Antoine Ghauche, eleven years ago. Photo (c) Charbel Ghauche
Antoine Ghauche is one of the many Lebanese who have their names written in a missing file about missing people. Some have disappeared without any clue. Others were abducted in front of their loved ones. However, they all never came back and their families don’t know if they are dead or alive no matter for how long they have been forcibly missing.
Eleven years have elapsed since the last time he saw his brother who left Lebanon to work on a ship heading to Spain. Charbel Ghauche is trying to hit with his voice every possible net of hope that could lead to the truth about his brother in the absence of concordance among the many stories from the ship crew.
During the Lebanese war, atrocities were not limited to ruthless killing and assassinations. Some war groups used film-like techniques of psychopathic murdering. How hard is it for a mother to learn that her son was slaughtered and left shivering until death on the streets? How difficult it is for a wife to get to know that her husband was buried alive in a barrel with cement poured over and then thrown into the sea. How traumatizing it is for a daughter to know that her father is absent because he died attached to a car dragging him down the streets for hours when she was two years old. And, on the other hand, how difficult it is to wake up at night and scream for a loved one to come back because he was kidnapped more than ten years ago without any trace.
“Ras Assakher”, a place in the North of Lebanon where people go to drink a cup of coffee by the sea side during the evenings nowadays, was one of the highly feared places during the daylight some 20 years ago. It was a name associated with atrocities and extreme fear because people were taken there to get attached to stones and thrown into the sea, slaughtered, or tortured to death.
On the other hand, parents of missing youth have grown old waiting for their children to come back. They protest every now and then to request help from the Lebanese government as well as from the international community. They want their children back or at least know if they are dead or alive. Unfortunately, their suffering was not limited to the disappearance of their children. Many crooks took their money and put them under debts promising them to bring back the lost, as if their anguish was not enough.
Two weeks ago, the French ambassador in Beirut, Mr. Pieton, joined the parents of missing people to assure them that the French government will do all what could be possible in the direction of providing the necessary information about their lost loved ones.
In the hope of further mobilization of the international community one would be left with the wishing that if comfort finally reaches the broken hearts of the parents of lost people one day, it could calm the distress of the others.
Eleven years have elapsed since the last time he saw his brother who left Lebanon to work on a ship heading to Spain. Charbel Ghauche is trying to hit with his voice every possible net of hope that could lead to the truth about his brother in the absence of concordance among the many stories from the ship crew.
During the Lebanese war, atrocities were not limited to ruthless killing and assassinations. Some war groups used film-like techniques of psychopathic murdering. How hard is it for a mother to learn that her son was slaughtered and left shivering until death on the streets? How difficult it is for a wife to get to know that her husband was buried alive in a barrel with cement poured over and then thrown into the sea. How traumatizing it is for a daughter to know that her father is absent because he died attached to a car dragging him down the streets for hours when she was two years old. And, on the other hand, how difficult it is to wake up at night and scream for a loved one to come back because he was kidnapped more than ten years ago without any trace.
“Ras Assakher”, a place in the North of Lebanon where people go to drink a cup of coffee by the sea side during the evenings nowadays, was one of the highly feared places during the daylight some 20 years ago. It was a name associated with atrocities and extreme fear because people were taken there to get attached to stones and thrown into the sea, slaughtered, or tortured to death.
On the other hand, parents of missing youth have grown old waiting for their children to come back. They protest every now and then to request help from the Lebanese government as well as from the international community. They want their children back or at least know if they are dead or alive. Unfortunately, their suffering was not limited to the disappearance of their children. Many crooks took their money and put them under debts promising them to bring back the lost, as if their anguish was not enough.
Two weeks ago, the French ambassador in Beirut, Mr. Pieton, joined the parents of missing people to assure them that the French government will do all what could be possible in the direction of providing the necessary information about their lost loved ones.
In the hope of further mobilization of the international community one would be left with the wishing that if comfort finally reaches the broken hearts of the parents of lost people one day, it could calm the distress of the others.