Five Hizbullah detainees freed
By Danna Harman And Dan Izenberg
Jerusalem Post
Monday, December 27 1999 18:21
JERUSALEM (December 27) - Five Hizbullah members held for years in administrative detention as bargaining chips for information about missing IDF soldiers were freed yesterday.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak approved the releases, which were carried out secretly, with the news breaking only after the five had already been flown out of the country to Germany on a Lufthansa flight and were about to board a flight to Beirut.
Spokesmen at both the Prime Minister's Office and the Defense Ministry would not say what - if anything - Israel received in return for the sudden release, and would not confirm nor deny reports that the release was made in exchange for information on navigator Ron Arad, who was shot down in 1986 and has been missing since.
One senior government official, however, relating to the release's proximity to the start of the second round of talks with the Syrians next week and the expectation of talks with the Lebanese soon, said "it will all come together."
Another official said the release was made after a "reassessment of the new situation in the country."
Coming just a few days after Israel agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire in south Lebanon to allow Hizbullah to retrieve bodies in the security zone, the release was generally seen as a confidence-building measure.
Hizbullah denied any connection to talks in Washington next week between Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara.
Hizbullah legislator Amman Musawi, speaking to a private Lebanese TV station, said "the men released today are not prisoners of war - they are hostages, captured one way or another from Lebanese territory."
AP further quoted a Hizbullah official who said the release was unconditional. The official, who declined to be identified, said the release was the result of German mediation and would include guerrillas kidnapped by IDF troops more than 10 years ago.
According to Hizbullah reports, the five released are: Hisham Fahs, 32, and Ahmed Obeid, 31, captured in southeastern Lebanon in 1989 with Hizbullah leader Sheik Abdel-Karim Obeid; Hussein Mohammed Tlais, 42; Kamal Mohammed Rizek, 29, captured in 1986 at age 15; and Ahmed Hasan Tzrur, 32, captured in 1987.
None of these men are high-ranking Hizbullah figures and are generally considered to be less important than the other Lebanese prisoners still being held in Israel.
In June 1998, Israel returned the remains of 40 guerrillas and freed 60 Hizbullah fighters in exchange for the remains of Yosef Fink and Rahamim Alsheikh, who were killed in an ambush in southern Lebanon.
A total of 21 Lebanese have been held in administrative detention - including Obeid, who was kidnapped in 1989 and Mustafa Dirani, who was seized in an IDF raid in 1994. Israel hoped to exchange them for Arad.
In May, the Supreme Court finished hearing behind closed doors an appeal calling for their release by Tel Aviv attorney Zvi Rish. The court has not yet given its response. According to Itim, a decision is expected by the end of the month.
According to the law, the detainees must be brought before a district court judge to approve the extension of their prison stay.
In October, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Uri Goren agreed to extend their detention for only two months, instead of the six months he was authorized to approve. He rejected the state's request to extend the detention of the others, but gave it time to appeal his decision.
Rish said there is a ban on publication of more details on the release of the five detainees. He confirmed that they do not include Obeid and Abdel-Karim Obeid and added that the names of those released given by Hizbullah are not accurate.
Yona Baumel, father of missing IDF soldier Zachary Baumel, cast aspersions on the German mediation efforts in the latest Hizbullah prisoner release.
Baumel, who has dealt with the German mediators in the past, said Israel should take a wait-and-see attitude and make sure it wasn't being manipulated by the Germans for political benefit.
"If we are going to get something concrete, then I can only bless it," Baumel said. "But from my personal experience, the Germans are questionable, and we should see that they are not doing this in order to achieve some end for their government. If the state is presenting as a confidence-building measure, then let Israel say so. There is nothing wrong if we are reciprocated. It shouldn't only be a one-way street," (Arieh O'Sullivan contributed to this story.)