Lebanese Rights Groups Urge Annan, Sayda to Address 11 Pilgrims Case

Two Lebanese rights groups, Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE) and the Lebanese Center for Human Rights, urged on Wednesday U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and Syrian National Council chief Abdul Basset Sayda to express a clear stance regarding the 11 abducted Lebanese in Syria.

The two groups issued a joint open letter, urging Annan and Sayda to express a clear stance regarding the practices that violate human rights, hoping that such practices “will not be the kind of change sought in the future Syria.”

The letter said that “on May 22, a bus carrying 11 Lebanese pilgrims was hijacked in Syrian territory by Free Syrian Army members,” adding that a so-called group, “Syria Revolutionaries-Aleppo Countryside,” claimed the abduction of the 11 Shiite pilgrims.

SOLIDE and the Lebanese Center for Human Rights considered the abduction as a “flagrant violation of the most basic human rights,” pointing out that the moral and legal responsibility falls on the abductors, and all sides concerned with the Syrian crisis.”

The open letter expressed “disappointment towards certain justification saying that the pilgrims were taken hostages because they belong to the Shiite community which gives the kidnappers the argument to abduct them and negotiate for their return.”

“These justifications do not take into consideration that the abduction is a crime against humanity and should be strongly condemned and denounced from all sides, especially SNC chief Sayda, U.N. envoy Annan and all countries refusing the practices of the Syrian regime,” the letter added.

The groups condemned the abduction and the “insulting treatment to the families of the abductees, which proves that the international community does not care about the fate of the Lebanese.”