Report says rape used ‘systematically’ during Lebanon’s civil war

The level of torture and sexual violence used by combatants against women and girls during the 15-year civil war in Lebanon shocked investigators, British newspaper The Guardian said.

A report by the human rights organization Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) gathered testimonies that detailed horrific experiences of violence, including gang-rape, electrocution and forced nudity used to persecute women and girls – some as young as nine – from opposing communities.

LAW interviewed women from eight regions and conducted focus groups and surveys to record eyewitness accounts.

Amira Radwan, now 54, witnessed the rape of girls in Kfar Matta, where she lived in 1982. The village was the scene of a notorious massacre of Druze civilians by the Lebanese Forces, The Guardian said.

“They used to tie up the father and brother and make them watch the girls being raped,” Radwan said, adding she also knew of women being raped using glass bottles.

“We suffered a lot from not being able to talk about these crimes,” she added.

An amnesty law passed in Lebanon in 1991 granted immunity for crimes committed against civilians during the war, which has allowed a culture of impunity and lack of accountability to develop, the report noted.

“These women and girls (and family members who witnessed these crimes) are double victims – first the sexual violence inflicted upon them and then the total and utter failure to hold individuals and state agents accountable for these grave violations or even acknowledge what has happened,” states the report.

“We were quite shocked by our findings; we thought we would find sexual violence had taken place on an opportunistic level, but not systematically,” LAW’s executive director, Antonia Mulvey, told the Guardian.

“It is of course painful to bring back these memories but I’m very happy to be talking about this [now] because I think it is important to speak up … in order to spread awareness for new generations,” Radwan said.