By
Wassim Mroueh
BEIRUT:
One day after 11 Lebanese were kidnapped by Syrian rebels on their way back
from a pilgrimage in Iran, their relatives waited anxiously for news, but
expressed trust in promises made by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and
Lebanese officials to work relentlessly to free the men.
Families
of the hostages gathered during the day near the Badr al-Kubra travel agency,
one of two agencies that organized the trip, to see whether there was any news
of their loved ones.
“No
matter how strong a person is ... still, the kidnapping of a relative [affects
him],” Sami Shuaib told The Daily Star.
Sami’s
elder brother Abbas helped organize the trip and was among those abducted by
gunmen Tuesday.
“I
don’t know his fate ... when I have dinner I ask myself, ‘Is he having food
right now?’ No one was able to sleep last night. It is painful,” he added.
Five
of the hostages had been on a trip organized by Badr al-Kubra, and the
remaining six had been on a trip organized by the Imam Musa Sadr travel agency.
The 11 were kidnapped by Syrian rebels in Aleppo shortly after crossing the
border with Turkey.
Angry
relatives blocked roads in Beirut’s southern suburbs shortly after hearing the
news, but roads were reopened after a speech by Nasrallah, who called on
supporters to exercise restraint and promised to work to secure the release of
the hostages.
Shuaib
said he would follow Nasrallah’s call for self-restraint whatever the outcome
of the kidnapping. “Sayyed Hasan is our father and he cares for us more than we
care for ourselves.”
“We
are only hearing [about our relative’s fate] from media outlets, but we trust
the assurances of the Sayyed and Speaker Nabih Berri,” he added.
Shuaib
said the last time he had spoken to his brother had been when the kidnappers
boarded the pilgrims’ bus.
“He
told me they [kidnappers] just got out of their cars and boarded [the] bus,” he
said. “Then I heard noise and people saying ‘We are the Free Syrian Army, get
off the bus’ before the connection was lost.”
One
of the pilgrims, Hussein Sablani, detailed how he had escaped the kidnapping by
sleeping in the driver’s room.
“When
we felt suspicious after seeing a car with tinted windows following us ... the
organizer of the trip asked me to sleep in the driver’s sleeping room ...
arguing that someone should stay with the women if the men get kidnapped,” he
said.
The
kidnappers allowed the women and elderly men in the group to leave. They
returned to Beirut by plane Tuesday evening.
Sablani
also stressed that the captors had identified themselves as members of the
opposition FSA.
“Everybody
heard them [the kidnappers] saying ‘Hello, we are the Free Syrian Army, you are
our guests,” he said. “[The FSA] denied this, although we heard them and saw
them wearing their badges and carrying their [pre-Baath] flag.”
Hayat
Awali, who was on the Badr al-Kubra trip, said that despite conflicting reports
over the fate of the hostages, she was hopeful for a positive outcome.
“There
are conflicting reports ... At noon, we were almost certain that they would be
released, which made us postpone a sit-in,” she said. “But when we heard
nothing new, we decided to hold it at six,” she said, hoping that the sit-in
would turn into a celebration of the release of the pilgrims.
Hezbollah
MP Ali Ammar said Wednesday during a gathering to show solidarity with the
pilgrims that his party had been informed the hostages were alive and well.
But speaking to The Daily
Star on condition of anonymity, a relative said: “The hostages are being held
by an extreme Syrian fundamentalist group in hopes of swapping them for their
comrades held [by Assad’s forces].” He said the hostages were unlikely to be
released anytime soon and more negotiations were needed.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/May-24/174469-relatives-of-hostages-hopeful-trust-in-hezbollah-promises.ashx#axzz1vhEIdAun
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