Every year on the 30
th
of August, the world observes the International Day of the Disappeared. On this day, many human rights organizations draw attention on the fate of the people who got abducted and never came back. Lebanon also observes this day since there are 17,000 people who went missing during the Lebanese
. Their fate is yet unknown. Their families do not know anything about them, and no one is attempting to open the case and make investigations. It hurts on both sides: the kidnapped might be living in horrendous conditions while their loved ones cannot do anything about it. This is exactly what thousands of Lebanese families have been going through for decades. The
International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) in Lebanon organized awareness campaigns in Ain el Mreisseh Corniche and Beirut Souks on August 30. The goal of these annual campaigns is to remind the authorities that their duty is to protect their people. The families have been suffering for more than 40 years since no one is providing them with any information about the missing people. https://www.facebook.com/ICRClb/photos/a.837498922952607.1073741833.814869351882231/1369517949750699/?type=3&theater For that reason, the ICRC decided to take this matter into its own hands. Since 2012, it has been holding interviews with the families of the missing people. And since 2015, this organization has been collecting biological samples and storing them for future DNA analysis. https://www.facebook.com/ICRClb/videos/1419489094753584/ The Lebanese comedian
also joined the cause and took part in a video to raise awareness about this issue. https://www.facebook.com/JeannedarcZarazir/videos/1235157619878654/ The families have the right to know about the fate of their loved ones. They have been waiting for many years, but that doesn’t mean that their pain is gone. With every day that goes by, they wonder what life would have been like if their son, sister, or parent didn’t go missing. We as a community should stand along with these families whose sufferings did not end when the civil war ended.
