BEIRUT, 7 December 2005 — Lebanon vowed yesterday to carry out a full-scale probe into the fate of 30 people whose skeletal remains were found in mass graves at the weekend, and has sought help from the Red Cross.
“This is an extremely painful situation, and I have asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to follow this tragedy closely,” Prime Minister Fuoad Siniora told journalists. “We want to discover the whole truth.” Rights group Amnesty International said it had received reports that the “exhumations are not being carried out with the appropriate level of care, and there are fears that the bodies may be damaged and potential evidence lost.” It said the work should be done in line with international standards set out by the United Nations.
It urged Lebanon to “take immediate actions to ensure that the evidence at the sites is properly preserved, that the victims are identified and that the evidence is used to bring suspected perpetrators to justice in fair trials.”
The remains of the 30 people were exhumed on Saturday and Sunday from two mass graves near the village of Anjar, three kilometers (two miles) from the Syria border.
Attorney General Said Mirza said that among the remains “were those of women and children,” and he also called on the ICRC to join in the probe. He added that the government would not hesitate to call on outside experts. The remains have been sent to Beirut for examination by forensic pathologists.
Ghazi Aad, an official from the Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (Solide) visited Anjar Sunday and demanded an “international investigation to find out the truth about the identity of those buried in mass graves.”
