Kataëb leader Samy Gemayel (C), chairing a meeting at the party headquarters. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel signed a proposal Wednesday to amend a June UN resolution to clarify the fate of the missing persons in Syria.
The proposal would amend the UN text to include Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails.
Beirut previously refused to vote in favor of the UN resolution, knowing that dozens of Lebanese who disappeared during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war are believed to be in Syrian prisons.
In June, the UN General Assembly created an independent institution to "clarify" the fate of the thousands of people who have gone missing in Syria since the start of the war in 2011. The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly with 83 votes in favor, 11 against and 62 abstentions, including from Lebanon.
Led by Ali Abou Dehen, himself a former detainee in Syria, the delegation received by Gemayel explained that the text presented to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would include all prisoners and missing persons before 2011, of all nationalities, thus adding the names of Lebanese detainees in Syria.
"Our visit to the Kataeb, who have hundreds of prisoners in Syrian jails, is to ask MP Samy Gemayel to sign this bill that could help us determine the fate of some and recover the bodies of those who have died to bury them in Lebanon with dignity," said Abou Dehen.
"Prisoners are deprived of the most basic rights. They are thirsty and hungry, sick, humiliated and subjected to random executions," he added.
Gemayel criticized "the Lebanese state, which has done nothing to help bring justice to the case of the prisoners and missing persons forced to flee Syria, nor has it done the right thing by their families, who have been unaware of their fate for decades."
He also called on caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nahib Berri to do what was necessary.
"It is regrettable that Lebanon did not seize the opportunity to try to include Lebanese prisoners in the UN decision," he added.
Gemayel recalled that a prominent member of the Kataeb political bureau, Boutros Khawand, was kidnapped in 1992 and that his party has had no news of him since. According to those close to him, Boutros Khawand is being held in Syria, but his family has never been able to confirm this.