.

From Deir Siryan.

Detained on 08/11/89, and released 6 and a half years later on 02/05/96.

“I was taken from my village to join the pro-Israeli militias. When I refused to help the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, I was transferred to the KDC to be ‘tamed’. In the interrogation room I was blindfolded so I couldn’t tell what hit me. I was beaten, kicked, electrified and humiliated by all possible means. I suffered from stomach problems where I had to be transferred to the Marje’ioun hospital for 14 times. I now suffer from ulcer, stomach infections, urinary system infections, and calcification of the hand and feet joints. I was operated on my right hand to stimulate the nerves of my fingers and have my 2 hands paralyzed. I suffer from asthma and am still in and out of the hospital ever since my release”.

Mr. Khodor Nasrallah.

From Mayss El-Jabal.

Detained on 21/02/94 and released on 21/07/96.

“I was forced to enroll in the pro-Israeli militias and detained for the charge of giving information to the underground Lebanese resistance. They threatened to rape my mother and sister if I did not confess and they beat me fiercely by a wooden bat on my knees and hung on the pole for 2 hours. I now suffer from difficulties in my respiratory system (difficulty breathing) and calcification of the 5th vertebrae, and in need of continuous physiotherapy”.

Mr. Abdelsalam Nasrallah.

From Houla.

Detained on 21/03/92 and released on 21/07/96.

“My interrogation took 1 and a half months where I was beaten with a wooden bat on my back and put near a heater to throw icy water at me. I was subjected to electrification of the fingers and was forced to sleep on the floor where 2 soldiers would start walking all over me. I was hung on the pole 4 times. These and other types of torture result in the stomach problems, eyesight problems and disc problems to be so widely spread in the KDC”.

Mr. Firass El-Amin.

From Houla.

Detained on 01/02/94 and released on 21/07/96.

“I was dragged out of my village to the KDC where the soldiers beat me up, hung me on the pole for 3 hours during which I was whipped on my back and feet and was also kicked on the stomach with their boots. As a result of the different means of torture, I now suffer from weakness in my eyesight. During the period I had to spend in the KDC, I was transferred 4 times to Marje’ioun hospital; and after my release, an ENT surgery and knee surgery were operated on me. I also suffer terrible headaches and curved vertebral column”.

Mr. H. M.

From Aita El-Shi’eb.

Detained on 02/08/93 and released on 21/07/96.

Farmer, married and have 7 children.

“The beating started during and after they took me to the KDC. I was whipped on my feet several times and electricity was applied several times as well. They used to put me blindfolded in the middle, form a circle of soldiers around me, and start beating and kicking me all at once and all over. They hung me on the pole for several hours and put me to solitary for 23 days and later for 5 months. They frequently threatened to rape my mother and sister. I was transferred to Marje’ioun hospital 3 times because of my injuries that resulted from torture. I suffer from stomach problems and facial bleeding (internal and external) because they hit me in the face with an iron bat. My breathing and heartbeats are irregular and I feel continuous dizziness and body weakness. I also suffer from pains in the pelvis. During my period in the KDC, the nurses of the Marje’ioun hospital used to steal the medicine drugs brought to me by my parents and sell it to others. I am out now, but many of the other detainees are still inside; many suffer hazardous health conditions that resulted in several medical reports asking for their release to proper medical care”.

Mr. Hussein Ramadan.

From Blat.

Detained on 01/05/96 and released 7 months later on 09/12/96.

I was beaten and insulted all through my time in the KDC. I was interrogated about any relations with the Lebanese Army Intelligence or the Lebanese underground resistance intelligence. There are engineers, doctors and normal civilians in the KDC who have been detained for refusing to work with the Israeli occupation or to pay taxes, or for simply not having the right facial features or expressions during Israeli patrol rounds”.

Mr. Ali Sa’id.

From Arnoun.

“I was a student in the Lebanese Technical School in Nabatieh and was kidnapped along with my friend, Hassan Zhour, in the afternoon of 30/11/96 while returning to our village after school was over. When we reached the end of the village, an Israeli inspection point, that was not usually there, stopped us and its soldiers told us to dismount from the car after which they cuffed and blindfolded us. They then took me to a room in the Shkeif point where I was interrogated for 6 continuous hours during which I was subjected top beating and insults along with the questions for information on several of my villagers. On the next day, they re-cross examined me for 5 hours where there were 3 Israelis who threatened to move me to the Palestinian occupied territories. After that they transferred us, each on a separate tank, to the middle of Arnoun on the Monday afternoon of 02/12/96 and let us go. We still do not know what was going on except that it was another way of Israeli terrorism”.

