Endless Nightmares of Khiam to Historic Museum
Here is Khiam. A supposedly calm town in the Southern Lebanese territories. However, after 1985, horrifying screams breached the calmness of the Southern hill.
From behind the stones of the historic French forte, nightmares of torture altered the scenes and bodies. There were no empty spaces within the weak human shapes. Suffering flesh narrated endless stories of pain engraved in the hearts and read in the eyes.
The French Barrack into Torture Den
Three years after the invasion of 1982, "Israel" turned the French barrack complex originally built in the 1930s into a Prison camp. The base that was once under the control of the Lebanese Army fell in the hands of a cruel occupier; familiar to all barbaric means of torture.
From 1985, thousands of Lebanese were held in Khiam Prison without trial. All were brutally tortured - some of them were even martyred. Men, women and even children were locked up, some spent decades here.
"Israel" ran the prison using the militia it had created from Lebanese agents. The agents provided Khiam's guards and interrogators whilst "Israelis" held the top positions. They provided the training for the torturers and led the torture sessions. They paid the salaries and provided all the equipment. They simply commanded, and the agents followed.
Taher's Pride Mingled with Suffers
Ali Taher, who was first arrested on 1986, recalled some of the dark memories. "The "Israeli" agents arrested me under the pretext that "I am a teacher of the Islamic religion," he said.
In an interview with moqawama.org, Taher stated that "they later accused him of being part of the Islamic resistance."
"Two months of investigation, I was prisoned in solitary confinement cells to be later a permanent visitor to these cells ," the freed prisoner added.
From within the 80 cm square cell, the prisoner recalled, with a proud smile, how the prison's authorities once caught him and his fellow late prisoner Haidar al-Goul writing some sentences on cigarette boxes' clippings.
"With the absence of papers and pens, we used batteries' coal to write on clippings," Taher informed moqawama.org. He remembered some of the prison's delight moments. "We used to make rosaries out of the olive cores."
Deprived of the most basic necessities, the prisoners created them.
"We used to pick up secretly and hide bits of string, wood and stone, cheese wrappers, olive stones, garbage," he added.
In winters, the so-called cells were chilly and freezing.
"Water covered the cells. There existed what is supposed a called a mattress. It was only of 2cm thickness," he explained and pointed out that "the only way to sleep was while sitting."
However, in this cell Taher lived the most beautiful moments of lucidity and proximity to God.
"This cell reminded me of Imam Hussein's loneliness. Contrary to all "Israeli" aims this cell raised the prisoners' determination and will to conquer their jailer," he emphasized.
With shiny eyes Taher added: "Some of the prisoners went back to the battlefield fighting the occupier and defending the land."
When asked about visit's permission, the Southern proud detainee confirmed that "along four years of jails, what I received from my family was only clothes."
For many years, the "Israelis" even banned the Red Cross from visiting their foul prison.
All this was to Taher, nothing in comparison with the horrifying means of Physical and psychological torture.
Saad: My Will Defeated the Jailer
For her part, Aida Saad who was only thirteen when detained, stressed to moqawama.org that "we can't talk of memories, but of a dead life."
"It's really hard to summarize all the tortures in few words. But I tell you something - when you die you die in a second but in that prison you die a hundred times every day," she said.
The child, who lived her teen years in the "Israeli" custody, was accused of helping the resistance and transferring arms.
"All these accusations were based on the fact that my brothers were jailed in Khiam," she added.
The most harsh to Saad was insulting her and violating her sanctity.
"They hit me and attached electrodes to my body. Then all I remember is that I was screaming," she stated.
Aida recalled how the "Israeli" threatened to kill her brothers in front of her.
"I didn't surrender not to feel a moment of triumph in the jailers' eye," she stated.
The woman with a deformed body had only patience, hope, and strong will.
According to the journalist Robert Fisk, "The sadists of Khiam used to electrocute the prisoners and throw water over their bodies before plunging electrodes into their chests and kept them in pitch-black, solitary confinement for months."
Dawn of Victory.. Khiam Victorious
Here is Khiam: 22 years later, dawn of victory emerged in the dark jail. Tears of joy reflected the end of the nightmare. All these torturers fled across the border into the Zionist entity when the defeated "Israel" withdrew from Lebanon almost twelve years ago.
The torturers had just left but the horror remained. There was the whipping pole and the window grilles where prisoners were tied naked for days, freezing water thrown over them at night. There were the handcuffs.
"I was hung here naked for 13 days," another freed prisoner said.
Six years after the Liberation, "Israel" destroyed its shameful trace during 2006 aggression against Lebanon. The site that turned into a pilgrimage to West and Arab people was completely devastated.
The ruins of the prison are still there: melted roofs on piles of rubble, metal support beams jutting out at painful angles. Beyond the ruined and partially standing prison buildings, a 10x10m crater from the one ton and other gargantuan bombs "Israel" dropped. All is there. And according to one of the prison's officials, Ali Kashakesh: Hizbullah will transform the site into a historic museum."
"It will be accomplished within a year," he concluded.
It's Khiam Prison: The symbol of "Israeli" barbarism... Humiliating defeat.
Source: moqawama.org
