‫مركز اخليام لتأهيل ضحااي التعـذيب‬
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
143 ‫علم وخرب‬-2000 ‫أتسس سنة‬
The Victims Of Torture (KRC)
Khiam Rehabilitation Center
for
Victims of Torture
The Annual Report
2006
1
KRC is accredited by IRCT, member of AMAN Network and International IRCT Council
Beirut – Lebanon / Mobile: 00961 3 379612 – Phone: 00961 1 302631 – Phone&Fax: 00961 1 701692 –
http://www.khiamcenter.org – P.O.Box: 14-5843 Email:krc@khiamcenter.org / khiam_center@hotmail.com
‫مركز اخليام لتأهيل ضحااي التعـذيب‬
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
143 ‫علم وخرب‬-2000 ‫أتسس سنة‬
The Victims Of Torture (KRC)
1. Introduction:
A part of the 2006 events formed a continuity to the repercussions of the earthquake that shook
Lebanon following the assassination of the martyr President Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005
as well as the subsequent assassinations and explosions that reflected a political, sectarian and
doctrinal divisive besetting the possible return of the Lebanese civil war.
And what the bombings and assassinations didn't achieve, the Israeli aggression against
Lebanon in July 2006 came to interrupt the last ways of dialogue to resolve the Lebanese crisis
after the country was divided into two groups that do not meet. In addition to the disastrous
consequences that resulted from the aggression, more than 1300 martyrs and 3000 wounded
mostly children, one million two hundred thousand cluster bombs hit so far more than 300
victims dead and wounded, the abduction of many citizens and incarcerating them in the Israeli
prisons, and millions of dollars in economic losses.
Since the end of the 33 aggression days in August 14, 2006, Lebanon is being torn between the
aggression results on the humanitarian, economic and social level that plagued all Lebanese on
one hand, and between the political, sectarian and regional barricades built by the political
leaders between the people that cropped a different kind of war which is more dangerous than
the war of murder, kidnapping and bombing, which lasted for 17 years.
In light of the prevailing climate of division and strife, the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
Victims of Torture jointed its efforts with that of the civil society bodies to renounce war and
sectarian violence in addition of facing the consequences of the Israeli aggression during and
after it in Beirut and the south.
2. The Center's work program and its grants
Until the start of the Israeli aggression, the Khiam center was persisting in the support of the
victims of torture in Lebanon on the health, psychological and social level, as well as the
reception of the freed captives and their families in its Beirut location and Deir Seryan location
in the south, in addition to continuing moral, and media solidarity with the families of the
Lebanese detainees in the Syrian prisons in their open sit-in since two years facing the ESCWA
in downtown Beirut. What increased in the agenda of the Center after the July aggression was
the support of victims of the war through field and household visits that the center is still
performing it in the stricken southern villages:
1. Follow-up support as well as the psychological and health counseling of the victims
through multiple meetings and inspections, medicines, laboratory testing and simple
surgeries.
2. Continue to send a General Health doctor and Social Workers on weekly basis to the
Tent of Mothers in front of the ESCWA.
3. Free health days in the southern villages, especially the stricken ones from the impact
of the Israeli aggression.
4. Organize social and recreational activities for families and children such as establishing
drawing sessions, handicrafts and offering gifts on occasions.
2
KRC is accredited by IRCT, member of AMAN Network and International IRCT Council
Beirut – Lebanon / Mobile: 00961 3 379612 – Phone: 00961 1 302631 – Phone&Fax: 00961 1 701692 –
http://www.khiamcenter.org – P.O.Box: 14-5843 Email:krc@khiamcenter.org / khiam_center@hotmail.com
‫مركز اخليام لتأهيل ضحااي التعـذيب‬
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
143 ‫علم وخرب‬-2000 ‫أتسس سنة‬
The Victims Of Torture (KRC)
5. Implementation of the emergency assistance program to the displaced citizens during
the Israeli aggression in their displacement places.
