A pressing law proposal advocating the release of the Dinnieh detainees was submitted to Parliament on Friday by MPs Abdel-Rahim Mrad, Najib Mikati, Jamal Ismail and Saleh Kheir. The Dinnieh clashes between the Lebanese Army and the extremist Usbat al-Ansar group occurred in Northern Lebanon in early 2000.
| This is a little dated. It was before Karami resigned the second time. Mikati's the new PM. Usbat al-Ansar remnants have figured largely in the festivities that pop up now and then in Ein el-Hellhole. |
The families of the detainees had asked Prime Minister Omar Karami in February to help release their sons. The delegation said it had presented evidence to the prime minister showing the detainees were innocent and that the participants in the clashes had been killed during the fighting.
| "Yeah. All the bad guys are dead! Our boys were just in the wrong place at the wrong time..." |
Commenting on this issue, Jamal Ismail said: "In the wake of the exceptional situation the country is going through, we submit this pressing law proposal to Parliament again, calling for the release of all the detainees held since the Dinnieh clashes." Ismail added the detainees should be released in order to "open a new page in relations between the Lebanese people and the government" and to promote national unity, justice and equality.
| "We might need a few trained gunnies to call upon in the immediate future, y'know!" |
Ismail further said the Lebanese should "turn the page on the past," and called for the return of former Army Commander General Michel Aoun to Lebanon so that he can "carry out his national role in the Lebanese political arena." |