A
former Israeli-proxy South Lebanon Army interrogator at the Khiam
detention center has been living in Canada for up to seven years, despite
appearing last year on a list drawn up by the Canadian authorities naming SLA
militiamen suspected of committing crimes against humanity.Issam Jarawan, originally from the southern village of Deir Mimes, is one of four ex-SLA militiamen living in Canada with Canadian citizenship, whose addresses and phone numbers have been supplied to The Daily Star by a secret organization dedicated to tracking down suspected SLA war criminals.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) last year compiled a list of 35 names of militiamen who worked in the Khiam prison and are suspected of committing human rights abuses. The list was circulated among a handful of countries which Israel had asked to accept SLA refugees and their families who had fled Lebanon when Israel withdrew its troops in May 2000.
Jarawan who was No. 26 on the RCMP list achieved notoriety for his brutality during interrogations.
He was the No.1 torturer, said Ahmad Yehia, a former detainee who spent 11 years in the Khiam detention center. Jarawan tortured without mercy. He took pleasure in it.
Yehia claimed that one of Jarawans techniques was to pour boiling water over the bodies of his victims.
The skin would become like cooked pasta and he would whip them with wire. The wire would cut deep into the scalded flesh. We often would see blood and pieces of meat on the floor afterward, he said.
Jarawan left Khiam and Lebanon in 1993 and was granted Canadian citizenship in 1998. Today, Jarawan lives quietly in Ontario.
When contacted by The Daily Star, Jarawan answered to his name but had no comment to make on the allegations that he was involved in human rights abuses in Khiam prison.
The Daily Star was supplied with the address and phone numbers of Jarawan and three other ex-SLA officials from a Canada-based group calling itself Lebanese Community Sources.
The group said it was a network of individuals from all over Canada and other countries who are not affiliated with any other organization.
Their stated aim is to see the Canadian government stop circumventing its obligations under international law and actually helping out torturers and war criminals when friendly countries such as Israel are involved.
The three other former SLA officials tracked down by the group include Sharbel Barakat, a colonel in the SLA originally from Ain Ibl. Barakat was deputy to Saad Haddad, the founder of the militia that was to evolve into the SLA, and later placed in charge of the militia s foreign relations. He was granted Canadian citizenship in 1995 and lives in Ontario.
The other two are Musa Shibli Saleh and Fadel Mahmoud Saleh, both former members of the SLAs intelligence wing known as Unit 504, operating in and around Aita Shaab in the western sector of the former occupation zone. Both men live in Montreal. Musas brother Ahmad, is also thought to live in the Montreal area, according to the Lebanese Community Sources.
The Saleh family, Ahmad in particular, is notorious in Aita Shaab for instituting a brutal regime against the residents.
After surviving a roadside bomb attack in July 1999, Ahmad imposed a clampdown on the village, detaining dozens of residents and banning anyone from leaving the zone.
Ahmad was like a pharaoh, said Mohammed Harisi, a resident of the village. He was the main abuser of the people. He punished the whole village after the bomb attack.
Ahmad Shibli Saleh earned his position as Unit 504 chief of the Aita Shaab area by impressing the Israelis with his uncompromising methods, the residents said.
He killed many people before he became security chief, said Hajj Ahmad. When he was on patrol or staging an ambush, he would shoot at ordinary people on their way to work just to show how tough he was.
At least two other prominent former SLA officials are known to be in Canada: Riad Abdullah, a former governor in the Khiam area, who now has Canadian citizenship, and Akram Fayyad, believed to have been a former Unit 504 agent, who is currently in prison in Canada awaiting trial for a murder he allegedly committed in October 1999.
Canada appears to have been a popular destination for former SLA militiamen since before the Israeli withdrawal. In February 2000, The Daily Star revealed the existence of a racket in which SLA militiamen could purchase clean Lebanese passports and forged Canadian visas for $3,000.
The Lebanese Community Sources said they believed that Canadas strong commercial ties with Israel and the presence of a powerful Jewish lobby in Canada has led the Canadian government to turn a blind eye to the presence of suspected SLA war criminals in the country.
The group, consisting of volunteers, models itself on the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks down Nazi war criminals.
We provide (information on suspected SLA war criminals) to organizations and individuals who have an interest in prosecuting these individuals. Publicity around them undoubtedly attracts victims who want to testify, the group said.
According to officials, it is government policy to prosecute any war criminal in Canada regardless of background.
But the Lebanese Community Sources pointed out that Jarawan was granted citizenship in 1998, two years before the RCMP included him on a list of people suspected of carrying out serious human rights abuses.
Did the RCMP not check whether or not he and these other people were already in Canada before circulating the list to other countries? the group asked. After all, there were only 35 people on the list suspected of war crimes. Thats a most serious allegation.
The sources said that they prefer to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the information and the criminal nature of the individuals involved.