The psychological and health assistance have included 314 Lebanese and Palestinians
detainees freed from Israeli and Syrian prisons and Abu Ghraib, among them 187 new cases,
while 27 cases were follow-up cases from the previous year, in addition to 100 family
members aged between a year and 80 years and divided between Beirut, the North and South.
During the aggression, the Khiam Center intensified its efforts to accommodate the different
needs of the displaced persons in schools and public places in the Bekaa, Beirut, Saida and
Mount Lebanon. The emergency relief committee set up by volunteers, doctors, social workers
and psychologists was able to secure a large part of food and medical rations and providing
psychological and social support to them.
Around 1500 share of food rations and more than 2900 pharmaceutical quota was distributed to
the displaced and the steadfast in their villages under shelling, where the emergency grant
support by the IRCT Center through Oak was the key factor in the Center's ability to continue
and face the repercussions of the Israeli aggression. The doctors were present permanently
among the displaced to face any accidental or medical emergency such as the birth cases that
faced many of the women. The Psychological and Social team was present among the
approximately 700 displaced children in schools in Beirut between the ages of 4 and 14 years,
to share with them sports and recreational and various art activities to alleviate the fear and
shock of the images they had watched such as the massacres or the hum of sounds of the war
aircrafts as well as the sound of bombing which incessantly listen to, through guidance and
commandments circulated by the Center on the premises displaced persons and returnees.
After the aggression, the Center organized a workshop on post-war trauma for about 15
activists in the field of rehabilitation of victims of violence and torture managed by Dr. Magda
Adli and Dr. Suzanne Fayyad from El Nadim Center for treatment and psychological
rehabilitation in Egypt. They carried a training for a working group which was active in the
stricken villages, as well as carried out a round table in the town of Deir Kanoun Al Nnahr for
a number of civil society bodies that included doctors and teachers from the south, the center
continued with the victims of aggression and organized recreational activities for about 550
children to alleviate the psychological pressure, which afflicted.
The Khiam Center pays tribute to the El Nadim Center on his sincere solidarity.
After the aggression, the Center continued its field visits and distributed gifts to children and
provided psychosocial support to about 2300 people.
3. House of the Lebanese Detainee (KRC Southern Branch)
Until the beginning of the July aggression, the House of the Lebanese Detainee in Deir Seryan
village a "home" for the freed detainees and victims of torture in the region. In this Southern
branch, the Khiam Center organized several free health days, as well as permanent
psychological and social examinations, in addition to learning courses on computer and
painting for children. Also the Center, in collaboration with the Council of Development and
3
KRC is accredited by IRCT, member of AMAN Network and International IRCT Council
Beirut – Lebanon / Mobile: 00961 3 379612 – Phone: 00961 1 302631 – Phone&Fax: 00961 1 701692 –
http://www.khiamcenter.org – P.O.Box: 14-5843 Email:krc@khiamcenter.org / khiam_center@hotmail.com
‫مركز اخليام لتأهيل ضحااي التعـذيب‬
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
143 ‫علم وخرب‬-2000 ‫أتسس سنة‬
The Victims Of Torture (KRC)
Re-Construction funded by the World Bank, organized sewing, drawing on glass art,
coordination of flowers and embroidery sessions, for 60 female freed detainees and their
families for six months where they graduated afterwards on the occasion of the International
Women's Day on March 5 with a tribute celebration and exhibition of jobs.
But the House of the Lebanese Detainee; the headquarters of the Khiam Center in Deir Seryan
(South) was also not spared from the flames of the Israeli aggression, it was bombed during the
aggression and destroyed with its content; the medical clinic, the library, the equipment and
specifically the handicrafts of the females freed detainees which had great value to the Center.
The Israeli aggression in July 2006 put the Center before new tasks and difficult circumstances
where we were moving between fire, but the workers' will at the center and the vicious
aggression and brutality led us to work day and night and to establish what might be called the
psychological, health and social resistance of the aggression and support the displaced people
and the families of the martyrs and the victims of torture of which the aggression compounded
their suffering.
