The eleven Lebanese nationals allegedly killed in Kinshasa in January were abducted because they were neighbors of a suspect in the assassination of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Laurent Kabila, the lawyer for the victims' families said Friday.
"They were abducted because some of them resided in the same building of one of the suspects accused of taking part in Kabila's assassination," Talal Fayyad said in a press conference.
"The Congolese authorities found the name of one of the Lebanese victims in the telephone book of this suspect, but this is normal since they had been neighbors in the same building," said Fayyad.
"None of them had any political activities in the Congo," he said.
Fayyad said there was still no exact official figure for the Lebanese nationals believed to have been killed in the violence that erupted with the January 16 assassination of Kabila, AFP said.
"The families are saying that 18 Lebanese nationals had been arrested by the Congolese army, but some of them managed to escape," he said.
"We believe that some 11 have been liquidated in jail. We believe one or two might still be detained, possibly including Ali al-Lakkis," he said.
Fayyad said the families had decided to postpone until next week a press conference originally planned for Friday "because they wanted to wait for results of actions undertaken by the Lebanese government."
"This is a terrible tragedy. The families want to know the truth. If their relatives have been killed, they want their bodies," he said.
"These men have not been tried, they could not even defend themselves. They never appeared before any judicial authority," he said.
The Daily Star newspaper reported Friday that government officials demanded that Lebanon participate in investigations into the incident.
Foreign minister Mahmoud Hammoud has requested to see copies of any documents so far prepared in the Congolese government's investigations into the killings, said the paper.
Hammoud said that "we asked them to hand over the bodies and a list of the detainees' names," but that the Congo refused to meet any of these requests until the investigation is completed.
Numerous concerned parties have placed the greater share of the blame on the Lebanese government, accusing it of ignoring the detainees until it was too late, the paper said.
The 11 detainees, most of whom hail from the South, were rounded up in violent raids following the Kabila's assassination by his bodyguard on January 16th.
A witness to the abductions said the detainees' names were found in the bodyguard's pocket.
A relative of one of the victims told the paper that Congolese soldiers randomly knocked on the doors of Lebanese expatriates and abducted them from their homes. "People who refused to open their doors escaped the army's assault," he told the Daily Star.
With the mediation of friendly states, the United Nations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Lebanon’s foreign ministry has allegedly made repeated attempts to obtain accurate information from the Congo, but to no avail.
Speaker Nabih Berri urged the government, particularly the justice and foreign ministries, to get involved in the investigations to unveil the details of the events leading up to the killings and to try to release any remaining detainees, added the paper.
"The Lebanese have once again paid in blood as they carry the weight of their interests and their country's interests around the world," Berri said. He appealed to Joseph Kabila, Congo's current head of state and son of the late president, to give the situation special attention, asking him to appropriately punish those responsible.
Meanwhile, Congolese justice minister, Mwenze Kongolo, said Wednesday that his government knew nothing of the soldiers' violent activities and called the killings "an unfortunate incident."
He also claimed not to know the number of detainees who were killed. The probe into the assassination of President Kabila has been extended to include these murders, said the paper – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
