A Julie Flint Report
TC | Vision | V/O | SYNC |
STARTS: 01.45.00 | 1st face | Music |
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01.56 | 2nd face. War scenes | Fifteen years of war have left their mark on Lebanon... |
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02.08 | 3rd face. People crying. | Everyone has suffered in some way. But no single group has been so traumatised as the men, women and children who have been held in Khiam prison in Israeli-occupied south Lebanon. |
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02.26 | Walls of prison, Outskirts. | Behind the walls of this prison - a prison that can only be filmed secretly - more than 140 Lebanese citizens are currently held without trial, outside any legal framework. |
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02.41 | SETUP DR HAFEZ | Psychotherapist Dr. Jamal Hafez works with the survivors of Khiam. He says research in the West shows that 15% of prisoners suffer from psychiatric disorders. It's almost six times higher in Khiam. |
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02.57 | SYNC DR HAFEZ |
| Hafez: 80% of prisoners from Khiam have psychological problems. There's something wrong here... something that doesn't make sense. In my opinion, the problem is Khiam itself. It's a place that destroys people. They try there to destroy the psychological make-up of the human being. |
03.21 | SETUP MAHMOUD | Mahmoud Ramadan, who fought against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, spent seven years in Khiam - three of them in solitary confinement in a small, windowless cell. He was tortured with electric shocks throughout his detention - but most frequently after he masterminded a successful escape from Khiam. Three prisoners got away, but he was wounded in the minefield that surrounds Khiam - and re-captured. |
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03.51 | SYNC MAHMOUD |
| Mahmoud: After the explosion, I looked at my body. I saw I'd lost my hand. I touched my eye and realised I'd lost my eye. I saw other wounds on my body. |
04.07 |
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| After 15 or 30 minutes I heard a voice saying: "Who are you? Stay until the morning and die there!" Then we'll come for you! |
04.20 | DR HAFEZ PRESCRIBING/DEPARTING HANDSHAKE | Ramadan has been in and out of this psychiatric hospital since his release two years ago. Today it is only medication that keeps him stable. |
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04.31 | SETUP HOSS | Selim el-Hoss is Lebanon's prime minister. |
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04.34 | SYNC HOSS |
| Hoss: Israel has no right to have a prison on Lebanese territory. Khiam is a tragedy as far as Lebanon is concerned ... We find it appalling that the international community has not moved against the very existence of such a prison on occupied Lebanese territory. |
04.59 | Farmer leading sheep.
Tanks, invasion, soldiers
| South Lebanon is a land of farmers ... simple people whose lives were brutally disrupted... when Palestinian guerrillas set up a state within a state on Israel's northern border. In 1978 Israeli troops invaded Lebanon - and 21 years later remain there in violation of United Nations resolutions. |
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05.21 | SYNC HOSS |
| Hoss: We think that resistance to occupation is a legitimate right of any people that has a part of its territory under occupation. That's why we take the official position of supporting the resistance movement politically and morally. Because we think this is a legitimate right of the people of Lebanon. |
06.00 | SETUP SAFA On phone. At desk working | Mohammed Safa, a former teacher, heads an organisation that works for Lebanese detainees. He calculates that 100 of the 181 Lebanese currently held by Israel have nothing to do with the conflict in south Lebanon. He knows every case in detail. |
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06.18 | SYNC SAFA |
| Safa: Fourteen prisoners have died under torture in Khiam. Some have lost their memory. Most have lost their eyesight. Once you're in there, you're done for... When you leave, you're born again. |
06.40 | Photo of Ali | Today Safa's greatest concern is Ali Tawbee (Tubeh), who was 14 when he was put into solitary confinement. He's told his mother he's getting electric shocks. |
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06.50 | Photo of Rabah | Rabah Shahrour was also 14. His brother had refused to fight with Israel... |
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06.56 | Photo of Hassan | Hassan Hammoud was 14. He was accused of helping the resistance and lost 13 years of his life... |
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07.04 | SYNC HOSS |
| Hoss: Eleven of those who are found now in Khiam are youngsters who were taken in when they were 14 and 15 years old. Eleven of them. There is one woman, 70 years old, detained there also... |
07.27 | Photo of El-Abda and Family.
| El-Abda Melkani was arrested in her village together with her 75-year-old husband, Hassan Sayyed. He was released after severe beatings damaged his sight and now lives with his children - among them his son Mustafa. |
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07.42 | SYNC MUSTAFA |
| Mustafa: My family has nothing to do with the resistance. I was an interpreter with the United Nations. The Israelians want me to fight with them against our Lebanese people. I escaped from there. After two months, they catch my father and my mother and put it in Khiam prison. |
08.07 | SETUP HASSAN ENTERING GARDEN | Although a number of operations in Lebanese hospitals appear to have saved Hassan Sayyed's sight, he is consumed by fear for his wife, who is in poor health, and by anger and incomprehension at their arrest. |
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08.23 | SYNC HASSAN |
| Hassan: I'm a farmer. I don't even know how to use a hunting gun. I can't even shoot birds. I'm a farmer. I plant wheat, tobacco and onions. I plant - that's what I do. Me, use a Kalashnikov? I don't even know what it is. |
08.45 | Black and white Photos. Men in cells | But this simple man was locked in a tiny cell with a dozen other prisoners - like those photographed here by the only journalist ever allowed inside Khiam - and subjected to treatment like this. |
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08.58 | Photo of hooded, handcuffed prisoner. SYNC HASSAN |
| Hassan: They put a hood on my head, handcuffed me and took me for interrogation. They started torturing me and saying what they wanted to say. "You collaborated with the resistance... You have weapons... You hide the resistance." I said no. They started to beat me ... and my wife. Worse: they shaved her head. When someone curses your women, you go crazy. |
09.40 | Gates being Opened by Guards. Military Vehicle drives through. Soldiers, handshakes. | Israel denies any responsibility for Khiam. It is, they say, under the control of their Lebanese proxies - the so-called South Lebanon Army, their very close allies. |
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09.54 | SYNC DR HAFEZ |
| Hafez: It isn't possible to have a Lebanese infrastructure like Khiam in south Lebanon. We all know that south Lebanon lacks any infrastructure. Let's be serious. And let's be scientific about it. The infrastructure at Khiam is Israeli. Many of my patients have seen Israelis and heard them talking Hebrew, directing the interrogators and giving orders. |
10.33 | Explosion, Soldiers shooting, retreating.
| But the spirit of the Lebanese resistance has not been broken by Khiam, as shown by this attack on an SLA position in May this year. |
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| Parade and Demonstration. Soldiers chanting. | Fighters like these are pledged to continue their attacks until south Lebanon is free of Israeli forces - within the year, according to the current timetable. |
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11.05 | Ramadan meets Friend. Talking, smiling.
Close up on Ramadan. | But Lebanese like Mahmoud Ramadan will always carry the mark of Khiam with them. Sooner or later, the wounds will heal - even in the worst cases - and ordinary life will resume. But with very few exceptions, the trauma remains |
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Ends: 11.43 | Icon. Image of Man reaching out, Through barbed Wire. | Music |
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A Report by Julie Flint