May 18, 2009 - The Daily Star - Lebanon Leading SOLIDE activist dies in accident

BEIRUT: A key figure calling for a state investigation into the 17,000 people who disappeared in Lebanon's 1975-1990 Civil War died on Saturday in an accident. Audette Salem's two children Mary-Christine and Richard were abducted in September 1985. As part of a call for an investigation into the "disappeared" organized by the organization SOLIDE, Salem spent the last four years in a protest tent outside the ESCWA headquarters in Beirut. Salem, born in 1931, was crossing the road leading to the tent at 9 a.m. when a taxi hit her, SOLIDE member Michel Naji Aoun told The Daily Star on Sunday. Prayers will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the tent. Her funeral will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Saydit al-Nahr church in Bourj Hammoud. Condolences can be paid from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the tent throughout the week.