Saturday, October 09, 2004

BEIRUT: A new exhibition at the American University of Beirut has taken the government, and President Emile Lahoud in particular, to task over human and civil rights violations in the past five years.

Under the title "the Accomplishments of the Reign" (of Emile Lahoud), the Human Rights and Peace Club (HRPC) opened the exhibition Thursday night in AUB's West Hall.

A statement at the entrance says the exhibition "is not directed against the person of Emile Lahoud, but rather toward the rotten Lebanese order that has been led by him."

Using Arabic newspaper clippings, Amnesty International reports and the Middle East Intelligence Bureau for information and photographs, the display shows human rights abuses, attacks on civil liberties and corruption in Lebanon since 1999.

Student organizer Rana Khoury said the club set up the display because of "the disastrous situation in the country."

The first notice board displays promises Lahoud made when he was sworn into office in 1998.

Club member Yara Saab, 19, a political science major, said "we have a sarcastic view of Lahoud's promises by comparing the promises with the broken promises."

The 1999 board shows that freedoms of _expression were being repressed in Lebanon, and documented "cruel and inhuman prison conditions" and the murder of four judges.

One photograph shows a Greenpeace activist being physically abused by the police on Oct. 11, 1999, for protesting the dumping of toxic waste into the Mediterranean by the Lebanese Chemical Company in the northern town of Selaata. Another article focused on the torture and ill treatment of women in police custody.

The 2000 board highlights illegal wiretapping of government officials and opposition members, and the problem of rampant corruption in the country. A pie chart shows a Benchmark Poll on corruption in Lebanon which lists 98.6 percent of those interviewed as saying corruption exists.
 

Pointing at a photograph of the dead body of Lebanese Forces member Ramzi Irani, found in the trunk of a car in 2002, HRPC member Tala Saab, 20, said "Lahoud talked about improving the security situation, but it has actually got worse."

In 2002 Murr TV was shut down, and the book "When I became 16" - referring to ex-convict Adonis Akra's prison number and his description of life in Lebanese prisons - was banned.

One board is devoted to last month's decision to amend the constitution and grant Lahoud a further three years in office. A recent poll carried out by the AUB's weekly newspaper, Outlook, said 69.4 percent of students were against the amendment.

Club member Yara Saab called the extension "the drama of Lahoud's time," adding that "even though (pro-Lahoud) posters say the best is yet to come, we are pessimistic."

Other notice boards showed political cartoons and caricatures ridiculing politicians and the rule of law in the country, the current electricity crisis, and last Friday's assassination attempt on former Minister Marwan Hamade.

Tala Saab said most students liked the exhibition, which runs until Friday, and "thought it was to the point." However, "some students thought we had no basis or evidence, and only showed the negative side of the government.

The issue of free _expression was not confined to the activities of the government, however, as AUB's dean of students would not let the exhibition be shown outside West Hall.

"The dean wanted to not show certain photos, but when we said they were taken from newspapers, and had been shown in public, he consented," said Tala Saab.