Khiam detention center
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The Khiam Detention Center, located in Khiam, Lebanon, was a former French barrack complex originally built in the 1930s. It became a base for the Lebanese army before falling under control of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and in 1985 was converted into a detention and interrogation centre. It remained in use for detention and interrogation of Lebanese civilians until Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, and the subsequent collapse of the SLA.
Amnesty and Human Rights Watch reported of the use of torture and other serious abuses in the facility.
Israel has denied any involvement in Khiam, claiming to have delegated operation of the centre to the South Lebanon Army (SLA) as far back as 1988.
The acclaimed journalist that has spent 25 years informing from Lebanon Robert Fisk said about this prison:
“The sadists of Khiam used to electrocute the penises of their prisoners and throw water over their bodies before plunging electrodes into their chests and kept them in pitch-black, solitary confinement for months. For many years, the Israelis even banned the Red Cross from visiting their foul prison. All the torturers fled across the border into Israel when the Israeli army retreated under fire from Lebanon almost seven years ago”. [1]
About brutality Robert Fisk wrote:
""The torturers were sadistic, often stupid men. There were pornographic magazines and cheap comics and puzzle books in their filthy quarters. Israel has admitted teaching these men how to do their job."
“There was the whipping pole and the window grilles where prisoners were tied naked for days, freezing water thrown over them at night. Then there were the electric leads for the little dynamo — the machine mercifully taken off to Israel by the interrogators — which had the inmates shrieking with pain when the electrodes touched their fingers or penises. And there were the handcuffs which an ex-prisoner handed to me yesterday afternoon.
Engraved into the steel were the words: "The Peerless Handcuff Co. Springfield, Mass. Made in USA." And I wondered, in Israel's most shameful prison, if the executives over in Springfield knew what they were doing when they sold these manacles.
They were used over years to bind the arms of prisoners before interrogation. And they wore them, day and night, as they were kicked — kicked so badly in Sulieman Ramadan's case that they later had to amputate his arm. Another prisoner was so badly beaten, he lost the use of a leg. I found his crutch in Khiam prison yesterday, along with piles of Red Cross letters from prisoners — letters which the guards from Israel's now-defunct "South Lebanon Army" militia never bothered to forward”. [2]
"This place," he said, "should be kept forever as a witness to our history." (ex-prisoner said to Robert Fisk).
The Israeli Air Force destroyed the prison during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