4. Celebrations and Conferences:
 Jan 4: support for the peaceful sit-in of the Sudanese refugees in Cairo and claim the
High Commission for refugees to address their problem.
 Feb 13: the Center denounced the arrest of the Lebanese army to five of the Lebanese
Democratic Youth Federation for distributing press releases against government policy,
and the restoration of the security organizations previous methods.
 Feb 28: the Center condemned the continuous racist attacks on Syrian workers in
Lebanon since the assassination of the martyr Rafik Hariri and the Center prepared a
report sent to the United Nations.
 March 5: the Center organized a celebration in honor of female freed detainees who
participated in training courses in sewing, embroidery and painting, and gave them their
graduation certificates in the House of the Lebanese Detainee.
 March 8: A red rose, on the International Women's Day, to the mothers and wives of
missing persons and detainees and martyrs, the center saluted their struggle on their
occasion in the tent in front of the headquarters of ESCWA.
 March 8: The center issued an urgent appeal to the International Committee of the Red
Cross asking for an urgent action to stop the permanent violence of the Israeli
Administration of Prisons against the Palestinian prisoners. The issue was released after
the attack on the Palestinian captive Mohamed Achtaywi by the Israeli director of
Damon Prison due to an argument between him and the crew management. The center
also issued a new statistical report on the Palestinian detainees.
 March 16: The Lebanese Security forces arrested a delegation from the Khiam Center
including the Secretary-General of the Center; Mohamed Safa when he was going to
the American Embassy in Awkar area (North Beirut) to practice the previously
announced protest against the storming of the Israeli troops to Jericho prison to arrest
Ahmed Saadat. The Center organized a press conference to explain the conditions of
the Center’s delegation detention and its release, it also organize a peaceful sit-in
defending freedoms and human rights in front of the Lebanese Interior Ministry. This
action resulted in the reduction of the duration to obtain a license for demonstrations
from seven days to three days.
4
KRC is accredited by IRCT, member of AMAN Network and International IRCT Council
Beirut – Lebanon / Mobile: 00961 3 379612 – Phone: 00961 1 302631 – Phone&Fax: 00961 1 701692 –
http://www.khiamcenter.org – P.O.Box: 14-5843 Email:krc@khiamcenter.org / khiam_center@hotmail.com
‫مركز اخليام لتأهيل ضحااي التعـذيب‬
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
143 ‫علم وخرب‬-2000 ‫أتسس سنة‬
The Victims Of Torture (KRC)
 March 21 : Start of a visit by a delegation's Center to participate in the session on
Human Rights in Geneva before its termination and conversion to a Human Rights
Council. The delegation met Mrs. Luisa Arbor; the High Commissioner for Human
Rights at the United Nations, and Brigitte L’Okreh; the secretary of the Special
Committee for the Israeli violations in the occupied territories.
 April 12: Launching the week of freedom for prisoners on the occasion of the Day of
the Arab Detainee, which included the opening of an exhibition of the handicrafts in
Beirut carried out by the female freed detainees and a sit-in on the anniversary of the
arrest of Samir Qantar.
 May 2: The Center addressed in an urgent appeal the International Committee of the
Red Cross and the High Commissioner of Human Rights as a result of dragging the
pregnant Palestinian Detainee Samar Sobeih by the Telmond Prison Administration
from her cell to the hospital with bound hands and legs to give birth for her elder son
alone where her husband is being detained in the Nagaf desert prison.
 May 5: The Center hosted the meeting of the General Secretariat of the AMAN
Network presence of the Secretary General of the Network, Dr. Najeeb Nagmeddine of
Sudan and President of the Bahraini Human Rights Dr. alloy Nagar where conditions
were reviewed safety net and events periodic and activating its role.
