Evidence gathered by the human rights group Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), documented in a new report, provides evidence of systematic violence against Lebanese and Palestinian women and girls by government forces and militias during the 197-year-old 1975 war, which began in 1975. The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced 1 million. The report describes horrific experiences of violence, such as gang rape, electric shock and forced nudity used to persecute women and girls – as young as nine – from rival communities. Many have never talked about their experiences in the past because, women say, “they were never asked,” she added. Q&A
What happened during the Lebanese civil war?
projection The Lebanese civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, was an extremely complex conflict that ultimately claimed the lives of at least 100,000 people, confronting Sunnis, Christians, Shiites and Druze. The war was further complicated by the interventions of Lebanon’s neighbors, Israel and Syria, and by the presence of a significant Palestinian refugee population that was also targeted, most notably during the 1982 massacre of Sabra and Shatila. Although some of the politically aligned militias involved were not initially sectarian as the war unfolded, the nature of the conflict became increasingly sectarian. The start of the war generally dates back to April 13, 1975, when Christian militias attacked a bus transporting Palestinians to a refugee camp. As clashes between militias belonging to different communities began to spread, the country’s armed forces and political system split into separatist camps, with Beirut itself splitting along the green line between Muslim western Beirut and Christian eastern Beirut. . In a conflict characterized by massacres and inter-communal barbarism, the first foreign intervention was by the Syrian armed forces in 1976 to address the imbalance of forces. Israel also became increasingly involved, launching a full-scale invasion in 1982 (Lebanon’s first war) that saw Israel besiege Muslim areas of western Beirut. During this period, the Christian militias were allowed to enter the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila by Israeli forces, where they killed hundreds in revenge for the assassination of Christian phalanx leader Bashir Gemayel. With Lebanon descending into a militant society for years, the conflict would eventually end in 1990 with an agreement on the distribution of political power based on the representation of different communities. Thank you for your response. The passage of a law by the Lebanese parliament in 2018 – which was ratified two years later – to set up a national commission to investigate the findings of those who disappeared during the war, enabled LAW to begin its investigation. He interviewed women from eight areas 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, a Christian phalanx militia. “They used to tie the father and brother and make them see the girls being raped,” Radwan said, adding that she also knew of women being raped using glass bottles. As rape was considered a disgrace to the family, women and girls were often exiled for talking about their experiences. “We suffered a lot because we could not talk about these crimes that happened,” Radwan said. An amnesty law passed in Lebanon in 1991 provided immunity for crimes committed against civilians during the war, which allowed a culture of impunity and lack of accountability to develop, the report said. “These women and girls (and the family members who witnessed these crimes) are double victims – first the sexual violence they were subjected to and then the complete and utter failure to hold individuals and government agents accountable for these serious violations or even recognize what has happened. “, The report states. “We were quite shocked by our findings. “We thought we would find that sexual violence had taken place on an opportunistic level, but not systematically,” LAW Executive Director Antonia Mulvey told the Guardian. The report seeks to further document crimes against women “in order to address the male-dominated narrative of civil wars and to strengthen the voices of survivors and victims”, but also recommends that sexual violence against men be recorded. The urgency of the investigation became more apparent, Mulvey said, as Lebanon’s economic situation worsened and violent rhetoric increased, raising concerns among women survivors of the civil war that abuse and targeting would happen again if the state collapsed. The primary goal of the report is to recognize the shocking level of sexual violence that has occurred. “Of course it’s painful to bring back these memories, but I’m very happy to talk about it. [now] “Because I think it’s important to talk… in order to raise awareness among the younger generations,” Radwan said. The report urges the expansion of legal and psychological services to support victims and survivors of gender-based crimes.
