Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 25)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 26 (ص 25)
- المحتوى
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J Scene
Beirut camp in ruins
residents. About this time, Amal
members started demanding 5,000
Lebanese pounds from each Palestinian
family for facilitating their safe travel
to Sidon.
In the first ten days of July, around
150 young Palestinian males and one
hundred families fled to the Sidon area.
By July 20th, 1,000 Palestinians had
been expelled from the Tyre area. It
was very difficult to house the increas-
ing number of people who were arriving
daily from the Tyre area. As a result,
scores of Palestinian families were
forced to sleep along Sidon’s main
streets, in schools or the entrances to
buildings.
Amal also abducted a number of
Palestinians from the Tyre area camps.
The fate of many of them is still
unknown. Such abductions are also in-
tended to terrorize the Palestinians into
leaving. A clear example of this was the
abduction of Sheikh Mahmoud of Burj
Al Shamali. He was heavily tortured
and then dumped on a road where he
was found. He had been returned alive
to deliver a message to Burj Al Shamali
residents that they would meet the same
fate if they didn’t leave.
Between September 1986 and July
this year, Amal has arrested at least 190
Palestinians. The number of prisoners
in Amal’s jails rose dramatically during
July as Amal has been arresting hun-
dreds of Palestinians daily, releasing a
few and detaining others. Therefore, no
one is able to determine the exact
number of prisoners at this point. In-
formation from those who were releas-
ed confirms that the prisoners are fac-
ing all methods of torture. They are not
allowed to contact their families. They
are forced to perform hard labor, and
many are suffering from serious
diseases such as ulcers, kidney in-
flammation and skin infections. Many
have been partially paralyzed as a result
of torture. Amal is denying the
prisoners medical treatment and
preventing the International Red Cross
from visiting them. Torture is being
used to extract false confessions from
the prisoners that Palestinians are
responsible for the many assassinations
committed by Amal members. A
seventeen-year-old boy, who was ac-
cused of killing an Amal officer, died
under torture. Amal spread rumors that
he committed suicide by throwing
‘himself from the window of his cell.
They also refused to let doctors ex-
amine his body, lest their crime be
discovered.
Selective assassination has also been
used by Amal to spread fear among the
Palestinians. Examples of those target-
ted are the UNRWA teacher, Omar
Zakaria, and the popular committee
member, Abu. Yousef, and his son. At
least forty Palestinians from the Tyre
area camps have been murdered by
Amal over the past year, in addition to
those killed in the camp wars
themselves.
To cover their crimes, Amal follows
up each assassination by issuing a
statement claiming that Palestinians are
assassinating other Palestinians for the
purpose of «provoking the security
situation» and «to strike the state of
coexistence between the Palestinians
and the Lebanese in the South»! When
there were media reports about
Palestinians being expelled from the
Tyre camps, Daoud Daoud, Amal
responsible in the South, claimed that
the PLO had bought the media and was
fabricating a media campaign to
defame the Amal movement and agitate
the Lebanese masses against Amal!
BEIRUT: PROTESTING
THE SIEGE
The situation in the Palestinian
camps in Beirut is also desperate. Ten
months of siege has created many
socioeconomic problems that cannot be
resolved as long as the camps continue
to be blockaded. According to the
Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 95%
of the houses in Shatila camp were
completely destroyed in the foregoing
camp wars; the rest are on the point of
collapse and thus dangerous to live in.
Last month a house collapsed on an
eleven-year-old boy, killing him in-
stantly. In Burj Al Barajneh, destruc-
tion is also widespread. The houses
need to be rebuilt before the onset of
winter, but Amal allows no building
materials to be brought into the camps.
Only women and children can leave and
reenter the camps to bring food provi-
sions. Even then, they are only allowed
to bring in very small quantities of food
provisions.
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25 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 26
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