Let us prevent further
sufferings and atrocities
By: Ricardo Charamand
4/10/2000
This letter is intended to reach
the Lebanese Institutions, Political and Spiritual leaders, specially Cardinal Sfeir for
his independence, courage and free conscious, Spanish and European Institutions,
international Media and international Organizations who own their prestige for the defense
of Human Rights, like Amnesty International. I would like to insist that, the contents of
this letter, if reached the public in a clear and explicit mode, will almost, certainly
create such a perplexity among the Lebanese, that could result in an undesirable
consequences, even violent revolt of segments of the society to take revenge for their
dear ones. This is clearly not the purpose of this letter, the aim is, to prevent further
sufferings and atrocities. On the other hand, my profound convictions and commitment with
the defense of Liberties, Democracy, Civil and Human Rights oblige me to liberate my
conscious and assume the risk of talking about concrete events, hoping that they will be
wisely used by all who will receive them and serve and alert the justice, the " Free
and Independent Justice" about the criminal methods used by the secret forces who
work parallel and in coordination with elements of the Lebanese secret services and high
ranking officials of the army, loyal to the head of the pyramid and partially financing
their secret mission, salaries and other infrastructure from funds allocated to the army
budget.
The Lebanese political, military and judiciary institutions and some political leaders,
must pull their heads out of the sands, assume their historic responsibilities and
confront the evident and the obvious, and most importantly combat it with serious,
transparent and courageous investigations, by the parliamentary justice commission and of
course, by the Lebanese "Free Judges and Justice". May I suggest some ideas and
questions that certainly suppose to help the investigators with their task, their
enormously difficult task, given the circumstances and all kinds of obstacles, threats,
bribes that, they will face and have the nerves to reject. In my opinion, Lebanon, its
Liberties, Democracy and Dignity, will deserve the efforts and the risks. - Who was behind
the criminal massacre of the four judges while fulfilling their duties in Sidon in June
1999? - What was the message intended to be given to the Lebanese justice and its members
who have rejected to sell their souls? Warning and intimidation perhaps? - Was it aimed as
a serious and criminal warning, never to denounce and/or proceed against the Regime and
its members should grave information reached their hands?
- Have the justice and judges been blocked and have their hands tightened by this act of
terrorism, in order not to trespass the red lines? - Was it intended to intimidate and
force the judges to follow illegal instructions to target and proceed against anybody or
organization deemed dangerous to the Regime and its undeclared goals? - And what about
" Al Takfir wal Higra"? - Who are they? As an organization. - Who is the German
citizen converted to Islam renamed Younis? - How come, the President talked to me about
him in Spring of 1999? - Who have created "Al Takfir wal Higra"? What secret
forces have been financing them? I am sure that not even the leader of "Al Takfir wal
Higra" knew the real identity of whom he was working for and for what purpose. I
suggest to the investigators to ask the following questions: - Was the assassination and
kidnapping of soldiers and officials of the army a pretext to achieve the following goals
and remove certain doubts? - Has the army reached the necessary cohesion and discipline to
act collectively with commanders pertaining to all religious against any particular part
of Lebanon or any organization, even if it was tainted or, in fact is a religious or
fundamentalist? - Was it intended to serve as a warning to all and every organization,
formation or entity belonging to all and every religious-spiritual of the Lebanese
different communities, as well as, its political, social, labor and scholastic association
and parties? - Was it aimed to serve as a test to the operational skills and readiness of
the army, thus giving a serious and converting message to the domestic political forces
and regional powers, that the Regime is solidly backed by the military and is reliable?
Of course I am not against a Lebanese powerful, cohesive and disciplined
national-patriotic army, guaranteeing the security and independence of Lebanon and all the
Lebanese, equipped with the best technology, and above all, with a moralistic and ethical
code of conduct, serving under the orders of the corresponding institutions. All the
contrary, I am in favor of such an army. What all Lebanese must avoid and prevent, the mal
use of their armed forces, history has given the World many examples as Nazi Germany or
the regional Arab countries. Mr. Tueni, the above mentioned writings, obviously should be
considered as sensitive, specially in Lebanon, where it might be used unwisely. Please
make sure that it reaches the authentic patriotic spiritual leaders of Lebanon specially
Cardinal Sfeir who all the Lebanese, with their spiritual and political leaders should
support and contribute to protect his independence. Lebanon may only guarantee its future
and prosperity, when all the Lebanese with all its religious families and ideological
tendencies, unite choose the transparent, frank and cordial dialogue to solve their
differences and walk to the future holding hands and facing the globalization challenges,
well equipped with their unity, culture, education and loyalty to Lebanon and its
institutions, and of course, with their faith. Everyone following the rules and teachings
of his Sacred Book. Lebanon may only exist in peace, when all Lebanese have absolute
respect to each other's faith and religion. After all, we all believe in God. Mr. Tueni, I
deeply believe that Lebanon needs a permanent and long term massive media campaign,
promoting patriotism, love to the land and loyalty to its institutions.
