Abu Ibrahim, the head of
the armed group that abducted the 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria, refuses
to negotiate with Lebanon’s General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim over
their release, LBCI television reported on Sunday.
Ali Aqil Khalil, the
ambassador of the International Organization for Human Rights to Lebanon, told
LBCI that he telephoned Abu Ibrahim who said that he rejects General Ibrahim as
a possible negotiator due to the General Security’s latest deportation of 14
Syrians to their strife-torn country.
Khalil said Abu Ibrahim
asked him whether General Ibrahim was capable of publicly condemning the Syrian
regime for its crackdown on dissent.
“I told Abu Ibrahim that
Maj. Gen. Ibrahim is an employee and that he is not allowed, (according to the
Lebanese laws), to give such statements,” Khalil added.
“But I clarified to him
that a large number of MPs and half of the government are with the rebels and
that the Lebanese hospitals are open to them, reminding him that Maj. Gen.
Ibrahim had good ties with Islamists, especially in Ain al-Hilweh, during his
tenure as head of the army intelligence in the South,” Khalil told LBCI.
Asked about a possible
alternative negotiator whom he might accept, Abu Ibrahim suggested MP Oqab
Saqr.
“But when I told him
that MP Saqr himself says he cannot return to Lebanon and that his life is
threatened and therefore he cannot engage in negotiations, he suggested Brig.
Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, (head of the Internal Security Forces’ Intelligence
Bureau), as another official he is willing to negotiate with,” Khalil added.
Conflicting reports
emerged on Saturday on whether the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were abducted in
May escaped their captors after the area that they were held in came under
severe shelling.
LBCI did not specify the
number of the abductees who had reportedly escaped, but said there was initial
information that the captors moved the remaining pilgrims to another location.
Al-Mayadeen network said
the abductor of the men, Abu Ibrahim, was wounded as a result of the shelling.
The TV stations did not
reveal the area where the men were being held.
However, Abu Ibrahim
later confirmed to LBCI that the men are still in his custody.
Head of the Party of
Free Syrians Sheikh Ibrahim Zoabi told LBCI that the detention site was shelled
and that two of the abductees had fled during the shelling.
He pointed out that the
other abductees were transferred to another site.
“In the next few hours,
we will probably confirm the injuries and the names of the abductees who fled”,
Zoabi told LBCI.
Khalil told NBN
television on Saturday that Abu Ibrahim’s group was divided due to differences.
He said that Abu Jemaa
group defected and was responsible for the attack.
When contacted by the
National News Agency, the head of the committee following up the case, Sheikh
Abbas Zogheib, said he couldn’t confirm the reports.
But he told NNA that
contacts were underway with several officials, including General Security chief
Ibrahim to follow up the case.
The 11 pilgrims were
kidnapped by a group of armed men in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on
May 22 while returning home from Iran.
On Monday, Abbas Shoaib,
managed to escape from his abductors for a few hours before being recaptured,
media reports said.
Another abductee, Ali
Abbas, who was allowed by his captors to talk to LBCI in a telephone call last
week, confirmed that the 11 men are in the remote Aleppo area of Aazaz.http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/49045
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