 May 12: An evaluation meeting for the efforts of the medical and health grants by the
Center for the families of the detainees and released ones, and discussions about the
mechanisms that activate the work of the health, psychological and social committees
as well as to increase the inspection days in the Center's branches, in addition to
increase the field visits to the homes of victims to stand on the actual psychological,
social and health conditions. It was agreed to form a medical committee composed of a
group of medical doctors from various professions to meet the different needs of the
patients and to promote the various offerings and support through the concerted efforts
of doctors and social workers, especially towards the most difficult cases among the
victims of arbitrary arrest and torture and psychological health.
 May 20: Raising broad international petition calling for the urgent release of the
detainees of opinion in Syria.
 May 30: Raising an international press release against the Lebanese security forces to
the Commission on Human Rights after the arrest of members of the Lebanese
Communist Party for criticizing the government policy, especially in light of the
mistreatment to which they were subjected.
 June 8: The Center issued a comprehensive report about the Lebanese victims of
enforced disappearances in Syrian & Israeli prisons in light of the government
neglecting this issue.
 June 9: The Center held a press conference to launch a series of celebrations by KRC
on the occasion of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture in Beirut
and Deir Seryan. The day included free inspections by the doctors for the families of
the detainees in the Syrian prisons (protesters in the tent in front of the ESCWA), an
entertainment recreational and technical festival at Ein El Mrayyseh area (Beirut) and a
ceremony at the Press Syndicate in June 26.
 June 23: The Center launched the health and social conditions report of the families of
the detainees in Syrian prisons who most of them have advanced ages and complain
from serious health conditions, those who have been in an open sit-in in front of the
ESCWA for more than two years in harsh conditions of cold winter hot summer amid
ignoring of the government for their just cause.
5
KRC is accredited by IRCT, member of AMAN Network and International IRCT Council
Beirut – Lebanon / Mobile: 00961 3 379612 – Phone: 00961 1 302631 – Phone&Fax: 00961 1 701692 –
http://www.khiamcenter.org – P.O.Box: 14-5843 Email:krc@khiamcenter.org / khiam_center@hotmail.com
‫مركز اخليام لتأهيل ضحااي التعـذيب‬
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
143 ‫علم وخرب‬-2000 ‫أتسس سنة‬
The Victims Of Torture (KRC)
 June 26: The Center organized a big celebration at the Press Syndicate in the occasion
of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, in which politicians,
lawyers and representatives of the committees for the support of prisoners and missing
in Lebanon participated in. In addition to the participation of Prime Minister Dr. Salim
El Hoss and the representative of Amnesty International in the Middle East and North
Africa Dr. Ahmed Karoud and President of the International Committee of the Red
Cross in Lebanon Mr. Juan Kodrikeh, speeches were delivered on behalf of the
Secretary General of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights
and the Lebanese Parliamentary Commission for Human Rights and Beit Atfal El
Sumoud (Palestinian NGO).
Shortly after the beginning of the aggression, the Center doubled its efforts with the
local and international bodies to stop the aggression and to support the displaced
persons by providing food, health and psychological support to them in schools until
the end of the aggression in the mid of August and so far.
 September 12: The Center issued and in collaboration with El Nadeem Center from
Egypt a report on the psychological and social support for the people of the south after
July attack on the basis of the visit by a delegation of El Nadeem to the South by an
invitation from the Khiam Center immediately after the aggression.
 September 18: The Center participated in the second session of the Human Rights
Council in Geneva, submitting the facts of the Israeli war on Lebanon and the status of
the Lebanese & Arab detainees in the Israeli jails.
 September 19: The Center issued a documented report about the consequences of the
Israeli aggression on the economic, human, psychological and social development.
 October 10: The Center held a press conference to present the results of its participation
in the Human Rights Council, prevailing the attempts by false testimonies for the
benefit of the Israeli enemy, under the banner of human rights.
 October 27: The Center participated in the 10th meeting of AMAN Network in
Morocco and discussed the strategic plan to combat torture in the region and the
rehabilitation of victims, and offered its experience after the election of the SecretaryGeneral of the Khiam Center as a member of the World Council for the Rehabilitation
of Victims of Torture of the IRCT on behalf the Middle East and also its experience
with the survivors of the massacres after the Israeli attack.
