[Oman-l] Israel accused a BBC2 documentary

[BaaboodA@aol.com]

Dear All,

This extract is from the BBC website. It's about a documentary which will
be shown tonight at 6.50pm on BBC2. I thought some of you living in the UK 
may want to watch it. You could also check the website below.

Abdulla



Israel accused
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
> Israel Accused is a BBC Correspondent programme, and will be shown at 1850
> GMT on Saturday 4th November on BBC 2.
> Khiam prison was a detention and interrogation centre during the years of
> the Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon. From 1985 until the Israeli
> withdrawal this May, thousands of Lebanese were held in Khiam without
trial.
> Most of them were brutally tortured - some of them died.
>
> Israel has always sought to escape responsibility for what was done in
> Khiam; Israel Accused asks where the blame for what Amnesty International
> calls war crimes really lies.
>
>
>
> To help secure its hold on Southern Lebanon, Israel armed and financed a
> local Lebanese militia, the South Lebanon Army or SLA. In theory the SLA
was
> there to protect the interests of the Lebanese community - in practice it
> did Israel's work by proxy. The SLA provided Khiam's guards and
> interrogators.
>
> Children tortured
>
>
>
> Ali two weeks before he was taken to Khiam
>
> Ali Kashmar was fourteen when arrested and detained in 1988. Although he
had
> voiced anti-Israeli opinions in school (his own father was killed fighting
> the Israeli invasion ten years earlier) there is no evidence to suggest
that
> he was guilty of any crime.
>
> Ali was tortured for eleven days and says he started making up stories to
> please his interrogators. Ali Kashmar was kept in Khiam for ten years. He
> grew up from a boy to a man within the prison walls - without even a
mirror
> to use as his appearance changed, and spent time in solitary confinement.
>
> Ali Kashmar grew up from a boy to a man within the prison walls
>
> Edward Stourton
> Ali was eventually released after a decade as part of a hostage exchange -
> fifty five Khiam prisoners and the bodies of 44 Lebanese were traded for
the
> remains of three Israeli soliders in 1998. Terribly damaged by his years
in
> Khiam, he is still fighting severe psychological difficulties - and there
is
> nowhere in Lebanon that provides treatment for this kind of trauma.
>
> Ryadh Kalakesh was 17 when he was detained in Khiam. He comes from a
family
> that was deeply involved with the Islamic group Hezbollah - one of his
> brothers was a suicide bomber - and he was picked up by Israeli troops on
a
> sweep through his village in 1986.
>
>
>
> electric shocks were administered through wires attached to the finger
tips
> or the genitals...
>
> Ryadh Kalakesh
> Ryadh was tortured for eleven months, and gives a graphic account of what
it
> was like; the use of electric shocks administered through wires attached
to
> the finger tips or the genitals, the beatings, the dousings with hot then
> cold water, and what was known as "the pole", where prisoners - often
after
> being striped naked - were handcuffed and suspended for hours at a time.
>
> Ryadh's brother Adel was detained in Khiam too; when Adel refused to tell
> the interrogators what they wanted to hear they hauled in his wife Mona
and
> tortured her so that he could hear her screams. Mona suffered electric
> shocks - through wires attached to her nipples - spent three months in
> solitary confinement and lost her baby while she was in the prison.
>
>
>
> Khiam prison today
>
> There is a compelling body of evidence about Israel's involvement in
Khiam.
> Former detainees all say that in the early days of Khiam's time as a
> detention centre Israeli interrogators worked alongside their SLA
> counterparts, and their evidence is corroborated by that of those guards
who
> worked in the prison.
>
> In 1988 the Israel seems to have decided on a change of policy in Khiam,
and
> the Israeli presence in the gaol became less obvious. But in a court case
> brought by Isreali human rights lawyers, the Defence Ministry has admitted
> paying all the staff at the gaol, training the interrogators and guards,
and
> providing assistance with lie detector tests.
>
> Israel denied war crimes in Khiam
>
>
>
> Tanious Nafra, a gaurd in Khiam 1985-1987
>
> In May, when Israel withdrew from Lebanon, many of Khiam's guards and
> interrogators fled across the border among the six thousand members of the
> SLA and their families who took refuge in Israel, living under Israeli
> government protection at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer.
>
> No one from the Israeli government was willing to agree to an interview.
> When pressed to admit Israeli responsibility for the gaol, a man who
> commanded Israeli forces during the late 1980s finally concedes, "maybe".
>
> Broadcast in the midst of one of the gravest Middle East crises of the
past
> decade, Israel Accused is a timely reminder that there is still unfinished
> business from Israel's recent past.
>
> This week, military prosecutor, Riad Talih demanded the death penalty for
11
> former SLA officials who worked at the Khiam camp, and who will be tried
in
> absentina.
>
> Reporter: Edward Stourton
>
> Producer: Giselle Portenier
>
> Series Producer: Farah Durrani
>
> Editor: Fiona Murch
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/correspondent/newsid_10

02000/1002463.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/correspondent/d

efault.stm

Coming UP........

When Peace Died is a BBC Correspondent programme and will be shown at 1850 
GMT on Saturday 18th November on BBC 2. 
Two images captured the hatred that has destroyed the peace process in the 
MIddle East. Mohammed, the boy from Gaza, shielded by his father but still 
dying under a hail of bullets fired by Israeli soldiers and the lynching and 
brutal murder of two Israeli reservists by a Palestinian mob. 

Jane Corbin, who has reported on the Oslo peace process from its first 
beginnings 8 years ago, returns to the Middle East to talk to the families of 
those victims. The deaths may have been symbolic of when peace died, but were 
they also inevitable? 

She examines the explosion of people power which has derailed peace and asks 
the negotiators on both sides whether Jews and Arabs can now ever share the 
same land. 


Reporter: Jane Corbin 

Producers: Frank Smith and John Thynne 

Series Producer: Farah Durrani 

Editor: Fiona Murch 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/correspondent/newsid_10

05000/1005190.stm