ATTN: News Editor	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, July 24th, 2001
SOUAD SUROUR’S SAGA DRAWS OVERWHELMING SUPPORT Massacre Survivor Determined to Push Ahead with Campaign Against Ariel Sharon   Dubai: Large numbers of Internet enthusiasts from all over the world logged into Maktoob.com on Monday, July 16th, 2001, to listen to the horrific account of one of recent history’s worst-ever massacres. As Internet users from all over the world, including those located in places as far apart as Canada, Africa, Russia, the United States and Europe, listened in rapt attention, Souad Surour, one of the survivors of the 1982 Sabra-Shatila massacres, gave a first-hand insight into her ordeal. The chat session, moderated by officials of Maktoob.com (www.maktoob.com) and Zen TV, the Arab world’s leading youth channel, stunned the participants as Souad described how Phalangist gunmen shot dead most of her family and gang-raped her. Now, unable to walk without the help of crutches, with a bullet still logged into her spine, Souad called for justice to be done. “We cannot forget the horrifying trauma we went through during those 36 hours of the rampage,” she told the chat participants. “The massacres took place 19 years ago but the images of the killings continue to haunt me and others, who survived their onslaught. We now only live in the hope that all those responsible for those merciless killings be brought to justice.” Early this year, Souad and several other survivors came forward to launch an extensive campaign to bring the guilty to justice, including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was the Defence Minister at the time when Israel controlled West Beirut. The move falls in line with efforts to build up a legal case against Sharon.   More than 20 survivors, including Souad, filed a lawsuit in a Brussels court accusing the Israeli leader of crimes against humanity. The suit was made possible by a 1993 Belgian law, which allows the court to try war crimes unrelated to Belgium. The law, extended in 1999 to cover human rights violations and genocide, strips government ministers of all immunity from prosecution. The massacres, which took place two days after the assassination of Lebanese President Beshir Gemayel on September 14, 1982, killed thousands of unarmed Palestinians housed in the two refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, in Beirut, in less than 40 hours. Under the approving eyes of the Israeli forces surrounding the camps, a special force comprising Phalangist militiamen and members of the Israel-funded South Lebanon Army – rampaged through the refugee camps, indiscriminately slaughtering everyone they could find in the camps. Souad herself underwent a terrible ordeal – almost her entire family was wiped out when the militiamen raided their house, lined her 12-member family against the wall and machine-gunned them, killing her three brothers, two sisters and some relatives. Her wounded father also died but not before he saw the militiamen returning to rape his daughter. “I am confident that our campaign against the guilty will succeed,” Souad told the chat participants. “We haven’t been able to receive enough support from the Arab world but nevertheless we are determined to push ahead with our campaign.” At the same time, she also revealed that Arab people living in Belgium planned to hold a mass rally in Brussels on September 16, 2001, to protest against the Sabra-Shatila massacres. “I trust in God that efforts such as these will awaken people to the true reality of the massacres and help to bring the guilty to justice,” she pointed out. Also joining Souad on the Maktoob.com chat session was ZEN TV, the Arab world’s leading youth channel. ZEN has just launched a campaign that will build a case against Ariel Sharon and the State of Israel to be presented at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, indicting Sharon and Israel for the massacres.   Since its launch two years ago, Maktoob.com has played a crucial role in uniting Arabs worldwide by providing sophisticated and reliable web-based communications and community tools, including the Arab world’s first free bilingual Web-based email service. Launched in October 1998, Maktoob.com currently boasts of a membership base of more than 1.28 million registered members worldwide.   For more details, please contact, Edward D’Mello Headline Public Relations Tel: 009714 – 3475006; Fax: 009714 – 3475013 e-mail: edward@headlinepr.com
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