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By Ayman El-Masri
IOL Correspondent — Lebanon
It was Wednesday, May 23, 2007, and 39-year-old Nayef Salah Saleh (aka Al-Mister) was preparing himself for a journey to the holy city of Makkah. On the same day, Saleh was attending to a grave in the cemetery of Al-Baddawi camp. The surrounding atmosphere of death was not the same; it was quite abnormal.
A bus was loaded with refugees who fled a heavy bombing in the highly populated camp of poor, broken refugees. The reason for the bombing is Fatah Al-Islam group, after some of their members killed a number of Lebanese soldiers on Sunday, May 20, 2007.
Al-Mussattar is the only brother of seven sisters. He has four children, the oldest being 13 and the youngest 3 years old. After two days of heavy bombing on Nahr Al-Bared camp, Saleh decided to leave it, risking his life and that of his family.
Risky Escape
On Tuesday, May 22, 2007, a bus parked in the Samid neighborhood, which was undergoing fierce bombing. Saleh took the risk and boarded the bus. On the way back from Samid, many people asked Saleh to take them on board. He replied, "There are many people waiting for me. Maybe I'll manage to come back for you, carry white flags and prepare yourselves."
About 15 minutes later, he reached those who were waiting for him: his wife, his children, some elderly people, and other children and women; all in all 25 people. As he set out quickly hoping to escape death, some civilians stopped him; they were begging to be allowed to board the bus with the others. His reply was "There's no space with us; the bus is full."
Yet some people were able to make it onto the bus. The passengers carried white flags and waved them out of the bus's windows.
At 7:00 p.m., Saleh hurried out of the camp and aimed at taking the Tallet-Esset road. At a crossroads near to Hanin, someone told them that the road to Hanin starts here — at the red gate, a hundred meters before a mosque.
Suddenly, bullets were fired on the bus , and the shooting was continuous. Saleh was shot in the shoulder, and six other passengers were wounded including Radi Abu Radi, his wife Muntaha, and his children Yusuf, `Amer, and Jana (a year-and-a–half old).
Saleh went on his way, but after a while, he lost control over the bus and it swerved right. By the time Saleh reached the red gate, he received a shot in the head and dropped dead immediately.
All passengers said that the shooting was coming from a Lebanese Army tank. The bus came to complete halt. Muntaha Abu Radi, 37 and pregnant in her fourth month, opened the door in an attempt to get her wounded son out of the bus, but she was shot dead.
Another Journey of Pain
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After the death of Saleh and Abu Radi's wife, Muntaha, and the injury of six passengers, the bus stopped and a number of Lebanese Army members gathered to conduct a search. A number of Lebanese civilians approached the area.
A Lebanese Army soldier tried to search Nedal Kan`an, Saleh's wife, but a Lebanese woman from the area strongly objected that an army man searches a woman and said that she would search her.
Eyewitnesses from the bus said that a Lebanese soldier took Kan`an's handbag to search it. On taking her handbag back, she found neither her money nor her gold.
The exact amount of money is not known, but Kan`an's relatives said that the money belonged to people who wanted to go on `Umrah on Wednesday, May 23. In addition, there were some deposits that some people had left with her. Other eyewitnesses said that the money was not less than US$8,000.
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The Lebanese Army soldiers opened fire on three boys: `Amer Baheej Abdullah, 16; Salah (Saleh's son), 14; and Ahmed `Azzam, 17.
Abdullah said that he, Salah, and `Azzam were subjected to torture. He said his face was completely covered with a black cloth and that he was punched in the face several times and beaten. In the end, they used electric shock to force him to give information about Fatah Al-Islam and their camp.
In addition to being subjected to torture, Salah was forced to carry a Kalashnikov rifle to admit being a member of Fatah Al-Islam.
The three remained in detention from 7:30 p.m. till 1:00 a.m. when `Azzam's brother Abdul Kareem was allowed to receive them from the `Irman Checkpoint controlled by the Lebanese Army.
Reason Unknown
The reason behind shooting the bus remains unknown. The bus was crowded with civilians who carried white flags. Eyewitnesses in the bus said furiously that Saleh could have been spared after the first shot in his shoulder, but he was not, partly because no ambulance ever came.
They also say that he received the deadly shot in the head. If the Lebanese Army members had shot the tires, they could have put the bus and passengers under control without deadly casualties.
No official statement was made by the Lebanese Army about this incident till the time of preparing this report (November 6, 2007).
The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) called for the following:
- Immediate and serious investigation of this incident and of the death of Saleh and Kan`an.
- Investigation of the alleged torture against Abdullah, Salah, and `Azzam.
Sources:
Pahrw.org: Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness).Accessed 6 Nov. 2007.
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