June 14, 2010 - Now Lebanon - FHHRL asks Sleiman to bring up issue of missing Lebanese with Assad

The Foundation for Human and Humanitarian Rights (FHHRL) and the Committee of the Families of Detainees in Syrian Prisons issued a joint statement on Sunday asking President Michel Sleiman to raise the issue of the missing Lebanese nationals believed to be held in Syrian prisons during his Monday summit with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

The statement added that the families of the missing deserve an answer regarding the fate of their relatives. “The Syrian forces that were in Lebanon bear the responsibility for the forcible abduction and transportation [of the missing Lebanese] to Syria, where they were not heard from again,” both groups also said.

The two organizations expressed their concern that there might be an official intent to bury the issue of the disappeared. Despite the government’s earlier talk of exploring the matter within the framework of improving Syrian-Lebanese relations, “[the issue] has been completely absent, for some time, from any official discussion,” the statement added.

The FHHRL and Committee of the Families of Detainees in Syrian Prisons also said there has been no news from the Joint Lebanese-Syrian Judicial Council tasked to follow on the issue.

The statement called for a just solution to reveal the fate of the disappeared and return those who are still alive. The issue is a humanitarian one, and not political, the organizations added.

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