Aita al-Foukhar -

Dumpsite

In November 2009, the remains of a British journalist, Alec Collett, were found in the town of Aita al-Foukhar at a site formerly used as a military base for a Palestinian militia commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization. The group had claimed responsibility for his kidnapping in 1985 and his killing in 1986. Collett’s remains were exhumed by a team of British experts working in co-operation with the Lebanese authorities in the Bekaa Valley. A second body was found at the site but the Lebanese authorities decided to rebury the remains without conducting any identification. This case proves the lack of political will of the Lebanese authorities to reveal the fate and whereabouts of the missing in Lebanon. The discovery of the two bodies also raises the possibility that other missing persons could be buried there.