Ms. Sonia Baydoun.

From Aytaroun.

Detained on 25/02/91 and released on 03/08/94.

“It all started when they decided to make my brother to be forcefully enrolled in the pro-Israeli militias. They surrounded the house and took me, with a bag over my head so that I couldn’t see anything, and put me to a dark room inspite of all my screaming. One of the soldiers came to me and said that my brother confessed about me. I did not say anything, so he said that he was going to put me in a room full of men who would take turns in raping me, it was then that I had a nervous breakdown. The next day, they whipped my feet until I fainted. They made me kneel down for a whole hour and asked me to work for them, when I refused they re-started to beat me up and insult me. I was put to 3 months solitary room with hot and cold water being daily thrown at me. I refused to work with them and told them that I would rather stay imprisoned for 20 years than to deal with them. During the time my brother and I were in the KDC, my father died. He had a breakdown and died because he knew what the KDC meant”.

Mr. Hussein Abbass.

From Taybe.

Detained on 04/04/87 and released end 1989.

I was kidnapped from my house in Taybe and taken to the KDC. They put me in the outdoors for the first 3 days kicking and beating me all up. On the 4th day, Abu Nabil cross-examined me. I was whipped on my back and feet with iron chains and hung on the pole for 2 days, and then I was put to a hen house. Various types of torture were inflicted on us; my nails were taken out, slowly and painfully, and I have seen them taking Jamal Bazzi’s nails out with a wrench and N. H.’s hair with pincers. Electrification was inflicted on our hand fingers and feet as well as on the tongues and genital areas and they put out cigarettes on our chest. We were allowed a bath every 3 months

As for the humiliation where one can feel he/she are not human beings anymore, this is what they do best; we have to stand up for any soldier who passes by, one of the Israeli soldiers put coffee on his shoes and told me to lick it. I was hit in my rectum when I was stripped naked and they put a handy bomb in the rectum of another detainee to force him to confess. Mal nutrition was terrible, and the thirst was even worse… one drank his own urine because he hadn’t had any drink of liquid for weeks…”

Mr. Ali Abdeltaher.

From Houla.

Detained on 22/03/92 and released 28/02/95.

“I was on my way back from the Taybe Governmental School when a security official of the pro-Israeli militia stopped me. They put a bag over my head and cuffs in my hands. I was directly transferred to the KDC where the beatings and the whipping immediately started. I was also subjected to electrification of my hand fingers, tongues and ears and threw hot and cold water at me until I faint out. I now suffer from cardiac problems, lung infections, neurological tension and hearing problems”.

Mr. Mohamad Awada.

From Nakoura.

Detained on 01/04/90 and released 28/02/95.

“I was kidnapped on the crossing passage of Beit Yahoun and transferred to the KDC. I was stripped naked and thrown cold and hot water at while hitting and whipping me all over for 3 hours. I was then put to solitary confinement, 160x100 cm2, for 28 days”.

Ms. Nawal Baydoun.

From Bint Jbeil.

Detained on 20/04/88 and released 4 years later on 10/04/92.

“My house was invaded by Israeli and pro-Israeli militias and I was forcefully transferred to the KDC. They charged me with possession of a weapon, and when I denied, they started electrifying my body until I fainted. When I woke up, I found my body covered with blood. Next day they started with a softer tone of ‘if you confess we will let you go’. When I did not, they re-started the electrification all over until I fell unconscious again. I was then put to a solitary dark room for several days after which I was requested again for interrogation where they forced me to kneel down in front of a soldier who started kicking me on my back and stood on my hand fingers squeezing them to the floor. He then started beating me up, and when he finished, he called for 2 other soldiers to put me in the outdoors and start throwing hot and cold water at me. The interrogation was over in about 40 days that seemed forever. My leg was operated on in the KDC and I now suffer from concussion and total health deterioration”.

Mr. Mohamad Ramadan.

From Yarin.

