Speaker 1:

[Foreign language]

Speaker 2:

I have nightmares most nights, and these nightmares wake me up.

I have been trying to forget ever since the massacre but I can't. These things are hard to forget.

Speaker 3:

It was one of the most horrendous massacres of the 20th century. Mass murder in the heart of a capital city. Evert last detail was documented at the time, but no one was ever punished. It began on the evening of the 16th of September 1982. For 36 straight hours, Lebanese Christian militiamen slaughtered unarmed civilians in Beirut's Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila. The militia's were ordered into the camps by Ariel Sharon, then Israel's Defence Minister. Today it's Prime Minister.

For the last two years, lawyer Chibli Mallat has been working with survivors including [Abdul Nasamalam] in an attempt to bring Sharon to trial in Belgium where foreigners can be prosecuted for war crimes no matter where they were committed. But a battle pf procedure has so far kept the case from court.

Speaker 4:

This is has obviously been a very difficult case. We had no doubt from the beginning that we were up against one of the most powerful persons politically on Earth, at one point during the proceedings, the Israeli military [inaudible] broadcast an item under which it said that the Israeli government would sever diplomatic relations with Belgium should the case go forward.

Speaker 3:

Mallat and his colleagues are arguing that Sharon had command responsibility for the massacre which took place in the fourth month of Israelis' invasion in Lebanon against the Palestine Liberation organisation and its headquarters in Beirut.

Speaker 4:

The Israeli army surrounded the camps. It ordered the Lebanese militias to go into the camps. It provided them with flares. It prevented anybody from going out of the camps and this went on for three days.

Speaker 3:

The exact number of dead is not known, but at least 900 people lost their lives in the massacre. An Israeli state inquiry, the Kahan Commission found that they died at the hands of the Lebanese forces militia, Israels Lebanese allies. The commission said that Ariel Sharon as defence minister hold personal responsibility. Sharon stayed in the cabinet although he resigned as defence minister.

Speaker 4:

The most traumatic dimension of the Kahan Commission is that the man found personal responsible for this terrible massacre is not in jail.

Speaker 3:

On the 20th anniversary of the massacre, hopes of justice for the people of Sabra and Shatila hang by a thread. In June, a Belgium appeals court ruled that the case was not admissible because Sharon was not in the country. Belgium legislatures and the lawyers for the plaintiffs are now appealing that decision.

Speaker 4:

We will continue whatever sliver of chance there is, we will carry on to the end. Yes, we've been let down, but are proud of our achievements and we will go on.

Speaker 3:

If the case goes forward, the prosecution will produce in court a remarkable set of secret Israeli documents that were sent anonymously to Mallats' colleagues in Belgium.

Speaker 4:

These consist of over 400 pages of minutes of meetings between the Lebanese militias and the Israeli secret services and the political offices including Sharon.

Speaker 3:

The documents reveal many things, 'Not a least" Mallat says.

Speaker 4:

They knew what was coming. We have a testimony from Colonel [inaudible]. He says "It was possible to surmise from contact with the [Ferange] leaders what were their intentions towards the Palestinians? Sabra would become a zoo and Shatila Beiruts' parking place."

Speaker 3:

Sharon told the Kahan Commission he could not have foreseen the murderous behaviour of the Lebanese militias. The documents suggest otherwise.

Speaker 4:

Sharon himself knew. Contrary to what he's said all along that he couldn't have predicted it. He knew. There's a meeting which is taking place with top leaders of the militia on the fifth of July, 1982. Sharon says "It's incumbent to prevent several ugly things which have occurred, murders, rapes and stealing by some of your men" addressing the Lebanese militias.

Speaker 3:

Despite the Lebanese forces comportment, Sharon urged them time and again to enter the Palestinian camps.

Speaker 4:

Against talking to the militia leaders, [inaudible] terrorist. "You've got to clean the camps. Clean, cleansing, no one uses this any longer." It is the language of genocide.

Speaker 3:

20 years after the massacre, the inhabitants of the camps are still scarred by the experience. Depression, anxiety and aggression are common place. Dr. Jamal [Haffiz], a psychiatrist who specialises in war trauma has found that no one is unaffected. Even those who were born after the massacre. Abdul Nasamalam is Lebanese, but lived in Sabra.

Speaker 1:

[foreign language].

Speaker 3:

Since losing his brother and 12 friends in the massacre, he says he's become aggressive even towards his own children.

Speaker 1:

[foreign language].

Speaker 2:

I don't treat them like children. I treat them like grown ups. If they make a mistake, I punish severely. I don't want psychiatric treatment. I don't want medicines. The treatment I want is punishment for the criminals and then I'll be able to lead a normal life.

Speaker 3:

These children in Shatila were born after the massacre, but the martyrs of Sabra and Shatila are part in parcel of their lives. They occupy a unique place in the role call of [Palestinian] dead down the years.

Speaker 6:

[foreign language].

Speaker 7:

I can't imagine that anyone can forget something like this. Anyone who keeps silent is the devil. This generation is a generation of nationals, all of us. Long ago an Israeli president said "Palestinians must be uprooted and the next generation would forget Palestine." He was wrong. We will fight for our land, our rights and our dignity.

Speaker 3:

Dr. Haffiz, french trained psychiatrist believes the continued suffering of the Palestinians of Sabra and Shatila both ill for the future. He believes that the collapse of the case in Belgium would give new impetus to Palestinian militancy.

Dr. Haffiz:

[French language].

Speaker 9:

I was really shocked. I really did not think that I would find people suffering so after 20 years. Suffering as if it were yesterday. It's shocking and it's painful. You feel the anxiety, the anguish, the hatred, the desire for justice. There is no justice. It is my belief that the next generation will be filled with an uncontrollable hatred.

Speaker 3:

For the first time in 20 years, the people of these wretched camps are daring to hope that their dead will be avenged. They hope they will be able to tell their children there is a punishment for every crime. Revenge and terror are not the only avenues open to the Palestinian people.