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1*For many years, and because of our bad situation as
refugees in Lebanon, and the community living in
ignorance of our situation. We used to hold
demonstrations inside the garage of the UNHCR office
in Beirut. To do that we sometimes gathered there and
held up big posters with our demands printed on them.
Every time we did this, the UNHCR staff would call for
the police and send security forces to keep the order
and to protect the office.
Every
time we declared that our demonstrations were peaceful
and we will go when the work time ends at the office.
We were just showing the papers as an attempt to bring
attention to our situation. We didn’t disturb the
work in the office, because we stayed inside the
garage away from the main door of the office, so the
people could still go in and out of the office without
any problems. The police and the security forces
stayed near the main door and in front of the garage
watching us.
To
help you understand more of the situation: Normally
the garage is the waiting place for refugees and
asylum seekers. They gather there when they have to do
some thing with the UNHCR. This is what normally
happens even if there are hundreds of refugees, but if
one of the refugees holds a paper in his hand with
some words written on, directly the UNHCR phone the
police. They can't tell the difference between a
normal gathering of refugees waiting to do some thing
within the office of the UNHCR and demonstrations or
strikes that are held by the same refugees with the
papers that show our demands.
Normally
the office has 2 or 3 policemen to guard the office
because it's a diplomatic building; the policemen
belong to the diplomatic security squad. The job of
that squad is to protect all the embassies and
diplomatic missions in Lebanon. That means, there are
3 elements in the scene around the office of UNHCR
every day for many years:
1.
The UNHCR building and the staff inside.
2.
Many refugees in the garage of the office.
3.
The policemen who are guarding the office.
The
Lebanese policemen (2 or 3) are there to protect the
office as routine job.
Those
policemen are able to protect the office even if there
are hundreds of refugees but it seems they’re
helpless against our papers so the UNHCR asked for
more security forces to protect them against our
papers!! If you wonder, why? You can find more details
in my e-book MY CAMPAIGNS.
The
security and the police know the game well, so they
came and did nothing, just for prestige, they even
didn't intervene with our demonstrations. Actually we
became friends with them because all the slogans that
we wrote on our papers were against the UNHCR;
normally we blamed the UNHCR for our bad situation not
the government of Lebanon. We didn't write any thing
against the government of Lebanon because we know the
truth, and you'll know about it in this book and the
rest of my books.
When
the police and the security forces came following the
demand from UNHCR they found some people [refugees and
asylum seekers] stood in side the garage of the
office. This is their normal waiting place and they
found that they had entered the garage because the
UNHCR opened the door for them, that meant they didn't
break in the place without permission from the UNHCR
[owner of the place]. The police didn't see any arms
with the refugees or any intent for violent acts or
any threat to the security of the office or the people
who work inside. So for the police and the security
forces everything was normal, they still had to stay
there because the UNHCR wanted them to, not because
the security of the office depended on it. We never
caused any harm to the office of the UNHCR or to any
one of the staff. What is funny in that situation is
the behavior of the police officers, maybe you’ll
not believe this but some officers of the security
forces played the role of messenger between the
refugees outside the office and the staff of the UNHCR
and it was very strange. Normally the UNHCR must be
the link between the government and the refugees but
here in Lebanon the things are different. Once, one of
the officers took a paper with our demands to deliver
it to the manager of the office, I swear on my God
that it’s true. The people of UNHCR don’t like to
hear our demands or to speak with us, so the police do
that for us. What a shame for the people of UNHCR.
I
meant by security forces, the special squad who
protect the embassies and the police being the normal
police who work in the streets to keep public order.
My
friend, please look at this picture:
>>>
Notice
that this picture was taken and published by the
reporters of 'Assafir' newspaper about the sit-in of
the refugees in the garage of the UNHCR in Beirut.
This was the situation at the beginning of the strike.
Because of those people in this picture the staff of
UNHCR called the police and security forces to protect
them from those refugees! The UNHCR thought that those
people are dangerous! What do we see in this picture: Terrorists,
killers, and bad people with arms, bombs and mass
destruction weapons??? The people who work for
the UNHCR asked the government of Lebanon to enforce
the security of the office because there are some
dangerous refugees in the garage of the office with
mass destruction weapons!!!
If
you are still looking for these weapons in the picture
and you can't see them, I can tell you where they are,
it's on top of them written on the big white sign! Yes
it's there 'OUR WORDS'! For years we tried to bring
attention to our situation in Lebanon but
unfortunately the UNHCR tried hard to block our voice
from reaching you! What a painful fact! I would just
like to ask: Who on earth would think that those
people are dangerous to him? Certainly, only some one
who knows that he did something bad to those people
and he is afraid of what they may do to him! The
refugees in the picture were sitting down in silence
away from the main door of the UNHCR office. They
didn't shout or stand in the way of any one (Some of
these refugees used adhesive tape to muzzle their
mouths). I'll call
this picture "THE
TERRIFYING
SILENCE'.
Silent
protest is one of the most peaceful and civilized
behaviors that could be performed by human being to
demonstrate his demands. It’s the most important
democratic practice. Now there is talk about giving
democracy and freedom for the people in Iraq. I just
like to ask: who needs to learn better democracy, the UNHCR or
we the Iraqi refugees?
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