Detained on 03/12/90 and released about 6 years later on 12/01/97.

Mohamad was kidnapped on the crossing passage of Al Hamra during his visit to his village in the occupied territories and was put to the KDC. He was been to the torturing activities of the KDC, and was put to 3 years of solitary confinement and electrification of his fingers and chest. The terrible situation of the KDC made Ramadan and some of his friends plan an escape; 2 of them succeeded, but Ramadan was injured by a land mine, where he was re-captured and the injuries in his hands and chest were deliberately left untreated. This resulted in his hand getting infected and later amputated, and one of his eyes was injured where he eventually lost it completely due to the reluctance in mending his wounds.

The condition of Mohamad Ramadan got worse everyday. The continuous loss of consciousness, the hemorrhage in his eyes and weakness of hearing made the Israelis continuously move him to and from Marje’ioun hospital and finally decide to let him go since they did not want him to die in the KDC. When he was released, Mohamad was corpse-like… his hand was amputated, his eye gone, amnesic and was sent away from his village Yarin which he was deprived from seeing in the first place. Ramadan was admitted to a hospital in Beirut where he refused to get medication or to eat his food because he thought he was still in the KDC, and he threatened to throw himself of the window if anyone got near him. The doctors who examined Mohamad decided to get him the psychiatric help he needs to first, convince him that he is out of the KDC so that he would start accepting treatment, and second, and as importantly to help him regain his memory”.

Dr. Georges Nakad.

From Deir Mimass.

Detained on 05/11/96 and released on 23/01/97.

Dr. Nakad was kidnapped during a family visit in Deir Mimass. His wife Khadije Hassoun and their 2 children were held hostages by the Israeli forces and their militias in her uncle’s house. Information assures that it was the Israeli intelligence forces that did the interrogation with Dr. Nakad and kept him in detention for 3 months without any trial or lawyer. And it was the international support mounted on Israel that led to his release with his wife and children.

Mr. Abdallah Rida.

From Aita El-Shi’eb.

“My name is Abdallah Rida and I am 31 years old. I was kidnapped 4 and a half years ago when I came for a visit from Brazil to see my family in my occupied village, Aita El-Shi’eb, and was released on 10/02/97. The pro-Israeli Lahed militias took me to center no. 17 where I stayed for 5 days of interrogation and torture. I was then transferred to the KDC where I saw the death in all its colors of black and red. The stay in the KDC consisted of beating, kicking and hanging on the pole for several hours per day. The charge was the explosion that occurred in Argentina and that I never heard of, except in the KDC. I now suffer from chest pain due to the continuous chest beating inflicted on me during these 4 and a half years of detention.]

I hereby ask all the humanitarian organizations to work quickly on the release of all the detainees from the black and red death KDC camp.

　

Recommendations

These testimonies are merely a sample of the horrifying actions of the Israelis against the Lebanese hostages in the Israeli detention centers and against all humanitarian and international laws.

The kidnapping of 10s of Lebanese citizens to the KDC or the IDCs, with or without trial, and releasing them only when they are terminal cases; the continuous siege of several villages, the forced enrollment in the pro-Israeli militias, the deportation of people away from their homes, the cold blooded massive murder of the Kana massacre, … are all considered to be dangerous violations of human rights and international community.

We demand to induce pressures for the formation of the Kana International Court for Israeli War Criminals (KIC Israeli War criminals). The massive murders the Israelis have committed in Kana, Nabatieh, Al Mansouri, Safad El-Battikh, KDC, and others…, are crimes against humanity, and naked violations of the United Nations’ Convention and the International declaration of Human Rights.

The whole world is requested to come out of their silence and to mount the pressures needed on Israel to save the Lebanese hostages from the Israeli detention hell centers. The amount of violations committed by Israel in the KIDCs requests an immediate convention for all the international and Arab organizations involved in the human rights actions to stop the bloody massacres committed against the Lebanese citizens who became hostages in their own homes. What Israel is inflicting is a threat against all humanity, and all the humanitarian activists should mount efforts to achieve the following:

1- Send an investigation committee to the Khiam Detention Center to investigate in the torture claims of the detainees.

2- Allow an international group of medical doctors from the World Health Organization to enter the KIDCs and examine and mend the sick and wounded.