The continuous promotion of Democracy explaining its principles and code of conduct. The
duty of all the Lebanese everyone in his post, and according to his capacity to defend
Civil and Human Rights, and last but not least, defend and protect the Dignity,
Independence and Liberties of Lebanon, for the benefit of its people, all its people, and
for the future generations. Mr. Tueni, I do not know for how long I can keep writing, and
whether this is my last letter, I am getting weaker and weaker, day after day due to, an
indefinite Hunger Strike I declared since September 26, 2000, protesting the lack of
action and attention of the Lebanese political leaders, the Spanish and European Union
political leaders and their institutions, who have chosen to pretend ignorance of the
circumstances that my Family " Spanish and consequently European", 8 persons in
total with children and parents in law at the age of 80 years, suffering very serious
diseases. For interests that I ignore, but may never justify their lack of action and
concern, permitted that my Family has been living under the horror of assassination,
kidnapping and apparent suicide, for more than 8 eternal months. The severely traumatic
conditions and sufferings under which my Wife, 3 Daughters, Brother and Parents in Law
have been living for the last 8 months, has made it impossible for me to support any
longer. It is unacceptable and intolerable that solid democracies of the civilized world
permit an evil man, even if he was the president of a country to commit a terrorist act
threatening a whole European Family with death, kidnapping and suicide, and get away with
it. If politicians, for reasons of doubtful national interests choose not to protect their
citizens, the Free press and specially televisions should bring up the case and denounce
the terrorist act , thus inciting the justice to act and investigate. For your
information, President Lahoud, has borrowed all the money we had, all our savings and the
saving of my parents in law.
He has asked us to urgently borrow money from the banks quarantining the credits with our
homes and pension payments of my Father in law, all this we have done happily and loyally
while we still believed in him and his false terrible political project. After this done,
he started the next stage of his plans with my Family and Brothers, pressing us to form
part of his secret forces, indirectly showing us that we have no choice but to obey, as
everything we had we have given to him and we had no documents to prove it, he also
indicated that all our social life, our close friends is distorted due to, money borrowed
from them to borrow him. The same happened with our professional contacts, customers and
the companies we worked for, who also borrowed him money. When we resisted to form part of
his secret forces alleging that, we accepted his invitation to join a political project,
which seemed to us great, democratic, respectful of the rule of law and Human Rights. His
answer was, he will fulfil his promises with us on the condition of our incorporation to
his secret forces and obeying orders, without asking questions and without questioning its
moral and ethical methods and goals, otherwise, he will have us and our Families pass
through unimaginable difficulties and hunger. I left Lebanon, miraculously, on the 4th. of
February with my brother, after a months of home arrest including a five days hunger
strike, he finally, and in order to avoid a possible scandal in Lebanon, arranged for my
departure to Spain, sending with me, my brother, with a message to be given in the
aircraft, to calm down and everything will be alright. The message implied an indirect and
implicit threat to my Wife and daughters. A couple of days after my arrival in Spain, I
asked for our money and the money of our friends and the banks, he rejected, then, I told
him that the next day I shall denounce our case to the Lebanese Embassy, here where he
threatened me by death, no matter where I am, even at the end of the world. I started to
have doubts, slight doubts, whether we were really dealing with Emile Lahoud, I talked to
him about my doubts, his answer was, he will prove according to his ways. I then started
talking to the Ambassador and the Consul of Lebanon in Madrid with great difficulties,
nobody will mention a word or answer a question before consulting with the Secretary
General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Zoheir Hamdan.
