New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported that Hezbollah is "implicated" in the abductions, in which the victims were taken from their homes in the village of Aitaroun to a secret location, and interrogated.
These are the first reports attributing kidnappings to Hezbollah since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon on 23 May. The group has been widely applauded for what was seen as its restraint following the Israeli pull-out. Links to the SLA Hezbollah personnel are reported to have interrogated the kidnap victims about their links to the Southern Lebanese Army (SLA), Israel's proxy army in southern Lebanon which disintegrated during the Israeli withdrawal. "(The interrogators) told us politely not to mention anything about the content of the interrogation," one victim is quoted as saying. HRW has not report that there was any serious maltreatment of those detained. The organisation asked the Lebanese government to "condemn the kidnappings publicly and investigate the cases". "Citizens of southern Lebanon should not have to live in fear of any group that takes the law into its own hands," said Hany Megally of HRW. "Private justice is unacceptable in a civilised society. If Hezbollah is indeed responsible for these actions, it must release the victims immediately." Lebanon criticised In a separate development, another human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), has condemned the conditions in which former SLA members held by the Lebanese authorities are being detained. AI said the detainees were being "held in isolation in Lebanese military intelligence offices and have been tortured and brutalised". The human rights group criticised the trials of former members of the SLA by a military court in Beirut, calling them "a parody of justice." AI reports that the Lebanese military courts have been holding hearings since early June to try an estimated 2,200 Lebanese suspected of having collaborating with Israel. Sentences that have been passed down so far range from a few months to 15 years in prison for charges of "collaborating or establishing links" with Israel.
The abductions are alleged to have taken place in the middle of the night on 6 June. Some of the victims have been released. Others are still missing.