BEIRUT: The families of Lebanon's captive soldiers and policemen slammed the government Sunday for failing to bring back their men, threatening to take matters into their own hands.
“This is a failed government that cannot bring back the sons of its institutions to their mothers,” Omar Haidar, a member of the captives’ families committee told hundreds of people at a solidarity rally for the hostages in Downtown Beirut.
Haidar criticized the lawmakers for agreeing to extend their own mandates and “insulting the Lebanese people’s dignity,” but failing to stop the killings captive servicemen.
“The baby who was born while his father was absent will ask you, Prime Minister: What have you done to my father?” Haidar said, warning that the families have trusted the authorities for too long, and that their patience was running out.
“We will become [like] ISIS if we have to,” he said, suggesting they would resort to violence.
Speakers from organizations representing a variety of religious groups addressed the crowd of supporters who held banners in support of the Army and security forces, as well as pictures of the captives.
The speakers stressed on the unity between the different communities of Lebanon around the cause, and called for a quick solution that can put an end to the ongoing crisis and bring back the hostages alive.
“We should not thank those who attended today, because this is the minimum of duties,” TV host Rima Karaki said speaking at the gathering. “We should rather name those who did not.”
“We have done very little to deserve this Army,” Karaki said.
Pastor Tony Khadra, head of a NGO called Labora, called for the creation of a shadow cabinet to monitor the authorities’ performance on the crisis.
Such a shadow government, he said, must include figures from parties and groups who are not represented in the Cabinet, especially NGOs and civil society activist groups.
Among the visitors of the families were a group of student representatives belonging to various political parties, who spoke in support of the families and their actions, and calling on authorities to intensify their efforts.
Sabrina Krumba, the wife of captive Ziad Omar, recanted to the crowd the story of Ali Bazzal’s killing as told to her by her husband when she visited him recently in Arsal’s outskirts.
She said Ali was called in the morning like every time that the kidnappers threaten to execute him, but he was not expecting to actually be killed that day.
“Do not have lunch without me, I’m coming back. I come back every time,” he told his fellow captives before being taken out of their holding room.
Krumba explained that her husband and the hostages have become nearly hopeless, and have lost trust in the government’s ability to free them.
“Our government has left us. It has given us up,” she quoted her husband as saying.
The angry speaker compared ministers to mummies, saying they only cared about their posts in the cabinet and lost all senses of compassion.
“You are not Lebanon, we are Lebanon,” she said, addressing the government. “We will bring them back if you fail to.”
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