Report: Lebanese army attacking migrants (Syrians, Egyptians and Sudanese)
Posted by Farfahinne at 2:12 PM
By Nadim Houry
Regarding the events of Sunday the 7th of October 2012 concerning Syrian Workers, Egyptians, and Sudanese in Geitawi/Achrafieh Beirut/ Lebanon
location:
• so far the incidents we are aware of, took place between 20:30 Sunday the 7th. and 2:00 Monday the 8th. of October, in Al-Geitawi neighbourhood in Ashrafeih.
• We visited two locations, the first (L1) is a school that was turned into cheap residence, in it there is many nationalities including Lebanese, the second (L2) comprise two houses rented by Egyptians in the same aria.
• We met residents of three rooms in (L1)
• We met residents of the two houses in (L2)
• We were told of another two locations but we were not able to detect them so far.
the victims:
• at least 100 people were targeted, roughly 20 Egyptians and the rest were Syrians.
• we met 5 groups three Syrians and two Egyptians. age ranging from 15 to 45.
• In location one (L1) the victims were Syrians resident of 8 rooms, they were gathered in one room, 60~ of them, and were tortured from 22:00 the 7th. till 2:00 the 8th.
• In location two (L2) the victims were taken from the two houses into the rooftop of one of the houses, 40~ people including 20~Egyptians and 20~ Syrians, they were tortured there from 20:30 till 00:00 the 7th .
• all victims work in Lebanon since long time, and had valid papers, including in the case of Egyptians work residency.
• Few of the victims in (L2) were arbitrary arrested in the streets, they were not asked to show their papers, one said he was asked by a soldier where does he live, when he answered he was taken down by the soldier.
The perpetrators:
• the first Egyptian group were told directly to open the door to the "army intelligence".
• the second Egyptian group agreed they were army intelligence from a print on the back of an over-coat of at least two of the soldiers.
• the Syrians were sure it was the Lebanese army and they speculated the "army intelligence" .
The course of events:
In (L2):
• at around 8:30 the door was knocked violently, and the residence were asked to open to the “army intelligence” once they did, two soldiers entered ordering them to kneel with their face down, they started beating them with wooden sticks, kicking them, one was kicked on the face, another who was the elder of the house, asked the soldiers what is the charges and why they are beating them, he was knocked on his back with the gun stock, leaving a visible bruise on his back.
Then they were taken to the second house rooftop, were they found around 50 soldiers including officers, and there was other detainees laying face down on the ground, they were order to do the same, they were beaten during all of that, all of them showed bruises on their backs.
The residences of the second house were treated the same, and taken to the rooftop.
The beating continued till midnight, then the soldiers ordered the detainees to go back to their rooms and “to sleep within ten minutes” .
The soldiers stepped and walked on the back of the detainees, beat them with sticks, slapped them and kicked them.
During all of that the soldiers continued to insult the detainees.
There was no investigations nor did the perpetrators gave any specific reason for their action, they only said “you are harassing girls in the streets”.
The Neighbours tried to mediate with the soldiers and told them the victims were “good people who lived among us since long time” the soldiers, ordered them to go inside their houses and to close their windows and doors.
In (L1):
The soldiers entered the rooms around 22:00 and started beating its residents ordering to them to crawl while moving, not to speak, and not to look the soldiers in the eye, again they gave the same vague reason for their action, stating that the victims were harassing girls in the neighbourhood.
The 60 victims were hurled into one room 4x7 meters, asked to kneel hands behind the head, and to rest their face on their comrades back, then the soldiers called in the largest of them to walk on the human carpet.
A local shop owner, a Lebanese, tried to mediate for the detainees, but the soldiers held him and he was threaten he will face the same fate of the Syrians if he does not back of.
The method of beating was identical to that in (L2) insults and oral violence accompanied the beating, one man 43 years old, had his rips broken, another who had a broken leg asked the soldiers to spare it from the beating, the soldiers answered by beating him exactly on the broken leg, then called the officer and complained that the detainees was a stubborn-head.
The victims were asked about their opinions of what is happening in Syria, and if they support the free Syrian army, they were also asked about their sects, few were asked why they are not in Syria fighting with the regular army (to defend the country) and one stated that he was told he will be deported to Syria because he is in the right age to be a drafted.
One soldier said in answer for screams of his victims: “since when you Syrians have a protesting voice? You have been always oppressed”.
One of the soldiers pulled an electric cord and throw it on the wet ground, which resulting in electric-shocking one man, and a short circuit that put the curtains on fire.
After that they moved the detainees to another room. And beating continued till 2:00 in the morning.
None of the victims was finally arrested.
On the night of Sunday the 7th of October 2012 a group of Syrian and Lebanese who heard of the incident through an eye witness, went to investigate the situation, we saw army's Humvees, and they had up to 10 detainees, the detainees were probably Africans, but we could not specify where they were arrested.
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