The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) is a local non-profit, non-partisan Lebanese human rights organization in Beirut that was established by the Franco-Lebanese Movement SOLIDA (Support for Lebanese Detained Arbitrarily) in 2006. SOLIDA has been active since 1996 in the struggle against arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and the impunity of those perpetrating gross human violations.

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May 23, 2012

The Daily Star - Hezbollah wins pledge that Lebanese hostages will be released, May 23 2012


By Rima S. Aboulmona
BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said Wednesday that his party has been assured of the release of at least 11 Lebanese men kidnapped a day earlier in Syria.
“We’ve been promised they will be released,” Ammar told The Daily Star in reference to the Lebanese hostages who were abducted by armed Syrians in Aleppo Tuesday while aboard two buses. They were returning from a visit to Shiite holy sites in Iran.
“Communication on the international, regional and local levels is taking place around the clock in an effort to win their release,” he said.
Ammar said efforts were made to enlist the aid of “Turkey and several Gulf states as well as world organizations to pressure the gunmen to free the hostages.”
There was a discrepancy in the figures cited regarding the number of hostages. While some Lebanese officials put the number at 13, Ammar said the hostages are between 11 and 13.
In response to a question, Ammar said the kidnappers did not make any demands. But the hostages’ relatives disagree.
“The hostages are being held by an extreme Syrian fundamentalist group in hopes of swapping them for those of their comrades held [by Assad's forces],” one relative told The Daily Star. He spoke on condition of anonymity and said that the hostages are unlikely to be released anytime soon as more negotiations are needed.
"The ordeal will probably take another day or two or three," he added.
Other hostages' relatives were quoted as blaming the rebel Free Syrian Army for the abduction. "The Free Syrian Army said they took them. They let the women go and kept the men. They told them that they would keep them until the Syrian army releases FSA detainees,” a relative of one of the men was quoted by Reuters as saying.
An FSA spokesperson strongly denied that the group was behind the abduction.
“When we crossed the border, around 40 gunmen stopped the bus and forced it into a nearby orchard and said women should stay on the bus and men should get out,” Hayat Awali, who identified herself as a pilgrim, told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV from Aleppo.
Quoting a member of the Syrian opposition, Reuters reported that Syrian forces launched raids with tanks and other armored vehicles in an area of northern Aleppo province near the site where the abduction had taken place.
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, speaking Wednesday to the Kataeb-run Voice of Lebanon radio station, said the kidnapping ordeal would “end today” as the whereabouts of the captives has been uncovered.
Mansour also confirmed that the Lebanese government has been in contact with a number of Arab officials as well as with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Of the pilgrims, 51 women and four men were not abducted. They arrived at Beirut airport after midnight.
Inham Yatim, a pilgrim, said that armed men in a white car forced them to move to an orchard under the pretext of protecting them from shelling. The male pilgrims were then handcuffed and made to face a wall.
Mansour said in comments shortly after news of the abduction broke Tuesday that the kidnappers belonged to an opposition Syrian group.
Syria's political opposition in exile, the Syrian National Council, called on rebels in Syria Wednesday to help secure the release of the Lebanese hostages.
"The Syrian National Council condemns any kidnappings, assault or terrorizing of our Lebanese brothers and demands their immediate release," an SNC statement said.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said a "group of armed terrorists" kidnapped 11 Lebanese citizens and the Syrian bus driver.
On hearing news of the abduction, angry relatives took to the streets of Beirut’s southern suburbs – where most of the kidnapped live – blocking roads with burning tires. The roads reopened soon after Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah called for calm.
“On behalf of Hezbollah and Amal [Movement], I call on all relatives and supporters in the various regions to cooperate to end the closure of roads. Blocking roads does no good,” said Nasrallah on Al-Manar TV, expressing concern over attempts to create conflict between the people and the Lebanese Army.


http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/May-23/174378-hezbollah-wins-pledge-that-lebanese-hostages-will-be-released.ashx#axzz1vhEIdAun

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