From: "Zahi Damuni" <zdamuni-AT-email.msn.com>
Subject: KHIAM ACTION UPDATE NOV.3
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 19:13:21 -0500


November 3, 1999

Dear Friends,

As of today we have tallied more than 400 letters to US and Israeli
officials in support of the October 28 International Day of Action to
close the Khiam torture and detention camp in Israeli-occupied southern
Lebanon. We are still receiving letters, so if you have not written one,
it is never too late to make yourself heard. (see action alert below).

We wish it were possible to report that the camp has been closed, or that
one day of action would be sufficient to achieve that goal. Of course much
work still needs to be done on behalf of all of those who suffer under
Israeli military occupation. But the Day of Action, the protests in
Beirut, Tel Aviv and around the world focussed attention on it and made it
a little bit harder for the torturers and killers to do their dirty work
in the dark.

Please continue to follow and participate in this struggle. You can find
out the latest about Khiam and the campaign to close it at the website of
the Follow Up Committee for the Support of the Lebanese Detainees in the
Israeli Prisons (http://www.followupcsld-ip.org.lb/)

We thank you for your solidarity and we urge you to continue to respond to
action alerts on behalf of people who do not have the freedom act that we
still enjoy.

Sawsan Abdulrahim, ADC Member
Ali Abunimah, ADC Member
Zahi Damuni, ADC Member
Arjan El Fassed, Hanthala Palestine

************************************************************************
October 28, 1999

ACTION ALERT: HELP STOP TORTURE AND KIDNAPPING BY ISRAEL'S FORCES IN
LEBANON

October 28 is an international day of action to close down the Khiam
torture and detention camp operated by the Israeli occupation forces in
southern Lebanon.

Currently there are 161 Lebanese men, women and children held hostage at
Khiam, without any access to family, doctors, lawyers or visits from the
International Red Cross.

This is an appeal for you to take a few minutes to contact one or more of
the addresses below to call for the hostages to be released and for the
camp to be closed down once and for all. Your action will support the
efforts of people and groups around the world including Amnesty
International and the Follow-Up Committee for the Support of the Lebanese
Detainees in Israeli Prisons. Protests are planned worldwide including New
York, Michigan, Montreal, Stockholm, Tel-Aviv, London, and Beirut.

Your participation could mean the difference between freedom, or continued
years of darkness for dozens of individuals.

WHAT IS KHIAM? WHO ARE THE HOSTAGES?

The Khiam detention and torture facility was set up in 1985 by the Israeli
occupation forces in southern Lebanon. Since then, more than 2,000
Lebanese civilians have been held there, including hundreds of children.
Fourteen hostages have died in detention. Recently, the Israeli secret
service "Shabak" admitted, after persistently denying well-documented
reports of torture and mistreatment, that Israel is closely involved in
operating the camp and training its personnel. Some of the hostages have
been held at the camp for over twelve years and others have been
transferred to prisons inside Israel.

Currently the prisoners include Lebanese journalist Cosette Ibrahim
kidnapped this summer while reporting in southern Lebanon. Some of the
detainees are children, like 15 year-old Ali Tawbeh, who with his parents
was dragged from his home by the Israeli occupation forces in 1997. Other
hostages, like Abdeh Malkani, are over seventy years old.  Hussein Awada,
65 years old, has been detained since June 1999. He has serious heart
problems and can only move with the help of a stick.

WHY ARE THE HOSTAGES HELD?

"They kidnapped us from our villages, from our homes, with bread in our
hands, not from battle with guns in our hands," was what one detainee
wrote to an Amnesty International chapter. (AI News Release, "Israeli
Supreme Court Endorses Hostage Taking, 6 March, 1998)

Most of the people held at Khiam are there simply to be used as bargaining
chips in exchange for Israeli soldiers captured or killed in occupied
southern Lebanon. In March 1998, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the
practice of holding civilians as bargaining chips, even though this is a
violation of all international human rights law, and of the Fourth Geneva
Conventions. Most of the hostages are just ordinary Lebanese who refused
to cooperate with the Israeli occupation forces or the Israeli-controlled
South Lebanon Army militia.

WHAT THE WORLD SAYS

Despite the fact that most of the world condemns what is going on in
Khiam, the camp is still open and civilians are still being abducted and
mistreated. In April 1999, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on Israel "to refrain from
holding abducted Lebanese citizens incarcerated in its prisons as hostages
for barganing purposes, and to release them immediately along with all
persons arbitrarily detained in the occupied Lebanese territories," and
called on Israel "to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross,
the families of the detainees, and other international humanitarian
organizations to resume visits to places of detention in order to verify
conditions of detention and the circumstances of the decease of some
detainees from the after effects of ill-treatment or torture." This
resolution passed with forty-nine votes in favor, three abstentions and
only one vote against, that of the United States of America.
(E/.CN.4/1999/L.25/Rev.1 as cited in United Nations Press Release,
HR/CN/99/55, April 23, 1999)

WHAT WE ASK YOU TO DO

We ask you to send an email, fax, letter or make phone calls expressing
your concern about the holding of Lebanese hostages by Israeli forces in
Lebanon and calling on the United States to put pressure on Israel to
immediately release all the hostages and close this camp. We also ask you
to write directly to Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak to demand that
Israel close down the camp. (see sample letter below)

1) US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

Email: secretary-AT-state.gov
Fax:  (202) 736-44611

2) Your Member of Congress or Senator

Write to:
Your Representative
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20215

Your Senators
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20215

You can reach any member of Congress through the congressional
switchboard: (202) 224-3121.

Among the simplest ways of finding out about your congressperson and how
to best contact her/him is <http://www.house.gov/writerep/>, entering your
zip code and following the instructions to send mail to any member of
Congress. You can access an alphabetical index of US senators and their
email addresses at < http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm >.

Or to find out who your representative is and how to contact him/her
directly, go to the following website and enter your zip code:
<http://www.capweb.net/classic/index.morph>

3) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak

Email: pm-AT-pmo.gov.il
Fax: (+972-2) 566-4838

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear /Secretary Albright/ Congressman/ Prime Minister

I am writing to express my grave concern about the continued detention and
mistreatment of over 160 Lebanese civilians by Israeli forces in occupied
southern Lebanon. I am aware that several international organizations and
even the US State Department have documented the abuses of human rights,
including torture, at the Israeli-run Khiam detention camp in southern
Lebanon.

I am asking you to demand that Israel immediately release all of the
hostages and refrain from these practices.

[If you are writing to the Israeli Prime Minister, be sure to ask HIM to
close the camp down immediately].

[If you pay US taxes and are writing to a US official, you can add] As a
US taxpayer, I am opposed to my money being given as aid to countries
which use torture, kidnapping and other practices which are against
international law and human rights conventions.

PLEASE CC YOUR EMAILS TO: khiam_action-AT-email.com

THIS EMAIL ACTION ALERT IS SIGNED BY:

Sawsan Abdulrahim, ADC Member
Ali Abunimah, ADC Member
Jennifer Bing-Canar, Chicago AFSC
Zahi Damuni, ADC Member
Arjan El Fassed, Hanthala Palestine

TO FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE KHIAM DETENTION AND TORTURE CAMP
VISIT THESE WEBSITES:

THE FOLLOW UP COMMITTEE FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE LEBANESE DETAINEES IN
ISRAELI PRISONS: http://www.followupcsld-ip.org.lb/

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES:
http://www.khiam.dircon.co.uk/AmnestyDocs.htm

ISRAELIS FOR IMMEDIATE CLOSURE OF KHIAM PRISON:
http://members.tripod.com/outofkhiam/















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