Syria Hands over 2 Lebanese Fishermen, 16-Year-Old Buried
Two Lebanese fishermen and the body of a third were handed over to the Lebanese army through the Abboudiyeh crossing at dawn Sunday after they were seized by Syria off the coast of the town of Arida the day before.
Sixteen-year-old Maher Hamad was killed and his uncles Fadi and Khaled, were seized and taken to the coastal city of Tartus in Syria after the Syrian navy opened fire on their boat.
A funeral procession for Maher made its way on Sunday from his parents' house in Arida towards the border, where mourners pelted Syrian troops on the other side with stones.
"There is no God but God, Bashar Assad is the enemy of God," they chanted, referring to the Syrian president who has faced 10 months of anti-regime protests.
Without the troops retaliating, the mourners turned around and made their way back to the village mosque.
Fadi Hamad recounted what he said was the boy's death at the hands of Syrian troops.
"We had cast our nets the night before and early Saturday morning we headed out to pull them in," Hamad, 36, told Agence France Presse.
"We then saw a boat pulling up to us and urged it to move back as they were nearing our net," he added.
"They disappeared briefly and then came back, and when they were near enough I could see about six armed men in the boat. We were terrified. They opened fire and both Maher and my brother were injured. Maher screamed."
The gunmen then forced the three fishermen into Syria, where Maher died of his wounds, he said.
Hamad said he was taken to a military intelligence center in Tartus where he was beaten and interrogated on whether he was an arms smuggler.
"I was asked repeatedly whether the arms were coming from Saad Hariri," he said.
"I told them I was a fisherman... but they kept hitting me, and my hands were tied. About an hour later, I was told there had been a mistake and President Assad wanted to forgive me. I was also informed my nephew was dead."
Khaled Hamad, 35, was treated for gunshot wounds to the leg.
Protesters set up a tent near the border. They refused to leave until Syria returns the boat of the fishermen.
President Michel Suleiman condemned the incident on Saturday, saying they should be returned home. The two states must respect each other's sovereignty and work together to prevent such incidents, he said.
Premier Najib Miqati also said the Lebanese-Syrian coordination committee should swiftly resolve the incident and bring back the men.
But Syria claimed on Saturday that its security forces seized the boat inside Syria’s territorial waters after infiltrating form northern Lebanon in an attempt to smuggle arms.
The state-run Syrian news agency, SANA, said five Lebanese boats opened fire on the three men for trying to escape and injured two of them.
It did not say that the 16-year-old was killed.
Despite the Syrian claims, the Lebanese authorities remained mum.
However, several Arida residents told the media that not a single Lebanese boat can head deep into the sea without the supervision of official Lebanese apparatuses, which proves that SANA’s statement is baseless.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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