Wednesday, June 20, 2007

"Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the Lebanese army's month-long siege and shelling of the north Lebanon Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, as its battle against Islamist militants continues. But one 16 year-old Palestinian student told IRIN his worst ordeal began after he escaped the camp. About 10 men he identified as soldiers and police were standing at a junction leading to the village of Muhammara, above Nahr El-Bared. "They asked to see my identity card," said the boy, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. "As soon as they saw it was blue (for Palestinian), they said 'Take him'." "They tied me up with plastic ties, pushed me to the floor and beat me with rifle butts." The beating occurred there and then, he said, then they took him to a nearby military headquarters where the treatment continued. He held out his wrists, where scars are visible, and showed a long gash below his neck. He lost part of his ear and the blows bruised him all over. The boy, sitting with his uncle in a dark room in the nearby Badawi camp with bandages over his wounded ear and above his eye, said the beating started before any questions were asked. At the headquarters, his interrogators accused him of lying "like all Palestinians". "One took out a pistol and said 'you're Fatah Al-Islam, we're going to shoot you'. I said: 'I'm not Fatah Al-Islam, I'm not anything'." So beaten and bloodied was his appearance, he said, that men who appeared to be Lebanese plainclothes army intelligence officers made the soldiers sign a form confirming that they had delivered him in that state before accepting him for interrogation. He was released about seven hours after he was apprehended." (thanks Yasmine)