Prisoner swap on the horizon
Israel's handover of the bodies of two Hizbullah fighters is seen as a precursor to an imminent prisoner exchange. Mohalhel Fakih writes
Hundreds of black-clad weeping women, children, Hizbullah members and other Lebanese and Palestinian supporters converged on the Lebanese border village of Naqoura on Monday to receive the bodies of two Hizbullah fighters killed in southern Lebanon in 1998 and 1999 while fighting against Israel's occupation.
"Today we regain some of the bodies of our beloved martyrs. This is taking place as part of the re-launching of the negotiations and we hope that it will continue and succeed," Sheikh Nabil Qawooq, Hizbullah's top official in south Lebanon, told the cheering crowd. He stressed Hizbullah's determination to return the bodies of other Lebanese fighters and to secure the release of 15 Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Hizbullah earlier identified the two bodies as those of 31- year-old Ghassan Zaatar, killed in November 1998 during clashes with Israeli troops, and 24-year-old Ammar Hammoud, killed in a suicide attack on an Israeli convoy in December 1999. The flag-draped wooden coffins were handed over to the families by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Following a brief prayer service led by Qawooq, the bodies were loaded on two Hizbullah ambulances and driven to a hospital in the southern village of Bint Jbeil before being transferred to their village of Dibbine for a Tuesday burial.
The handover followed ongoing and intensive German mediation efforts between Hizbullah and Israel and is seen as a precursor to an imminent prisoner exchange between the two sides. It concludes the first stage of negotiations that ended on Monday. Israeli security sources said Israel agreed to return the bodies in exchange for information about Israelis held captive by Hizbullah. In October 2000, just months after an Israeli troop pull out ended Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, Hizbullah fighters kidnapped three Israeli soldiers in the still-occupied Shebaa Farms. The Israeli army has since classified the three as fallen soldiers with unknown places of burial and Israel's chief rabbi declared them dead in 2001. Hizbullah never issued a confirmation. Weeks after the kidnapping, Hizbullah abducted Israeli Reservist Colonel Elhanan Tannenbaum.
The movement has claimed that Tannenbaum was a colonel in the Israeli Mossad who tried to recruit a Lebanese to spy on Hizbullah, and was enticed to come to Lebanon for a meeting. He was captured on Lebanese soil after he entered the country on a false passport. Israel has claimed that Tannenbaum is a consultant with business dealings in Switzerland and was abducted in Berne and brought to Lebanon. Israel has additionally been seeking information about the fate of air force pilot Ron Arad who went missing in October 1986 after his plane was brought down in Lebanon. It has long been believed that Arad is no longer alive, but Hizbullah has never confirmed his death.
Although no prisoner exchange deal has yet been forged, both Hizbullah and Israel are optimistic that a swap could materialise in the near future. This optimism follows reports this week that German mediator Ernst Uhrlau has succeeded in convincing Israel to abandon its long-held position of obtaining information on missing airman Arad in exchange for the release of Sheikh Abdul-Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani. Obeid, who Israel claims headed Hizbullah's military section in the south was abducted by an Israeli commando unit in July 1989. Dirani, who held a leadership position with Hizbullah and allegedly had custody of Arad until 1988 when he headed the security service of the Amal movement, was kidnapped by Israeli commandos in the Beqaa Valley in May 1994. Both men have been held in Israeli prisons ever since, and although no charges have been brought against them, Israeli officials have repeatedly stated that they are being held as a "bargaining chip" to secure the return of missing Israeli soldiers.
In March 2000, Dirani's attorney filed a $1,473,900 civil suit against the Israeli government for torture and ill- treatment Dirani suffered while in Israeli custody. The suite alleged that at the outset of his interrogation Dirani was raped, sodomised with a wooden club, left covered in his own feces for several days, beaten, deprived of sleep, violently shaken and bound in painful positions. In December 2000, the Israeli supreme court rejected a joint appeal by Obeid and Dirani to end their administrative detention. The ruling confirmed an earlier ruling by a Tel Aviv court that the two were a threat to state security and should continue to be held.
Altogether, Israel is holding 15 Lebanese prisoners. The 15 were part of a larger group of 21 prisoners who were kidnapped by Israeli commandos and the South Lebanon Army starting in the mid-1980s. Five of the 21 were released in December 1999, and a mentally ill prisoner was released in April 2000. One of the prisoners who Hizbullah has long been keen on getting released is Samir Qontar, the longest- held Lebanese prisoner who is serving a life sentence for a 1979 resistance operation in northern Israel.
This week's handover of Zaatar and Hamoud's bodies have re-awakened hopes that the Lebanese prisoners would soon return home to their families. And there are strong signs that a swap is indeed on the way. For one thing, the German-mediated talks between Hizbullah and Israel had accelerated in recent weeks after Hizbullah expressed a readiness to make a deal that would involve the release of Tannenbaum. Israel's willingness to speed the talks apparently came after the German mediator Uhrlau told Israeli officials that Tannenbaum was in poor health.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 28 August - 3 September 2003 (Issue No. 653)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/653/re5.htm