lettera per mr.kofi anan

["jean EL CHEIKH" <cheikhlenin at hotmail.com>]

OPEN LETTER ADDRESSED TO

Mr. KOFI ANNAN


SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS


ON THE OCCASION OF THE LIBERATION FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY







A year has passed since the withdrawal of Israel from South Lebanon, and
the Forces of Occupation are still detaining 13 Lebanese Citizens hostages
in their prison for bargaining.


These citizens were kidnapped after the Israeli invasion to the south in
March of 1978 and therefore their release should have been part of the
application of resolution 425.


You have visited, your excellency the Secretary General, Lebanon twice the
first time on 22/03/1998 during the inauguration of the ESCWA headquarters
and the second time on 19/06/2000 after the Israeli withdrawal, and we have
welcomed you along with the children of the detainees and their families at
the official reception lobby of Beirut International Airport, and during
both those meetings we have delivered to you memorandums regarding the
situations and the sufferings of those Lebanese Hostages detained in the
Israeli prisons and your promise was to pursue the efforts for their
release.


You have promised, your excellency the Secretary General, the Lebanese
Government and the follow-up committee as well as the families of the
detainees to work for their release and here a year has passed since you
made that vow and close to a quarter of a century since some of them were
detained and the international silence still surrounds this humanitarian
issue.


The refusal of Israel to release those Lebanese detainees is not only a
violation of Lebanese sovereignty but also a challenge as well to the
United Nations and to the International Community.


Mr. Secretary General,


Only few minutes after the resistance took three Israeli soldiers hostage
at the Chebaa Lebanese farms, the whole world reacted and the delegations
poured to Lebanon to ask about the situation of the imprisoned Israeli
soldiers. However, Lebanese hostages have been imprisoned in Israeli jails
since many years, totally isolated from the world and no body reacted to
release them nor at least to put pressure on Israel in order to allow their
mothers and children to meet them!!!


We have been for years knocking all the doors: United Nations, European
Parliament, Human Rights Committee, and we are continuously appealing until
we pitched the tent of liberty in front of the ESCWA on 08/08/2000
declaring an open strike on food, maybe the Human conscience will wake up
and hear the mothersí mourning not only their detained sons but also out of
fear dying before seeing them!


Today, whereas Lebanon is celebrating the First Liberation anniversary, we
preferred to sit-in in front of the United Nations headquarters in Beirut.
That does not mean that we are not concerned; To the contrary we feel the
happiest of all people in this occasion.


We are the happiest of all people because Israeli occupation Forces were


defeated and withdrew from our country and Khiam prison is close. But this
occasion still is not complete and lacks the return of the hostages
arrested in Israeli prisons and the delivery of martyrs corps and revealing
the destiny of missing persons. Only then this feast will be complete and
its buds will bloom.


That is why we are striking in front of the United Nations Headquarters.


To remind the United Nations of its Commitments


To remind the world that there are Lebanese citizens whose eyes nectar was
absorbed in Israeli prisons and they are still resisting, loyal to their
country.


We are assembled here for this sit in to break the wall of silence, asking
to get back our souls, our heart beats imprisoned in Israeli jails.


We are assembled in this sit in to defend humanity, which is being
massacred in Palestine,


to defend the newborn flower,


the flute, the book, rain and sun,


love and flowers,


morning and evening,


today and tomorrow,


right of life and dignity,


right of breathing and feeling,


right of birth and death ,


peace and liberty,


to defend Universal Declaration of Human Rights.



Best regards


Follow- up Committee for


The Support of the Lebanese


Detainees in the Israeli Prisons


Mohammed Safa


Secretary General


25/05/2001






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