3- Immediate release of the sick and wounded.

4- Immediate release of the detainees detained since 1989 and before…

5- International trials for the detainees, otherwise their immediate release.

6- Immediate release of all the detainees who have ‘served their sentences’.

7- Immediate release of all the detainees who have not been tried.

8- Reject the Asskalan IDC ‘sentences’ and renouncing them to be illegal and release all the prisoners.

9- Force Israel to declare all the names of those missing and are in their custody.

10- Consider attacking civilians as intolerable and force the return of the exiled families.

We hereby forward this document to the United Nations, Arab League, European Community, and to all the international, Arab, humanitarian, law, health, and anti-torture committees, to pressure Israel to terminate the tragedy of the Lebanese hostages in the KIDCs and their families.

The world should act before another Kana massacre occurs. The standard for the defense of human rights worldwide shall be the closure of the Detention Centers and the release of all the hostages.

Follow-Up Committee for the Support of the Lebanese Detainees in the Israeli Prisons

　

Released Mr. Said Al Akhrass, Tells About the Torturing in the KDC

Village: Hibberiyeh

Detention Date: 15/08/85

Date of Release: 01/03/95

I was taken from my village directly to the Khiam Detention Camp.

On the first day I was taken in, the Israeli soldiers beat me up with bats and whips until I got blue and black marks on my body. They took my nails out by electric means and I developed gangrene.

We practically had days of starvation especially in the first 3 years of detention. One of the detainees ate part of his clothes to calm down his stomach because all we had as food was the liquid of some meal (but not stew), and some times, a bit of something that smells like yoghurt.

There was no medical care at all. It took them till 1988 to start supplying us with Aspirin and Panadol pills. They actually made us pay for these pills at double its real cost. They also did several misapplications of surgical procedures as was the cases of Naim Sheito and Jamal Sharara.

I was operated on for 3 times.

I am unable to have children anymore because they used to apply electricity on my genital organs.

Israel has direct supervision over the KDC. They took 4 of those I know into the IDCs, of whom I mention Kamal Rizk and Hassan Hijazi.

We used to kill the time by telling the movie stories that we had watched when we were kids, to each other.

After 10 years of detention I feel more proud and determined to fight for my land and its freedom.

My call is to all the humanitarians around the world to look into what is going on in the KIDCs as I send my greetings to the Follow-Up Committee for the Support of the Lebanese Detainees in the Israeli Prisons for being the voice of all the detainees and had worked in the direction of getting through the detention camp walls and raise our voices to the international community.

Said Al Akhrass

　

Released Mr. Maroon Kazzi, Tells About the Torturing in the KDC

Village: Jiyeh

Detention Date: 13/10/91

Date of Release: 15/01/95

Job: Computer Science Student

I was arrested from the Casino Ahiram Restaurant from Ain Ibel village. The charge, as they claimed then, was spying on the pro-Israeli militia calls. When they took me to center no. 17, Akel Hachem told me that my real charge was swearing at the pro-Israeli militias.

They hit me with stones and rocks on my teeth and one of them inserted his shoe into my mouth from 6:00 p.m. till 10:00. When I fainted and could not see anything anymore, I was taken inside Israeli territories.

One of the Israeli Generals asked me to work for them or he will throw me to prison:

“You are Christian, Maroon, we should be friends… cooperate with us and we will give you better salary…” I refused and told him that if the KDC was the alternative, then so be it.

They took me to the KDC at night with my head covered with a bag. There, they put my fingers to electricity, stripped me naked and threw cold and hot water on my body. They hanged me on the pole and kept me there for 45 days, where soldiers came up and hit me on my stomach until my ulcer that was under medication before my detention, exploded.

When I started spitting blood, they asked me to work with them and in return, they would let me go… I refused… They presented me a visa to any country that I may want but to get out of Lebanon… I refused again… They said I was stupid or insane. I was then put to solitude cell for teaching a fellow detainee the French language, and teaching others to read and write.

We used to tell some theatrical stories, or tell jokes to kill the time and help our spirits remain high.

My call to the whole world is to pursue a worldwide campaign for the closure of the Khiam Detention Camp and the release of all the Lebanese detainees in the Israeli Detention Camps.

Maroon Kazzi

Back to our section on the Jewish war against Lebanon