[The Israeli prisons are secret torture camps, we demand for an investigating committee to lock into the situation of the detainees].
Monique Bicar Ville the French started following up the file concerning Lebanese detainees in the Israeli prisons when she took up the case of the detainee Anwar Yassin in 1988, he was detained while he was in combat with the resistance against the Israelis, he was then taken wounded to "Israel" where the military court there sentenced him to thirty years in prison.
Bicar Ville says to "Al-Nahar": "After my first visit to "Israel" to try and look into the file of Yassin, I was also given the case of Suha Bishara, I had the feeling that they might get rid of her, her case was forgotten , for most often their survival depended on the amount of publicity that was put in their favor. So we succeeded in bringing out this case into the open.
The European Parliament issued a resolution in 1989, reassuring that what Suha Bishara did conforms with the resistance activity against the occupation and condemned the stringent measures that she is facing, pointing out that there may be a possibility of danger to her life while demanding for her release or at least to be put under the attention of the International Red Cross, this clear statement had an impact on the Israeli Authorities which tried to falsity the case.
So they allowed a journalist called Roqeh Auk who was previously a hostage in Lebanon to do the research on Suha Bishara, they opened the doors of Al-Khiam prison for him were he met Suha and wrote an article about her called: "A deadly portrait ", in which he claimed that she was in good health and also regretted for what she had done".
After the first visit, Bicar returned in 1990 and succeeded in meeting with the detainees in Askalan prison but without entering Al-Khiam Prison, even with the wide support of the French Embassy, she says: "After the Gulf war, and with the beginning of the peace talks, I waited for the new situation to be reflected on the detainees, but when I saw that the Palestinians were still in prison I knew that the Lebanese detainees would be forgotten, so I returned in 1994 and met with the detainees of Askalan prison after waiting with the families for a long time under the rain and in the mud, the problem is that the Israeli authorities does not give out I written permission but a verbal one, without any specific information regarding the time and type of the visit. What touched me was that the Palestinian meet with the Lebanese detainees regularly, for example the Taxi driver who took me there kept on visiting the Lebanese detainees even after his son was released".
After her last visit, the French lawyer addressed a letter to the Israeli Jostice Minister, in it she explained the situation of the Israeli prisons and demanded for their improvement, threatening to publish her documents, her efforts were reworded by allowing the International Red Cross to visit. She then sent another letter demanding for the release of the detainees while also threatening to publish which resulted in the release of some of the prisoners. When she saw that her threats were fruitful, she then sent another letter demanding for the release of all detainees without any exceptions, but this letter had no answer".
She added: "A committee for then formed which included members of three humanitarian organizations, which are: The Christian movement to polish torture, the International committee of Democratic Judges, the International Union for human rights. The committee addressed a letter to the Israeli Justice minister demanding they be given the right to enter Al-Khiam prison and other prisons, to look into the situation of the detainees and keeping the detainees in prison after the sentenced period being over, and to get all information regarding sentences passed on Lebanese detainees, considering that any sentences on them for being involved in the resistance contradicts the resolution at the Geneva Convention and therefore considered illegal. But this letter up to new has not had any reaction from the Israeli side.
Regarding the Lebanese prisoners, it pointed out three situations, managerial detention without issuing a sentence a sentence, long prison sentences exceeding twenty years, shout prison sentences with the majority of them remaining in prison after the end of the sentence period. It added, "Al-Khiam prison any of them, and 165 missing persons with their destinies unknown, with the probability that they maybe held in Israeli prison or in the occupied territories in the South of Lebanon, regarding the Lebanese prisons inside "Israel" their number are 44 some of then held without sentences, and some others are still held after the end of their sentences, and others are serving long term sentences, sentences which in fact contradict with the Geneva Convention regarding prisoners of war, for the interrogations are conducted under barbaric measures and without military courts, which proves its illegality, not forgetting that the Israeli prisons of detention lentres are not traditional prisons but concentration ramps covered with secrecy, and all the measures are taken under full secrecy and silence, and we cannot be sure that weather women are being raped or not for example, for they do not dare talk of these mathers.
The detainees are sent back and forth continuously. The Israeli authority regularly detains suspected prisons which are later released after being tortured , and it looks like there are a new group of young detainees, amongst them a boy aged 12, where as prisons should have signs of beauty, such as work of arts of handy work done by the inmates and which are sent to their relatives. I received a beautiful gift from one of the prisoners lute the guard would not allow me to keep it".
She thinks that this demands would have had much batter results if it were followed up by an active role of the western publicity media, because the case of the Lebanese detainees is a forgotten one and is a mind case compared to the Palestinian one, but in her opinion the results achieved are not minor, like allowing relatives to visit and releasing some others.
And she once more pointed out the illegal stands that the Israelis use to sentence the prisoners, which also refuses to comply by th laws of war. Saying that "Israel" executes police operations in Lebanon from the stance that she has the right to defend her security, where as the articles of the Geneva Convention are very clear and compels all sides involved in armed conflict. But calling the Lebanese resistance as terrorist is a week excuse , and the resolutions of the security council and the Geneva Assembly of the UN has condemned the presence of "Israel" in the South of Lebanon which in itself proves the legality of the resistance, and the bast example for this is Suha Bishara who refused to place a bombs in Lahds house so as not to harm the wife and children.