Mr. Hamdan talked to me about his brother Mr. Mustafa Hamdan, who is the commander of
security forces of the President at the Palace of Baabda. I wrote more than 15 letters to
the President Lahoud, sent to him through the Diplomatic bag of the Lebanese Embassy in
Madrid or, by fax to numbers given to me by the Embassy in Madrid, so I can reach
directly, discretely and with absolute security the President. I talked to high ranking
military officials in Baabda, they all very kind, polite and respectful. They gave me the
impression that I am known to them, but always there was a reason for Emile Lahoud not to
talk on the telephone. One time they told me that at that precise moment they cannot call
him, as he was having his dinner. On the 3rd. of May 1999, I went to the Embassy with my
Wife and 10 years Daughter, to organize a press conference, days before travelling to
Madrid to visit the Embassy, I wrote to the Ambassador, informing him about my plans and
asking for his cooperation and protection. I had received nothing from the Embassy
indicating me that they will refuse to cooperate. The Lebanese Consul pressed by my
insistence that I will not leave the Embassy without denouncing the conspiracy, he called
Mr. Zoheir Hamdan, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Hamdan start
talking to me about the reputation and nobility of my Family, and what I am trying to do,
will gravely harm the Family and with absolute correctness and diplomatic language asked
me to forget the whole subject and go home. Finally, the Embassy called the police to take
me, together with my Wife and Daughter out of the Embassy. I have no inconvenience to
deliver a complete dossier of my correspondence with the Embassy in Madrid, and with the
Palace of Baabda, to any serious media institution or Spanish, European institution or
Lebanese political leaders, or even talk to them. Any such petition should come very soon
as my health and weakness due to, the Indefinite Hunger Strike will impede me to satisfy
talking or meeting with them. Dear Mr. Tueni, I am getting very tired and too weak to
continue writing, but before ending my letter, and just in case I could not write again, I
must warn the Lebanese, its political and spiritual leaders, as well as, its social, labor
and scholastic associations together with the bankers, industrialists, business and
intellectual personalities to be alert.
I expect street riots, impacting assassinations, social and labor upheavals and protests
against the politicians and political class in general, provoked, organized and incited by
the secret forces and their allies, enabling the Regime to declare Lebanon in an Emergency
situation, suspending the functions of the Parliament, arresting its members and other
political leaders, at best ... some of them, specially Former Prime Minister Mr. Hariri,
Mr. Jemblat and perhaps, various others, who have an undesirable influence and the power
to mobilize important popular forces from different communities, religions and
geographical areas, these leaders risk premeditated accidental assassinations. The
military will suspend the free speech and press, strikes, their movements from their homes
will be restricted to few hours, only enough to purchase their essential needs. The army
then, will rush to distribute rations of food to the poor and loyal, in the name of
President Lahoud thus, gaining the sympathy of an important segment of the Lebanese
population, to legitimize his military rule with some popular approval and support. Soon
after a political party will be formed and will dominate the Lebanese political life for
decades, of course allied with regional power. As for the future Government, may I permit
myself the luxury to advise the future candidate to head it, specially, if he happened to
be Former Prime Minister Mr. Hariri, never ever to accept this task, if he does not have
direct and full control of the Ministry of Interior, Former President Mr. Gemael also
offer a guarantee to do the very needed cleaning and deep changes in the Ministry, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, must also be under control of a powerful very democratic and
prestigious personality.
The dismantling of the net of secret forces is a must, I realize how difficult it is going
to be, but the Lebanese Democracy cannot afford to have a Government in the shadow with
secret forces serving it and its goals, trespassing all possible limits. The sophisticated
spying and listening equipment's are under the direct control of President Lahoud and his
most unconditional and loyal men from the secret service and the military, even though, I
do not believe that, they are located in any official installations. Nobody in Lebanon
should feel that his communications are safe, even mobile phones that operates with
tickets or cards, are not safe. Cars, homes, offices and meeting rooms must very
frequently be searched for possible listening equipment. A lot of personnel, employed by
ministries, hotels, beach chalets, specially the ones in charge of cleaning are
informants, and working for the secret forces. As you may realize, the task to recover
decency to the Lebanese Democracy and political, social, labor and business life is
enormous and very complex. Banks, industries and important businesses must pay special
care, keep strict control of their financial and accounting employees, as well as,
independent accounting companies. This is one of the methods, the secret forces use, to
get their financial secrets and taxes payment records, in order to be used for extortion
and blackmailing. The future Prime Minister undoubtedly have a formidable task ahead of
him, it is like walking in a mine field full of traps.
For any further clarifications, please contact me very soon to the following telephone numbers: 0034 646 48 53 99 / 0034 627 55 13 04 or to my address: Ricardo Charamand Paseo Canovas del Castillo,