On May 5, 2005, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati met with with Mrs. Sonia EID and Mrs. Violette NASSIF, representing the Committee of the Families of the Lebanese Detainees in Syria, accompanied by Mr. Ghazi AAD, spokesman for SOLIDE (Support Of Lebanese In Detention And Exile - Lebanon), and Mr. Wadih AL ASMAR, Vice-President of SOLIDA (Support of Lebanese Detained Arbitrarily - France). Also attending the discussions was Mrs. May ABI AKL, journalist of the An-Nahar daily, and several members of the Prime Minister's staff.

Prime Minister Miqati indicated that he had raised the issue of the Lebanese nationals who are still secretly detained in the prisons of Syria with Syrian President Bashar Assad, and that the latter had clearly expressed his will to bring an end to this situation. Mr. Miqati further said that he will be appointing a Lebanese judge known for his independence and impartiality to set up a joint Syrian-Lebanese team that will be mandated with the task of referring the files of the detainees as claimed by the families to the Syrian authorities.

As to Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Otri, he declared to the Spanish daily El Pais that Syria indeed incarcerates Lebanese nationals who, according to him, stand convicted on charges of terrorism and collaboration with Israel. He pointed out that this issue goes back 25 or 30 years, acknowledging that those Lebanese citizens were seized in Lebanese territory and then transferred (i.e. illegally) to Syria.

At the time of the official Inquiry Commission that was appointed in 2001 by the Hariri government, the Lebanese authorities collected files of 97 detainees whose families had provided reliable information showing that the detainees were still in Syrian prisons. Neither the findings, nor even the list of the case files were made public at the time, but the Beirut Bar Association whose representatives had attended the meetings of the Commission published the information on the 97 detainees on April 30, 2005.

Mr. Miqati has made the commitment that these 97 cases will be seriously examined by the new Syrian-Lebanese Commission, to be followed later by an evaluation of other cases. The fact is that the 97 cases represent only a tiny fraction of the total number of Lebanese detainees that are held in Syria. The Committee of the Families has to date gathered information on more than 500 detainees, although few families have so far dared to come forward and demand the release of their loved ones.
SOLIDA is pleased that the problem has been finally acknowledged by Lebanese and Syrian authorities, but is anxious for action. Appointing a judge and setting up a commission by Mr. Miqati do not constitute in themselves an answer to the problem, since the only acceptable answer is the release of the Lebanese detainees who were illegally extradited into Syria and the repatriation of the remains of those who died while in detention.