New Mass Graves Deepen Mass Killing Horror at Ex-Syrian HQ in Anjar
Up to five mass graves were unearthed this weekend in Anjar, the former command of Syria's military intelligence in Lebanon, blowing the lid off another atrocity of 30 years of Syrian military control and further embittering the tenuous Damascus-Beirut relations.
Local residents and anxious families of Lebanese missing in the civil war chased after the bulldozers Sunday as they plowed through new mass graves in the vicinity of Nabi Aziz, where the Syrian military kept its notorious interrogation centers.
The Lebanese media unanimously reported that it was too early to determine exactly how many people had been buried in the five locations, because most of the bodies were decomposed and forensic experts needed time to put the remains together. But conservative estimates say so far at least 40 have been exhumed.
Officially, Lebanon has refrained from directing any blame for the perceived Syrian witch hunt. But politicians and families still searching for missing loved ones are bent on seeking local and international justice. They have unanimously rejected Damascus claims that the bodies unearthed were victims of civil war fighting, or Palestinians executed by Sabri al-Banna, who goes by nom de guerre of Abu Nidal, the notorious terror mastermind who is now dead.
Gebran Tueni, An Nahar's general-manager and Beirut MP, said he would seek official explanation from the government for the Anjar atrocity as well as the mass grave recently unearthed near the Lebanese Defense Ministry in Yarze, where the remains of 17 soldiers and four civilians were dug up.
Importantly, Tueni demanded an international investigation into the case, which he likened to the ethnic cleansing massacres in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Anjar residents last week tipped Lebanese authorities about the presence of mass graves in the vicinity, saying as many as 50 corpses were buried near the Syrian intelligence command headquarters. The digging began Friday, and by sundown Sunday, remains had been exhumed from five locations and taken for DNA testing.
An Nahar quoted Fouad Ayoub, a coroner appointed by the state prosecutor to examine the remains, as saying some of the bodies have been in the mass graves for at least 20 years.
Authorities are concentrating on the identities of the victims to ascertain whether any of the 176 kidnapped and unaccounted for since the civil war years are among them. Katayeb security chief Boutros Khawand is among the missing.
"This is the biggest proof that the crime is very big and touches the lives of hundreds of Lebanese families," said Ghazi Aad, director of Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile, better known as SOLIDE. It works for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails and learning the fate of missing people.
Aad called for an international investigation into the mass graves and other killings allegedly carried out while Syrian troops were in Lebanon.
Local residents and anxious families of Lebanese missing in the civil war chased after the bulldozers Sunday as they plowed through new mass graves in the vicinity of Nabi Aziz, where the Syrian military kept its notorious interrogation centers.
The Lebanese media unanimously reported that it was too early to determine exactly how many people had been buried in the five locations, because most of the bodies were decomposed and forensic experts needed time to put the remains together. But conservative estimates say so far at least 40 have been exhumed.
Officially, Lebanon has refrained from directing any blame for the perceived Syrian witch hunt. But politicians and families still searching for missing loved ones are bent on seeking local and international justice. They have unanimously rejected Damascus claims that the bodies unearthed were victims of civil war fighting, or Palestinians executed by Sabri al-Banna, who goes by nom de guerre of Abu Nidal, the notorious terror mastermind who is now dead.
Gebran Tueni, An Nahar's general-manager and Beirut MP, said he would seek official explanation from the government for the Anjar atrocity as well as the mass grave recently unearthed near the Lebanese Defense Ministry in Yarze, where the remains of 17 soldiers and four civilians were dug up.
Importantly, Tueni demanded an international investigation into the case, which he likened to the ethnic cleansing massacres in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Anjar residents last week tipped Lebanese authorities about the presence of mass graves in the vicinity, saying as many as 50 corpses were buried near the Syrian intelligence command headquarters. The digging began Friday, and by sundown Sunday, remains had been exhumed from five locations and taken for DNA testing.
An Nahar quoted Fouad Ayoub, a coroner appointed by the state prosecutor to examine the remains, as saying some of the bodies have been in the mass graves for at least 20 years.
Authorities are concentrating on the identities of the victims to ascertain whether any of the 176 kidnapped and unaccounted for since the civil war years are among them. Katayeb security chief Boutros Khawand is among the missing.
"This is the biggest proof that the crime is very big and touches the lives of hundreds of Lebanese families," said Ghazi Aad, director of Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile, better known as SOLIDE. It works for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails and learning the fate of missing people.
Aad called for an international investigation into the mass graves and other killings allegedly carried out while Syrian troops were in Lebanon.
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