 November 28: The Center launched an urgent appeal against the cluster bombs dropped
by Israel during the aggression posing a daily injury and killing of innocent civilians.
 December 7: The Center participated in the World Conference against Torture
organized by the IRCT in Berlin on 7 and December 8 and the election of the Khiam
Center's Secretary General Mohammed Safa as member of the World Council besides
Dr. Abdul Hamid Afaneh, and Dr. Nagib Nagmeddine as representatives from the
Middle East and North Africa.
 December 15: The Center participated in the World Conference against segregation and
political arrests in Athens and submitted the issue of the Lebanese and Arab detainees
in the Israeli and Syrian prisons, in addition to the issue of missing Lebanese.
 December 21: The Center released a petition to members of the World Council for the
Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture against Lebanese security forces for arresting a
journalist in New TV Channel, Mr. Firas Hatoum and the 2 cameramen Mohammed
Khayyat and Mohammed Barbar.
6
KRC is accredited by IRCT, member of AMAN Network and International IRCT Council
Beirut – Lebanon / Mobile: 00961 3 379612 – Phone: 00961 1 302631 – Phone&Fax: 00961 1 701692 –
http://www.khiamcenter.org – P.O.Box: 14-5843 Email:krc@khiamcenter.org / khiam_center@hotmail.com
‫مركز اخليام لتأهيل ضحااي التعـذيب‬
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for
143 ‫علم وخرب‬-2000 ‫أتسس سنة‬
The Victims Of Torture (KRC)
5. Initial tasks for 2007:
Re-building the Center's headquarters in the south and refurbishing it to continue the process of
health, psychological, social and educational support to the victims of torture and detention and
to the victims of the recent Israeli war and work to develop this backing and
comprehensiveness to include new victims and for remote areas, and for the intensification of
vocational training courses and organizing various cultural activities to the families of victims
of war and detainees and the development of the local campaign against torture in
collaboration with the civil society bodies.
And this year, the Center will launch the health, psychological and social support project for
the victims of torture and their families funded by the European Union for three years and this
project is unique of its kind in Lebanon and the Arab region.
The Center will continue to claim the Lebanese government to sign the Optional Protocol of
the United Nations Convention against Torture and to allow international organizations to enter
the Lebanese prisons and to put an end to torture in prisons and organizing activities against
war and the rejection of violence as well as the secular and religious incitement which are
devastating to the nation and the national unity. The slogan of the year 2007 will be "We do
not want new missing". The Center will intensify cooperation with the associations concerned
with issues of detention and enforced disappearances and will launch a wide campaign of
solidarity with the detainees and missing both in Israeli, Arab or American prisons.
The Center will make sustained efforts to develop AMAN Network and activate their role
towards a strong and effective network in fighting torture and supporting its victims as well as
forging struggle relations with all Arab and international organizations defending human rights
and against torture.
The Center will continue in its solidarity with all the victims of segregation isolation and
political arrests in the world.
The Center will evaluate and develop its organizational, administrative and technical
knowledge and capabilities to develop a strategic plan and progress so that it can effectively
implement its program.
The Center salutes and thanks the UNFVFT for increasing its support to the Center, Khiam
Center thanks as well the IRCT, OAK, CDR and all committees and organizations that have
supported the center financially and morally for the follow-up activity. The Center thanks the
European Union for financing the project to support the victims of torture for the next three
years.
June 2007
7
KRC is accredited by IRCT, member of AMAN Network and International IRCT Council
Beirut – Lebanon / Mobile: 00961 3 379612 – Phone: 00961 1 302631 – Phone&Fax: 00961 1 701692 –
http://www.khiamcenter.org – P.O.Box: 14-5843 Email:krc@khiamcenter.org / khiam_center@hotmail.com