Families hope new law will bring answers
Item
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Identifier
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20190424_0001_v
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Title
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en
Families hope new law will bring answers
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Description
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1 فيديو، صوتي، ملون
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Source
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Associated Press
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Date
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24 April 2019
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Format
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en
MP4
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Language
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en
Arabic
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Type
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en
Video
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Coverage
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حديقة جبران خليل جبران، وسط بيروت
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Extent
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00:02:00
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Abstract
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Families of people who disappeared during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war have gathered in Beirut.
They hope that the Lebanese government's recently passed law for the formation of an independent commission will finally give them some answers.
STORYLINE:
Relatives with only photographs of their loved ones. People who will likely never return.
These families have gathered in Beirut in the hope that the Lebanese government's recently passed law for the formation of an independent commission will finally give them some answers.
An estimated 17,000 people disappeared during the country's 1975-90 civil war.
Late last year, Lebanon's parliament approved the formation of a commission to determine their fate.
Families and rights groups have been campaigning for the law since 2012, when it first went to parliament. Now, the families want the law to be implemented.
"We have waited a long time and suffered for a long time. We never stopped demanding to know the fate of our loved ones who were stolen from us unjustly and unfairly. We will not give up and we will not abandon them. We will not compromise at their expense," says Wadad Halwani, founder of the Local Committee for the Missing and Kidnapped in Lebanon.
She says they want to "uncover the fate of the missing and kidnapped, and whether they are dead or alive."
Christophe Martin, Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, takes the microphone and describes this moment as:
"An unprecedented opportunity for the country not only to bring answers to families, but also to start helping the society coming to terms with a tormented past."
Law 105 gives families the right to know the place of abduction or detention of their loved one, as well as the whereabouts of their remains and the right to retrieve them.
Many of Lebanon's political parties are led by former warlords implicated in some of the civil war's worst fighting.
