ICRC collects DNA to identify Lebanon's civil war dead

The International Committee of the Red Cross has started collecting DNA samples to help identify thousands of people who disappeared during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, the ICRC said Friday.

The ICRC called on the Lebanese authorities to create a "national mechanism" to help match victims' bodies with their families.

The war, which started on April 13, 1975 and lasted 15 years, officially left 150,000 dead and 17,000 missing, dozens of them allegedly still detained by the Syrian government, a key player in the conflict.

"It is more than 40 years since the events took place and we are still asking ourselves how we are going to give answers to the families," said Fabrizzio Carboni, the ICRC's chief in Lebanon.

"We know that there are graves all around the country, and that at one stage we will have to match the DNA of these mortal remains with ones of the families."

Carboni spoke at a press conference held to announce that the ICRC would start taking saliva samples from relatives of the missing. 

Several Lebanese with missing relatives attended the press conference and some were unable to hold back tears.

The Lebanese government in 2000 acknowledged the existence of mass graves in Beirut, but it has made no effort to identify the bodies. 

"Several hundred families" have already given DNA samples to the ICRC, Carboni told AFP. He estimated that 4,000 families in Lebanon have missing relatives.

Carboni said the ICRC's aim was to reach every one of the 4,000 families over the next two or three years.

This is the second phase of a project launched by the ICRC in Lebanon in 2012 to set up a database of information about each missing person -- down to where they went missing and what they were wearing. 

So far, 2,300 families have taken part.

In 2014, the ICRC called on the Lebanese police to help collect biological data. "Two years later, we still haven't had a response," said Carboni.

He also called for "the creation of a national mechanism which one day will deal with the opening of the graves and mass graves and will do the work of matching and give answers to the families".

Carboni said it was time to "to remind the Lebanese authorities of their responsibilities".

Wadad Halawani, who has had no news of her husband for 30 years, heads an organisation for families of the disappeared.

"All the people who committed crimes are in power," she told AFP. "They still hold important positions in the government."

Ahmed Assaad Ajam, 76, said he hoped to find out about his son Jamal. Pinned on his chest was a black-and-white picture of the young man who disappeared in 1982.

"I'm waiting to see my son. Even dead, even if they only bring me a bone, I'll finally be able to relax," he said.

"I still hold out hope. I hope one day to have the slightest information" on what happened to Jamal.

Source: AFP