Civilians Under Assault
June 30, 2017
On June 30, 2017, The Lebanese army made an assault on refugee camps in Arsal under the pretext of looking for “terrorists.” The assault led to numerous suicide attacks targeted the Lebanese army, resulting injuries among Lebanese soldiers and the death of a Syrian girl- amid conflicting information about the cause of the child’s death. The incursion also resulted in a number of deaths and injuries among the camp residents of the Syrian refugees.
Following this incident, the Lebanese army launched a campaign of random arrests of approximately 350 Syrian refugees; the army has insulted the detainees, tortured them with cables, beaten, and written on their bare backs.
Four days after the arrest, an army statement confirmed the death of four of the detainees as they were suffering from previous health issues, but human rights sources confirmed that the number of deceased who were arrested amounted to ten people.
The Syrian civilian platform in Lebanon affirms its solidarity with all the victims of the Syrian refugees and the Lebanese army and extends its condolences to their families and wishes the wounded a quick recovery.
The platform rejects any act of terrorism or security breach on the Lebanese territory and respects the unity and sovereignty of Lebanon. It also stresses that dealing with Syrian refugees as terrorists or incubators of terrorism is only a policy that complicates the issue. In addition, mass arrests of both men and young men is a collective punishment intended to intimidate refugees already fleeing from the midst of the war in their country.
Accordingly, the Syrian civil platform in Lebanon:
- Rejects the policy of collective punishment of Syrian refugees.
- Demands that the Lebanese army abide by human rights and its code of conduct in dealing with refugees in general and with detainees in particular.
- The platform calls on the Government of Lebanon to open a transparent investigation into the causes of the death of detainees, to hold the perpetrators and the instigators accountable, and to allow the detainees’ families to take the appropriate legal measures to reach the truth.
- The platform demands human rights organizations and detainees’ agents be allowed to visit them to ensure that conditions and places of detention take into account human rights and that detainees are not subjected to torture or degrading treatment.
- The platform calls on the Lebanese government and political, civil and media actors to combat the hate speech towards Syrian refugees, which has recently escalated due to events in Arsal.
- It also stresses the need to develop plans for organizing the camps in Arsal with the participation of international organizations and UNHCR, which will facilitate the process of camp control and ensure that extremists do not enter.
- The platform also calls on everyone to exercise restraint and not be tempted by hate speech and violent reactions.
The Syrian civil platform