BEIRUT: Families of the 25 captive servicemen resumed protests Monday, briefly blocking roads in Downtown Beirut and threatening to take the hostage negotiations into their own hands.
After holding a one-hour protest on in Saifi, the families of the hostages threatened that they would permanently close the road the next day if the government continued to keep them in the dark.
“If they do not give us any serious information on the case, we will be taking surprising and unprecedented escalatory measures starting tomorrow,” the families said in a joint statement at the end of their protest. “We will now wait for officials to call us with real news.”
Hussein Youssef, father of hostage Mohammad Youssef, told The Daily Star that the move came after the Nusra Front, which holds most of the hostages, announced that dialogue with Lebanese authorities to release the servicemen was getting nowhere.
“We received a Nusra Front statement that said the negotiations were not advancing, and that we as families should form a committee and meet with the Qatari mediator,” he said. “We took this statement seriously, simply because the authorities did not negate it.”
Youssef said a committee representing the families was ready to hold direct talks with the Nusra Front to replace the government mediators.
The bottom line for the families is to receive information that guarantees that negotiations are progressing.
“We are ready to negotiate with the Nusra Front and find out who is lying,” Youssef said. “In our view, the government is lying to us.”
Later Monday, the families burned tires outside the Grand Serail.
Youssef said the move was carried out by the mothers of the captives who were expecting a call from one of the officials involved in the case.
After waiting for updates, the mothers became “fed up” and started burning tires in front of the Grand Serail, he added.
Nusra and ISIS are holding 25 servicemen hostage on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
More than 30 soldiers and policemen were initially kidnapped during deadly clashes between Army and militants in Arsal last August. Each of the two groups has killed two hostages, while Nusra has freed eight.
After holding intense protests in Beirut over the past months, the families halted their action in light of assurances by Lebanese officials that talks have made significant progress. No positive outcome has materialized yet.
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